The Outrageous World of Sports

What used to be a family activity to share is no longer! This is due to the OUTRAGEOUS attitudes of team owners, as well as the attitudes of today’s team players. Why do sports play such an important role in institutions of higher learning?

Most colleges and universities are heavily dependent on sports through academics, admissions and campus culture. Big revenues boost visibility and income along with creating pressures and other challenges that affect both the college and the athletic students.

College sports, especially football and men’s basketball, are both multi-billion-dollar industries. The colleges raise money to help the schools build facilities, hire coaches, and raise their profile.

However, most still lose money, forcing universities to subsidize sports through fees and general funds, spending as much as six times higher than for a nonathletic student. Successful sports programs increase the school’s visibility, which could provide more applications, higher enrollment, and increase donations.

As athletic spending grows, the institutions lose the priority of providing education and must balance their support for the players, time demands for travel and training, and allocation of funds between classroom and stadiums.

Name, image, and likeness (NIL) has transformed recruiting. Top recruits now receive multi-million dollar deals as well as corporate sponsorships. Colleges must navigate this fast-changing marketplace. This shift has altered how colleges compete for talent.

Schools must soon be required to share revenue with their athletes. Some say that the current landscape is chaotic. Schools today allow athletes more time on the field and less time in the classroom.What happens when an athlete is not considered for a pro team and has not achieved any academic skill? It leaves the athlete lost in the world!

Sports are no longer a family activity, due to the attitudes of professional team owners and the team players. The average family can no longer attend a professional game due to the OUTRAGEOUS cost of tickets, parking, and food.

Shohei Ohtani, a professional baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, recently signed the largest contract in baseball history and does not even speak English. The contract amount is $700,000,000 for ten years. Mr. Ohtani is paid $2,000,000 a year with $680,000,000 deferred and will be paid out at retirement after relocating back to Japan in order to avoid paying income tax in this country. This is outrageous and should be illegal. Actions such as this increase the cost for a family of four to enjoy an outing at the ballpark, making it unaffordable.

There is no longer any loyalty among players. Team owners appear to care more about the money than the players and the game. Free agency has greatly affected all sports, for now, only the rich teams can afford to sign the better players.

Years ago, all professional sports were televised on national television. Today, more and more owners are moving their televised games to a streaming service, forcing fans to purchase that service. That’s outrageous!

CAN’T KNOW FOR SURE

Did you hear what I just heard
did you
he said ‘one has to have a second chapter, settle in, accept’
he did
seriously
he named Belushi, Morrison, Joplin, Presley and even
Dylan Thomas as proof of his authority
he said it on television before millions
he said it to me and to you
that we needed to begin a second act
even a new play all together
to join in
start over
fix the engines
change the tires
clean the windshields
fill-er-up with premium this time out
you could not miss a certain smugness in his style
his words, his mannerisms
they struck a mechanical chord
as if
as if that smiling blues brother of ours
that voice that still lights our fire
that screech that takes a piece of our hearts
that gyration that to this very day makes our pelvises hot
those words to not go gently into that good night
as if they are gone
forever
as if they are not within our collective soul
as if anyone of them would change any minute of their
time
as if any of them actually valued time, or space, or distance
can’t you see it
can’t you see fatty Belushi sitting on a cloud
beer in one hand, joint in the other, smiling ear to ear
wrinkled suit, sunglasses and fedora saying to that guy
Yea man, call me when you get a life, here’s my private
number.
can’t you hear the crackling of his skull
when Morrison breaks his guitar over this guy's head
or Joplin raping him right on stage in front of us all
or Presley singing to him are you lonesome tonight
or Thomas telling him to rage against the dying of his own
light?
Come on
of course you can
he’s the other side of us all
he beckons we believe in him
he seeks our support
he projects his own longing for greatness
to do one thing
just one
that even temporarily defines greatness.
There’s a message here
there must be in his words
he’s on television for God’s sake
but a glitch in the matrix must have occurred
in his reasoning
and in ours also.
Hard to say
hard to
can’t know for sure
can’t know for sure
but I would bet on it
I would
wouldn’t you
wouldn’t they?
Guess
and guess again.