Where are today’s athletes taking us sports fans?
Alleged criminals in the NFL, cheater in the NBA, steroid abusers in the MLB and greed of the NHL are collectively darkening a dream I created when I was just a little, athletic youngster.
Falcons’ star Michael Vick had his autographed memorabilia and football cards pulled from Upper Deck sets, NBA referee Tim Donaghy is under investigation by the FBI for betting on games he officiated and Barry Bonds is a mere one homerun away from tying Hank Aaron’s revered record.
One of Vick’s indicted cohorts, Tony Taylor, changed his plea to guilty and singled out Vick by telling investigators the star quarterback bankrolled practically the entire alleged dog-fighting venture.
Yet, while Vick is now infamous, Bonds has become something even stranger.
Ironically, the controversy Bonds created only seems to fuel his popularity.
Despite the fact he and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig haven’t spoken since the scandal broke in 2004, I feel like Bonds is to baseball what Clinton was to the Oval Office.
Maybe the Juggernaut of Juice will be named Time’s 2007 Person of the Year.
With a few devious bets, Donaghy single handedly shrouded every popular sport.
He has caused fans to even further speculate on the motives of an official’s call, and now, the rulebook will have to be rewritten on how NBA games are called.
And last but not least, the players of the NHL killed the league when they went on strike a few years back, and were replaced by the World Poker Tour.
Actually, I thought hockey going belly-up was kind of funny.
Hay, raise your hand if you watched the Stanley Cup Finals.
Again, where are sports taking us?
We fans feel betrayed. But despite our angst, we’ll inevitably be back to watch.
I wonder, though, how our young sports fans are being conditioned to feel regarding our national sports.
It’s just a shame it took so many notorious and controversial events to unfold — one after the next — before anyone was willing to do anything about it.
Alleged criminals in the NFL, cheater in the NBA, steroid abusers in the MLB and greed of the NHL are collectively darkening a dream I created when I was just a little, athletic youngster.
Falcons’ star Michael Vick had his autographed memorabilia and football cards pulled from Upper Deck sets, NBA referee Tim Donaghy is under investigation by the FBI for betting on games he officiated and Barry Bonds is a mere one homerun away from tying Hank Aaron’s revered record.
One of Vick’s indicted cohorts, Tony Taylor, changed his plea to guilty and singled out Vick by telling investigators the star quarterback bankrolled practically the entire alleged dog-fighting venture.
Yet, while Vick is now infamous, Bonds has become something even stranger.
Ironically, the controversy Bonds created only seems to fuel his popularity.
Despite the fact he and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig haven’t spoken since the scandal broke in 2004, I feel like Bonds is to baseball what Clinton was to the Oval Office.
Maybe the Juggernaut of Juice will be named Time’s 2007 Person of the Year.
With a few devious bets, Donaghy single handedly shrouded every popular sport.
He has caused fans to even further speculate on the motives of an official’s call, and now, the rulebook will have to be rewritten on how NBA games are called.
And last but not least, the players of the NHL killed the league when they went on strike a few years back, and were replaced by the World Poker Tour.
Actually, I thought hockey going belly-up was kind of funny.
Hay, raise your hand if you watched the Stanley Cup Finals.
Again, where are sports taking us?
We fans feel betrayed. But despite our angst, we’ll inevitably be back to watch.
I wonder, though, how our young sports fans are being conditioned to feel regarding our national sports.
It’s just a shame it took so many notorious and controversial events to unfold — one after the next — before anyone was willing to do anything about it.