The Internal Rot and Ruination of Professional Sports

I don't give a rat's patootie that professional athletes have a "large platform." What does that mean, anyway? Hitler had a "large platform." So did Stalin. And Marx. And Al Capone. Is there some natural correlation between fame and good sense? Fame and wisdom? Infamy and honesty? Fame and holiness? I know people who don't have a "large platform" but have wisdom, knowledge and experience that far surpass that of most professional athletes, most of whom barely (and usually fraudulently) obtained a college degree. Remember back when they aired that program "Scared Straight?" The felonious prisoners in that show had a "large platform," yet I did not hear anybody asking them for their take on social issues. Polls show that most people don't trust politicians or journalists. But we trust and hang on every word that a famous athlete utters? What's with THAT? 

It's Not How Fast You Are

News flash: running a 4.4 40-yard dash at the NFL combine does not correlate with a high IQ. Neither does shooting 40 percent from behind the three-point line. And another thing that does not correlate with having an informed opinion is age. Most professional athletes are in their 20's. Many of them are barely removed from high school, much less from college. And many of them did not do well academically (or even socially) in high school or college. Most adults are not that interested in getting life coaching from a twenty-something. But they care what that same twenty-something thinks about social justice, just because he is batting .310? Ah, come on, man. 

Got Moral Authority?

Many of the professional athletes who want us to listen to them moralize about social issues will go out and get stoned or shack up with a hooker right after they pause before the TV cameras to make their moralizing pronouncements about social justice. I'm sure the gangsters of the roaring twenties held court among their cohorts on a wide variety of social issues right before they went out to rob a bank or break a few heads. And I am equally sure that most of their captive audiences did not pay much attention to what the average gangster, even those with a "large public platform," thought about parenting, or religion, or other social issues. They were professional criminals with opinions. In today's "large platform" society, perhaps they would be recruited to take advantage of their celebrity to opine on criminal justice.

Real Systemic Bias

We hear a lot about systemic racism in America, which is a an artificial construct if ever there was one. But there is a real form of systemic bias in professional sports as it applies to which athletes are allowed to voice an opinion and which ones are not. When athletes of "non-color," current and retired, have voiced conservative opinions they have been criticized or cancelled. Surely there are some professional athletes of all skin colors and nationalities who disagree with the politics of their fellow players and the League itself. But we aren't allowed to hear from them, and if they dare to voice their opinions they soon lose their good reputations or even their livelihood.

I Don't Shop for Ground Beef at an Ice Cream Store

I am sick of hearing sports analysts and announcers opine on social issues. I am tired of sports shows covering non-sports news. Our lives intersect with sports along many planes, but I don't watch sports with all those other planes on my mind. I watch sports, at least in part, to take my mind off those other planes. If I want news on a legal issue or social issue, I have plenty of news sources to search out. I don't need to turn on my television to see my favorite sports analysis show (hint for Colin Cowherd and Fox Sports) opining on the George Loyd case. And I sure don't want to watch a "special" like ESPN had yesterday to talk about the George Loyd trial. When I click on a news program, I don't expect to see a special on the NFL draft. I don't expect to see the News analysts open their segments with comments on how well a team is doing, or to give their opinion on a player's batting slump. When I turn on the weather channel it is because I want to see what the weather is doing, not how the Yankees or Red Sox are doing. See where I am going with this, professional sports organizations? Sure you do.

Viewers Matter

Sports today are in the crapper because of activist politics, gambling and showmanship (three-pointers in basketball, designated hitter in baseball, etc.). Sports today are rotten. Sports today have been ruined. And it is the sports organizations that have done it to themselves. Most great organizations and institutions that crash and burn do so because of their internal decisions and actions, not because of external threats or even threats from competition (thank goodness most professional sports are monopolies, or they might have gone under long before now). 

What to Do? A Simple Proposition

Professional sports leagues have a choice. If, for example, MLB does not wish to be on the same path to success as CNN, I would strongly suggest they divorce themselves from political and social issues and stick to baseball. If they are unsure how to go about that, I suggest they talk to the folks who run professional golf, which is the only sport left where we can just watch without wanting to throw a brick through the television screen.