August 20, 2013

The sports seasons are changing and I’m morose.

We’re about to leave golf with its lovely verdant playing fields and the talented, articulate, drug-free athletes who compete thereon. These are family oriented gentlemen who respect one another and get paid only if they win. Rarely will a golfer criticize another. They still represent civilized sports as it was intended by Tom Morris, the Scotsman who popularized the game back in the nineteenth century at St. Andrews.

We’re entering football season complete with ungainly corporate/ public sponsored stadiums with private booths filled with booze for well healed ‘fans’. The players are, with rare exception, uneducated (despite degrees from unknown colleges), inarticulate and quarrelsome even among teammates. Many are convicted felons, and have fathered uncounted illegitimate children. They commit spousal or partner abuse without fear of retribution. They earn outrageous salaries, win or lose, and serve themselves up as role models to our impressionable kids, aided by the insatiable sports media.

When discussing this dichotomy with my friend Chris, his defense was: “Football has evolved from old Greek games at the Olympiad dating to the eighth century – much older than golf.”

Perhaps, but in those days the contestants had at least one redeeming quality – they were naked.