Bolt Fever? Not Me!

This is a warning - if you are a San Diego Charger Fan, or more specifically a fan of professional football or sports at all- STOP READING NOW! Today's blog is NOT for you, and you WILL find it offensive.

There....don't say I didn't warn you.

I am NOT a fan of professional sports. At all. (If anything, I would say that I am a tiny bit of a Padres fan, at the most.) I specifically can't stand pro football. I have my reasons...several of them dating back to the early 80's and my first marriage. It's a long story there - but suffice to say that I do not have good memories of that time of my life; enduring long Sundays full of football, too many drunk, rude young men in my house, etc. I'd sneak out with my first born, Bear, who was barely even a year old, and stay away from the house until long after the games had ended, and most of the drunk, rude young men had left my home. It was not a good chapter of life for me. I know those days have long since passed, and I have moved on to a MUCH better time in my life, but those memories, even to this day, come flooding back to me when I see a pro football game. I just can't shake them.

Even when I don't let those memories flood my mind, I still can't seem to warm up to pro sports, specifically football. The greater majority of the players (in my humble opinion) seem to act like neanderthals, both on and off the playing field. Football players complete a touchdown and proceed to pound their chests, jump around like fools, and act like complete idiots. Isn't it their job to get points? When you do your job do you jump up and down and pound on your chest, and taunt your competition? Is that the type of behavior we want to teach our children? I don't.

Don't even get me started on what kind of roll models these people (at least the greater majority of them - again in my opinion) are....I'm sure it's a case of a couple of rotten apples giving the whole barrel a bad reputation, but my oh my, there seem to be a lot of really bad apples. Poor judgement a lack of morals seem to be the norm for this group. Oh, sure, there are some really good folks and positive roll models for our kids that play professional sports. In football alone I can think of Kurt Warner, LaDainian Tomlinson, Michael Oher (of recent "Blind Side" fame), Donnie Edwards, Junior Seau, etc. But, unfortunately, more often than not, we hear about athletes (from all genres) who have fallen from grace...Michael Vick, Darryl Strawberry, Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire, Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, O. J. Simpson, Ken Caminiti, Tonya Harding, Mike Tyson, and of course Tiger Woods, just to name a few off the top of my head.

I guess that my biggest beef with professional sports is the oddly disproportionally outrageous paychecks these folks get. Millions of dollars to PLAY A GAME? I seriously don't get it. I can't see why pro sports athletes earn, or more importantly, deserve the outrageous salaries they get. Oh sure, I've heard the argument that they provide entertainment to the community (much like movie stars, who, again in my humble opinion are also WAY overpaid) but in the long run, do these athletes actually do anything for our community? Do they keep the public safe, like our law enforcement officers? Do they help folks in danger like our firefighters? Do they guard our borders, or keep America safe from those wishing to do us harm, like the valiant members of our military do? Do they teach our children to grow into productive citizens of our society, like our teachers attempt to do with over crowded classrooms, sub-standard equipment and a lack of supplies?

Nope, they don't. The play games, and get paid extreme amounts of money to do so. I find it offensive. Why are some of our military families having to subsidize their incomes with food stamps, when pro athletes make millions a season? Why are our teachers so overworked and underpaid? Why do our police officers have to take second jobs to make ends meet? Why are some officers loosing their jobs completely because of budget deficits, and yet the major of our fine city is worried about building the Chargers a new stadium to keep them in town? I won't even start on our overflowing homeless shelters that turn people away because of a lack of resources to help all that need it , or the animal shelters that have to euthanize animals daily because of a lack of funding...

I seriously don't get how things like this can be so out of balance. It makes me sad.

My rant is over now. I apologize if I've offended anyone, but I did warn you at the beginning.

Have a lovely day.