When free agency hit sports, I started to lose interest.
It used to be your city had a professional sports team and the whole city rooted for them because it was their” team, “their” players. Players would play their entire career for the same team and this gave fans a vested interest in cheering the team on, going to their games, and buying their merchandise.
Once it became all about money, forget it. Team loyalty was soon replaced with loyalty to the almighty buck.
For me, I was born a Los Angeles fan in all sports. The one exception I made was in baseball, where I was a Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente fan, so I rooted for Juan Marichal and the San Francisco Giants.
There are some things in professional sports that just don’t fit.
Willie Mays in a New York Mets uniform.
Roger Clemens in a Yankee uniform.
Joe Montana in a Kansas City Chiefs uniform.
Not in a million years did I think that Tom Brady would leave the New England Patriot organization.
Make that two million years.
So I root for players based on how good they are at their craft.
The NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) thing in college sports is going to do the same for that arena if they don’t watch out. It is changing the whole college athletic landscape and traditional methods of recruiting elite athletes are giving way to the come-to-our-school-and-we’ll-give-you-ten -million-dollars method.
Of course it’s working.
The biggest loser in the whole thing is none other than the University of Notre Dame. You can offer kids all the money in the world, but they still won’t come to Notre Dame. They would actually be expected to go to class, study, and graduate.
Can you imagine?
Forget the fact that you are getting a six-figure diploma that will allow you to live comfortably for the rest of your days.
Forget that the alumni network of ND almost ensures your life success.
They want more.
And schools chasing glory are more than willing to ante up.
It’s a payoff for all the hard work and training these kids put in just to get in position to earn a college scholarship. Because it is a very real possibility that NIL money they get will be all they get. So few of them actually play, yet alone become superstars earning untold millions.
The money the top professional soccer players make is sick.
I’m sure there was a little net worth in the stadiums of Dubai for the recently-concluded World Cup.
I can sit here and type how fucked up the world of sports is and how it is fueled by greed and avarice and how the athletes, no matter how fast they can run, or how high they can jump, or how much weight they can lift, are still fucking up the whole pay structure of planet Earth, but it doesn’t matter.
The quarterback of the Green Bay Packers makes fifty million dollars a year.
I wonder what the most badass educator is pulling down these days…
Stay well.
