I’m not even a football fan, and all I hear lately is about hits that are too hard, and how the rules are changing to prevent “devastating” hits, and even though I don’t go on much about this, I feel like I must here. It affects every major sport, including the puck-filled one I love. Plus, I’m sick of everybody beating around the bush about the underlying issue: the game is no longer a game.
A star player…or come to think of it, they don’t even have to be stars. Just expensive. Anyhoo…a star player gets traded/let go/released/sold/whatever. What’s one of the first things you hear from the player?
“Well, I’m disappointed/sad, but y’know, this is a business…”
Management tells us how this is a difficult day for the organ-I-zation, and nobody likes the moves, but they had to be done, because, “This is a business.”
Yeah. I’m supposed to feel better, right? I’m supposed to go, “Gosh-dang! They’re up there making these multi-million-dollar decisions, and they must know what they’re doing ’cause they’re running a business.
Nope. Sorry. I can’t buy into that. I can’t and I won’t, because by telling me all about the numbers and the salary cap and all the nuts and bolts – even if we’ve come to demand that – what you’ve also done is strip away the entertainment value of the sport. Even if it’s an illusion, even if it’s fleeting and can’t thrive like it used to before free agency, you’ve effectively broken the inherent magic spell that goes on in any entertainment vehicle. It’s the stuff that made pro sports great in the first place: personalities, athleticism, will, pride, teamwork, leadership. That’s why people tune in, buy overpriced tickets, put up with the insane notion of purchasing a license with which to purchase your seat, consume low-quality food and drink at overblown prices.
We do it for the magic. Not to support our local football/baseball business.
Consider the movies. I’m sure the Hollywood suits work hard to ensure the business end of the movies works; if they didn’t there wouldn’t be any movies, right? But do they show that face to the general public? No. If they did, if they outright said, as sports figures do, “We bought this script thinking it would get better, and we poured money into it, and it still not very good. So, instead of the star who’s perfect for it, the lead actor is now that guy who’s been in the news for drugs and violence (or whatever, so long as it’s sensational). We regret making a poor movie, but this is a business and we need to make money.”
How is it that the screwballs of showbiz understand this better than pro sports? You have to entertain the fans. That comes first. It must. Otherwise, we fans feel cheated, like we were supposed to ride up front and see the big view, but instead we’re in the back seat with the windows that don’t go down all the way, or maybe even the trunk.
Hockey is a business. That’s why you let the biggest stars go to rivals? Over money? Fuck you.
Football needs to keep its players safe? Oh, they get hit too hard? What’s the point of football if you can’t hit hard? I don’t give a damn if it’s dangerous; that’s the point of giving them so much money. The ironworker who rivets together the structure of a skyscraper, exposed to the winds a thousand feet in the sky, gets paid commensurate to the risks he takes. The same should hold in football.
I don’t want to see the nuts and bolts. I don’t want all the explanations and careful hemming and hawing. What I want is the magic, the thrill of sport. The suspension of disbelief of a good, or even a decent, movie. I’m sick of worrying about the technical end.
Sports, movies, books, anything – I should be entertained. I should come first, at least publicly. Make money, be a business, but if you’re Apple, don’t tell my your corporate iPhone strategy. Tell me why I want one, then back that up, and certainly don’t show me one thing and then take it away because it’s risky. The risk might be the point.
Mudwhistle 