Maybe I was just naive, but I don’t remember sports being so controversial when I was growing up. I think the craziest thing that happened was Bobby Knight throwing a chair on the court in a hardly unusual tirade. And perhaps as a result of a more moral, less violent world of sports, there was little need for increased regulation, let alone government intervention.
And so this brings me the sports world of today. Does anyone else feel like SportsCenter spends less time each day reporting on actual games and scores? Sports news is much more about news – about the off-the-field and off-the-court stuff – now than ever before. Is it that athletes and franchises are more corrupt these days? Or are the higher-ups just deciding to crack down a little harder?
Or maybe they’re just getting a little smarter. At least that’s the case in baseball. Induced by the threat of government intervention, Bud Selig made a long overdue decision. And with the help of the rest of the MLB and the players’ association, a new steroid policy was established. It’s about time.
Under the new policy, a first positive test results in a 50-game suspension, a second results in a 100-game suspension, and after a third positive test, the player is banned for life. It may sound harsh compared to the old policy, but it’s important that punishments are severe enough that players fear the consequences of even a first offense.
As if the fact that they are role-models to young children, public figures who people look up to, and gaining themselves an unfair advantage over other players isn’t enough. With this new policy, Selig finally made the statement that cheating is unacceptable and professional sports are no longer giving the impression otherwise.
As we know, baseball isn’t the only professional league that has started to really crack down on its players. David Stern recently established a new dress code in the NBA. The only problem I have with it is the way so many people received it. I still don’t understand why so many things become a racial issue.
There is nothing racist about a dress code except the fact that some of the players who happen to like to wear some of what is no longer permitted under the new policy happen to be black. Stern just believes that in a professional league such as the NBA, the players who are injured or out of the game for other reasons should dress professionally. And there’s really nothing wrong with that in my mind.
And then there’s football. Eagles coach Andy Reid may not be the David Stern of the NFL, but he’s the one who’s cracking down in this case. I might have to agree with Reverend Jesse Jackson on this one. Terrell Owens hasn’t really technically done anything warranting this treatment.
We’ll see what happens in his arbitration hearing today, but watching this man sit out for the next six games on the Eagles’ bench will be heart-breaking for a lot of football fans. I’m not saying he’s a great guy or anything. He’s definitely not a team player. And he’s not exactly the easiest guy to coach, to play with, or to play against. But he’s one of those guys who makes football fun. He makes it interesting, and he’s clearly one of the most talented players in the league.
If anyone saw the Randy Moss interview on ESPN the other day, they heard Moss say that they’re taking all the fun out of the game. Maybe this is the one case where cracking down isn’t so necessary.