Is it possible to have Men's professional sport be any scummier?

begin rant-They all have their heads so completely up their arses I can't stomach it any more. Knocking out wives, whipping 4 year olds, raping, driving drunk, shoot outs at parties, murdering people, taking steroids, lying, cheating, NBA witch hunts (Danny Ferry did not say a damn thing wrong), people being fired for saying things like maybe if your boyfriend is a 220 pound thug you might not want to spit on him and call him names?

They are all so twisted up with no moral sense, trying to do PR damage control instead of really caring about cleaning up the garbage that I just see bad decision after bad decision. All to protect the money and give us our bread and circuses. I would love it if we all just boycotted the big three sports for a year to put them in their places, we need a fan's collective bargaining agreement that keeps the players and owners in check-end rant.

JJsqueeze said:

begin rant-They all have their heads so completely up their arses I can't stomach it any more. Knocking out wives, whipping 4 year olds, raping, driving drunk, shoot outs at parties, murdering people, taking steroids, lying, cheating, NBA witch hunts (Danny Ferry did not say a damn thing wrong), people being fired for saying things like maybe if your boyfriend is a 220 pound thug you might not want to spit on him and call him names?

They are all so twisted up with no moral sense, trying to do PR damage control instead of really caring about cleaning up the garbage that I just see bad decision after bad decision. All to protect the money and give us our bread and circuses. I would love it if we all just boycotted the big three sports for a year to put them in their places, we need a fan's collective bargaining agreement that keeps the players and owners in check-end rant.

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I share your angst and frustration w/ sports, and as I grow older, I have less tolerance for the felons in pro sports. A bigger pet peeve of mine might be college sports, where a guy can get kicked out of one school for thieving or brawling or even academic misconduct and be starting for another one the next season. Meanwhile, normal kids w/ strong academic credentials are kept out, as college becomes more competitive.

re: Danny Ferry - I will disagree w/ you there. It's pretty careless and stupid in this day and age to say something like that. Should he be fired for it? That's up to the Hawks. I don't think the NBA needs to step in. But to say ''He's got a little African in him'' and then proceed to explain that by saying ''He's like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back,'' I mean, a person in his position should know and act better than that.

I actually have less of an issue w/ the comments made by the Hawks' owner.

Danny Ferry made a geographical generalization about people in Africa basically double dealing, he didn't say anything about race. It is no different than saying "he's got a little French in him, he tends to surrender easily" or "He's got a little German in him, he is highly mechanical and emotionally distant with little sense of humor". What the owner said was also not a big deal so I agree with you there, he was just looking at his business and trying to identify ways to improve attendance among people that might be able to spend more money. What Sterling did WAS racist and deserved to be punished but I just hate it when the pendulum swings so far, same thing with the Ray Rice deal...what he did was horrific and brutal and he should go to prison for it...but an announcer saying that maybe it is wise to not spit on and verbally abuse your Neanderthal boyfriend is not anything controversial, it is common sense. If I made the decision to spit in the face of anyone and start calling them names I would not be surprised by a punch in the face.

What also disgusts me is that these athletes get to "play a game" for a living and don't appreciate how fortunate they are to be doing so. Yes, I know it's big business but at the end of the day....they suit up and play. How many of us would trade our jobs to be able to make 100 times more to play our favorite sport? Do you think we could walk the line given that choice? I think so. As we develop our DDs, we need to instill the great lessons from this sport that will carry them throughout life. I think many pros have forgotten those lessons or where never taught. But again....bad people with money are still bad people.

As a female, it makes me sick to think how much they make "playing" when women can only come close in Tennis. I understand demand must be there....just hate it when talent and stupidity get paid big money and it is completely wasted.
As far as a ban.... I gave up basketball a while back; I could give up football but baseball might be an issue for me. And there lies the problem. Demand.

Also - corporate America is no different; it's just that we don't know the people or hear about it. Trust me on this one.

