Never in all my years of covering sports have I seen sports so lost. Stars are being arrested and charged with rape, college recruits are being plied with sex to get them to sign, the Super Bowl entertainment is a peep show, accusations in boxing of fight fixing, the threat of another work stoppage in a major sport (NHL), and accusations and indictments handed down of widespread steroid and performance enhancing drug use. Sports could give the TV show cops a season worth of episodes.

It was once said that man’s failures were chronicled on the front page, and his successes on the sports page. Now it seems man’s failures are on both the front and sports pages. The image of sports has changed completely. It used to be something we could rely on, making us feel good about life and ourselves, even if our favorite team lost. But, not even that is true any longer. The answer as to why is both obvious and complex.

The obvious is that life is no longer simple and predictable. Like society in general, today it takes a lot of work just to get to the end of the day. When sports pasted from being a break from our everyday lives and a chance to relax and enjoy watching teams compete, to being a struggle to enjoy because we don’t know if the players are juiced up, whether the manager, coach or players have bet on the game, whether the player you like and admire is going to be on the team next year because he’s a free agent, unhappy because some computer system screwed your team out of a shot at the national championship, or that one of the supposed “good guys” of the sport and the league is now a “bad guy” because of his off court activities, then the enjoyment of watching sports is no longer relaxing, fun and a pleasure to watch. It now has become like everything else in our lives each day.

The root of the problem is money. Once we know how much money a player is making, how much team’s are spending and receiving, how much leagues are getting from television networks, how much an 18 year old athlete is making from an endorsement deal, or how many millions a thirty second commercial costs in the Super Bowl, then our expectations change.

For the fan, the expectation is maximum effort with maximum results every game. An “off day” in an athlete’s performance is totally unacceptable. Every game better be a “money worth it” performance. No excuses, no being hurt or sick, no “I got family problems”, no “I’m only human.” If you’re getting big bucks, then we want to see a big bucks performance every game.

For the athlete, the expectation is “I want to make as much money as I can, for as long as I can.” That message filters down to their agents, so their expectation is pay my client/athlete their fair share of the money pie because without the athlete there would be no sport, no team, no business and no money from fans, sponsors, or the media. Athletes say loud and clear, “We are the game, we are the business.”

For the owners, league officials and others involved with and employed by leagues, teams and all sports related businesses, the expectation is, this is sports, games, so the athletes should be glad they can be paid to play a game and the fans should be happy and willing to pay whatever it costs to watch their favorite game, teams, and players.

Put all that into play and you see why money drives greed, which drives cheating, which drives disappointment, which drives frustration, which drives anger, which drives us all nuts, which makes sports just like everything else in our lives today.

What’s the answer? I don’t have a clue, but what I do know is that the beauty of sports is lost and gone forever. It’s nothing special anymore. Yes, it will have it’s special moments, but it certainly is not something we all can look forward to—something that helps up get away from, at least for a little while, the everyday challenges we have. The only saving grace might be if we realize it isn’t special anymore so that we can enjoy at least a few special sports moments as a reminder of gentler, simpler times in our lives when sports was about the love of the game, the honesty of competition and the personal reward of playing or watching the game.

I feel better now.

I’m Ron Barr.

*Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.

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