• strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_argument::init() should be compatible with views_handler::init(&$view, $options) in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_argument.inc on line 0.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_validate() should be compatible with views_handler::options_validate($form, &$form_state) in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 0.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_submit() should be compatible with views_handler::options_submit($form, &$form_state) in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 0.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter_node_status::operator_form() should be compatible with views_handler_filter::operator_form(&$form, &$form_state) in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/modules/node/views_handler_filter_node_status.inc on line 0.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/glencoenews/www/www/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.

No consistency in pro sports sanctions

A professional football player knocks his fiancée unconscious in an elevator. He is suspended for two games. After a video of the assault becomes public, he is suspended indefinitely. Another professional football player admittedly “whoops” his son with a switch, stuffs leaves in the 4-year-old’s mouth, and is indicted by a grand jury for reckless or negligent injury to a child. Again, there is visual proof of the deed: photos of the welts on the child’s legs have gone viral over mass and social media. He is suspended for one game and is reinstated while the team allows “due process” to play out.
In the National Basketball Association, a team owner was “banned for life” for alleged racist remarks.
There’s something wrong here, folks, and it clearly has to do with our worship of our sports idols.
We don’t care about team owners. They don’t make spectacular catches, break through a mass of tacklers, hit home runs, hurl 94-mph pitches or dunk a basketball. Ban owners for life from the league? Go ahead, we don’t care.
But take our multi-millionaire star running back off the field for a game, or even several games, for domestic violence, and our reactions are far different than if the cops had hauled off our next-door neighbors for the same alleged offenses.
We don’t worry about the future of that child or that fiancée, we worry about the future of our team and its prospects for a winning season. We will still don our jerseys, fill the stands and turn on the TV to support athletes who are paid millions of dollars to keep us entertained.
We will build them Taj Mahal stadiums where they can play in style with no concern as to how those stadiums will be financed, nor will we balk at paying exorbitant ticket prices to attend those games to see our idols in person.
Our professional sports leagues will continue to pay athletes millions of dollars, demand public funding for posh stadiums, and continue to raid our pockets of our hard-earned dollars until we stand up and say “enough.”
We can talk all we want about how the leagues, the owners and the coaches need to take control, but until we stop buying into professional sports’ self-created subculture, that isn’t going to happen.
It’s time to take off the jerseys, stop filling the stands and turn off the TV until professional teams, owners and athletes have once again earned our respect and patronage.