DD’s 8th grade class discussed Ray Rice on Friday. She was one of the few students that knew who he was and what was in the news because we discussed it already. We discussed it again after school.

(I am not in position to change the world so we work with DD)

Can men's sports get any scummier?

Yes.

One could argue that some of men's sports were even scummier a few years ago, such as baseball and cycling.

Or, further back, the Chicago Black Sox scandal. Baseball was extremely scummy back in the early days. Some of the stuff Ty Cobb used to get away with. Or, the refusal of the major leagues to allow players from the Negro Leagues, or even to allow the World Series champion to play against the Negro League champion because Satchel Paige was too darn good. Props to Dizzy Dean for putting together Dizzy's All Stars to face Satchel's All Stars.

OTOH, the National Felon League is at a particularly scummy point, no matter what they may have done to clean up steroid use, or not. There have always been wife beaters, rapists and child beaters in the NFL, sad to say. An alleged serial killer, on top of some alleged gang members, has brought the NFL down to unimaginable lows.

Or, for the NBA, having one of it's former stars palling around with a psychopathic mass murderer dictator, is getting as low as one can get without actually pulling the trigger.

Still, for pure disgust, looking at the pictures of the poor 4-year=old's wounds, and then realizing these were taken SEVERAL DAYS LATER makes one realize the depravity of a certain running back who does not deserve to have his name written.

As a Packers fan, I am also completely disgusted by a former Packer star, who pretended to be an enlightened feminist, but may actually be a serial rapist. Well, I don't have to be a Packers fan to be disgusted. Just a human and a father of girls.

quincy said:

DD’s 8th grade class discussed Ray Rice on Friday. She was one of the few students that knew who he was and what was in the news because we discussed it already. We discussed it again after school.

(I am not in position to change the world so we work with DD)

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I like this.

Some people get angry when we teach our children how to be safe, as if that is just blaming the victim. It isn't.

Of course we teach our boys to respect women.

However, DS is off at college in a city with some bad neighborhoods. It is not blaming the victim to tell him to stay out of those neighborhoods, and run like the wind if he gets into a bad situation.

As for my DDs, it is not blaming the victim to tell them to avoid parties with alcohol, and not to drink anything that could possibly have been spiked, and to stay in safe situations. I would rather not have them be victims in the first place.

JJsqueeze said:

Danny Ferry made a geographical generalization about people in Africa basically double dealing, he didn't say anything about race. It is no different than saying "he's got a little French in him, he tends to surrender easily" or "He's got a little German in him, he is highly mechanical and emotionally distant with little sense of humor".

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I agree they're along the same lines, but I think all that stuff is inappropriate to say or even think when discussing who to draft or sign. It's pretty important that employers give potential employees a fair shake and do not discriminate based on national origin that you just can't go there, not even in joking.

JJsqueeze said:

What the owner said was also not a big deal so I agree with you there, he was just looking at his business and trying to identify ways to improve attendance among people that might be able to spend more money. What Sterling did WAS racist and deserved to be punished ...

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Agree. The difference with the Hawks owner is that he's actually just one of many minority owners, and he's brain-storming and trying to find answers to get more fans. He's putting his thoughts on the table, and if they're nonsense, then others can call him on it. His thoughts are sorta like a NASCAR track owner trying to diversify and expand his fan base and wondering if his core audience, which is fairly homogeneous compared to other sports, scares other groups away and what can be done to make it more inviting for others. That's fair game for debate. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an opinion piece on it that's really good, IMO, if someone wants to google it.

One more thought worth debating ---

We like to say that softball teaches our kids life's lessons. If sports teach so many life's lessons, then what happened to OJ Simpson and scores of other dubious athletes?

We like to say that sports taught us a lot, but it was mostly our parents and coaches and other role models that taught us. Rather than thank softball, I'd start with them if the game really changed our lives.

It's too bad we can't have such outrage at the REAL justice system! That's where justice should be served!