sports mentality

Today I want to rant about this country's sports mentality. Or, I guess it's the world's sports mentality. Why do we put athletes so high up on a pedestal? I know there have been articles written about this. Many of them probably. But it doesn't ever change, does it? It's almost crazy that we think it's OK for them to earn 10, 20 MILLION dollars a YEAR! It IS crazy to put sports above, oh let's say, compassion, dignity, kindness, common sense, or even the law. What is it about sports that makes people practically worship their favorite teams athletes?? I know I'm not a joiner and I've never been part of a team so to speak, but outside of the arena/field/court that the game is played on, what makes them so much better than you that you can overlook their bad behavior?

These are the two examples that really stood out for me;
A few weeks ago, two high school football players in Steubenville Ohio, were tried and convicted of raping a drunk, passed out, 16 year old girl. The kicker is, one, NO ONE came to her aid, two, that arrests were only made after pictures and video were seen on FB for Gods sake (which is a whole other topic),  and three, the town was very divided about what they thought should happen to those 2 boys. A lot of the town thought "what should a girl think is going to happen to her if she gets drunk with a bunch of boys" or that the boys should get their hands slapped and maybe be suspended from a few games. All because they were part of the football team - a high school football team. Which means of course that that mentality starts early.

The next example comes from today's headline. Mice Rice, a Rutgers College basketball coach was fired today. He was fired for being an asshole and a mean person who has some issues. Actually, he was fired for abusing, verbally and physically, the guys on team.There's a video of him throwing the ball at players and shoving and pushing and yelling obscenities at them. Here's the kicker for me on this story...this video was presented to the college president and other college officials, last OCTOBER. They reviewed it and decided in December, that they would suspend him for 3 games, fine him $50K and send him to anger management classes. Seriously? They should have fired him right then and there. But nooooooo - it's college hoops. Big business right? So now they've fired him because the video went viral and the public is all pissed off. I was left wondering though - while all of that was going on, didn't anyone else report it? Why did the players take that kind of abuse? Why didn't any of the other players complain. Why didn't any of the PARENTS complain? As a pseudo Mom, if I ever saw my son treated that way by a coach, I would have been difficult to restrain. Especially verbally!

Priorities have certainly shifted.