“Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” – Mathew 7:5
EL BARRIO, BRONX – Now, I know that our senior editor is convinced that I don’t know how to read – but I do… I just don’t care to. Anyway, I read a magazine this week called The Atlantic and they had two great sports articles. This week’s Blaber’s Blabberings was borne from those articles.
The first article discussed the NFL Fleecing of America and how people are too afraid to speak out about it… Did you know, for instance, that the NFL is classified as a 501C (3). For the uninitiated, that is the classification for non-profit entities. I ask you, is there a more profit-making sports entity than the NFL? Yet, they don’t pay taxes! Further, Roger Goodell gets paid $30,000,000.00 per as Commissioner. That is simply ridiculous! I wonder what he has to say to his dad -a man that spent his life railing against those on the inside benefiting from a flawed system. On top of this it delves into how these publicly-funded stadiums are not needed, since the owners are more than rich enough and are just being cheap, hanging the threat of moving the team to LA over municipalities… and fans. Angry Ward’s Vikes will move to a near $600,000,000.00 publicly-funded stadium that owner Ziggy Wilf contributed nothing to, but saw the value of the franchise go up 200 mil. And that is just the tip of the iceberg; find time and read the whole thing.
The second article was about how high school sports are running the American educational system. You have schools spending $500,000,000.00 on stadiums and cutting 700 staff members – but leaving the athletics budget untouched. At a school that professes to focus on Math, they spend $400 per student. But they drop 4K on cheerleading when you factor in travel, meals, teacher costs, insurance and etc. See when a school spends money on a full-time coach, it costs lost of money. Some schools give this coach a job as a gym teacher to help curtail costs, but a substitute has to be found for road trips. This also doesn’t account for the cost of buses for travel, meals for players and staff, plus the cheerleaders and band. You would think this is the anomaly of football, but remember schools still spend money on Lacrosse teams, baseball, basketball and even volleyball – because winning teams in those sports bring more notoriety than the debate team. Schools have as many as 18 teams boys and girls combined – and all this while the USA is ranked 30th or worst in educational disciplines.
So America, where are our priorities?
This brings us to the American Pro Sports Structure. Football and basketball are the most successful but have no recognized pipeline but for a kid to exceed in High School, then College – and then leave early. The NCAA is part of this cartel. They benefit by the enormity of these two programs and the reliance on them to support all of the other sports teams. Remember the NBA moving the age to enter league as a USA domestic player to 19? That forces kids to attend college for one year. Meanwhile the NFL mandates that a student be at least a junior – but only because of the rigors of the league.
In Europe, however, they have the Academy System. This system has kids try out at an early age. If they show potential, they are signed up and live in the Academy – like a boarding school. They get educated in a small class, practice and play games against other kids their age and make a stipend. If a kid progresses well enough, he can play with the pros. By 16 can he/she can sign a pro contract. It has its pitfalls, but it seems a hell of a lot fairer to the kids than what the USA has now.
