Judgment Day for Sports: a modern day discussion for a modern day dilemma

It gets worse, before it gets... worse

We are living in a historical time. CNN is covering doomsday theories while Jesus lovers in many states proclaim that May 21^st  2011 will be Judgment day.

Do you think the NFL thought if they waited long enough, the religious prophecies of others would come true and rescue them from ever making a decision? 

            Probably not, but what’s happening with the NFL Lockout, (which I still don’t know exactly) is just the tip of the iceberg to a new generation of sports. Across the major league board we’re witnessing struggles between player and organization, between “talent” and “corporation”, and college football is no different.

            People say Tuscaloosa is the Vatican for the religion of college football, and few can deny it’s uncanny atmosphere come game-day. So, in a world where Ohio State players are allegedly getting free cars, people are looking into pay for play scams, and some where in North Carolina Cam Newton is still trying to seduce a camera with his cheesy smile we should know, no one is exempt from illegal happenings. 

Hey now. (Sorry Cam) 

            People will do anything to win. I didn’t need to tell you that because it’s a fact of life and it certainly isn’t a standard just held to the football field. Today, we are in a world of accelerated anxiety to be the best. Ask Iowa who offered a scholarship to a 15-year-old high school freshman this year (talk about Russian Roulette).

            Ask Alabama head Football coach Nick Saban, who has often talked about the accelerated pace of recruiting. Kinda like the accelerated pace of player entitlement to money and gifts. I’m not saying it’s wrong, at least not here because there’s not enough time in the day to cover every situation, and sometimes people just need money. But how far does it go?

             Ask Jim Tressel who we all thought was a better leader than to allegedly ignore emails warning him that his players were involved in something quite fishy. Tressel’s role as a leader brings us to question; who is exempt, what’s happening as we speak and whose the next to go down? Welcome to the world where ignorance is bliss.

            And right now, you would be ignorant to think that every organization in College Football, the NBA, MLB or NFL aren’t doing a little bending of the rules. Now, I’m not saying that all organizations are doing drastic and flagrant disregard for the rules, but champions aren’t champions anymore without a little loophole.

Is that fair to say?

Can we trust any home run leader in baseball anymore?

Can we not scrutinize interesting transfers from star players to thirsty schools who otherwise have no obvious draw?

Well, we can’t do that either. But sports are about going the extra step. On the field, that extra yard. Behind the scenes whose to say it’s about that extra handshake, the extra plush leather on a curiously bought Cadillac, or simply if its about the turn of the shoulder- the delete of an email, ignoring the ugly truth.

            Cheating is not new but perhaps our awareness of it is. We have decisions as fans. The NCAA and other governing bodies of sports everywhere have to decide when there is a boiling point and how we define breaking the rules of a game.

            It’s a sad day when we silence our inner kid that taught us to love a team for what they accomplish on the field and the powerful and determined athletes that performed miracles on the stages of sports everywhere.

            This time however, the fairy dust of that tale is fading as players are asking for more and organizations are not willing to budge. Be that the Yankees and the Spanish soap opera with Jorge Posada refusing to bat after a batting order change. Or Lebron James and people’s anger at him for leaving Cleveland to, lets face it, more talented tides in Miami.

            Just take a look at the pr for the organizations of the NFL, they like other organizations, play the victim. I don’t care whose right in this but playing the victim is wrong on all accounts. Everywhere we are missing accountability, don’t know if people see this or not, but a few good coaches (Bill Belichick and Nick Saban come to mind) say that doing your job and being accountable for what you are responsible for is important and that, my friends, means on and off the field. So you can imagine my surprise when Cam Newton wins a Heisman trophy, because I wasn’t paying full attention to the media mess accusing him of taking money to play college football. I was busy looking at the fact that he cheated twice academically at Florida in what I think was flagrant disregard for his classmates and his intentioned ignoring of being accountable to his responsibilities.

            On an organizational level, major league teams should work harder to create an environment wanted by the individual but not just by standards of money. College football teams have more of a roadblock but tradition and history, or intense ferocity to be the best doesn’t need to be defined in dollars, but I’m not fully naive either.

            But what we need to realize is as OchoCinco is riding bulls and trying out for major league soccer, and as NFL running backs are deciding which sunglasses are  best for a summer with extra time. Sometimes we are forgetting that this organization player struggle can also finds its roots in a poor neighborhood where a kid leaves his family to play football at a school, have hopes to play in the pros and in the meantime, what’s to stop him from taking the best offer? Accountability is dying, and that would have been my only answer.