The ideals of Olympic competition , "citius, altius, fortius", the sweat, the teamwork, the glories of the medal podium, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the camaraderie of teamwork and the chill of a stadium full of delirious fans! It's all pretty heady stuff, to be sure ... and I've always been a fan of a good game of virtually any sport well-contested.
But I can't be the only jaded ex-sports fan who has the lost the zest for sitting in the stands savoring these bygone thrills because I now believe the system is seriously confused and has lost its way!
This morning I woke to hear the news report of a 5 year contract for $250 million US dollars ... for a soccer player! Puhleeze, I don't care how skilled the man is. I don't care about his celebrity and I frankly don't give a jot for what anyone expects he might bring to the US game of soccer.
Now, I don't begrudge the man his living and I'm the first to acknowledge that his skills probably represent the pinnacle of world achievement in the sport of kicking a ball around a soccer pitch. But surely even the most drooling, rabid fan can stop a moment and come to the realization that no footballer - indeed, no sportsman at any skill level in any sport - can possibly justify that sort of compensation.
And do you know what it would take to have the team owners and the players snap to attention and return to reality instantly - one game played to a completely empty stadium and a nation of television sets left turned off. If the fans chose to convey that message even just once, it would be unmistakable and I've no doubt it would be heard and acted upon!
And what if the players and owners were still thick-headed enough to misunderstand the message? The advertisers would be walking and ultimately money will still do the talking. The whole house of cards comes tumbling down and sportsmen will perhaps return to playing the game with fundamental values that, for now at least, are hibernating!
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Ha! I once had the same opinion. But in fact, behind every player it turns out there is over a DOZEN employees. The industry standards now require that the players employ all these agents, markters etc. That salery number represents 12 people being paid not just one!
I actually learned this from my Non-Western Culture Studies class (talk about weird but he was using it as an example of how he thought something was so illogical but once he looked into it realized why it was).
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