On just about all weekends, I have some choices to make about how to use my time. Often times, this seems to involve what sporting events are currently being televised. While our family doesn’t spend much time in front of a television on weeknights, we will watch sporting events of interest on the weekends.
For instance, in the fall we like to do things as a family such as play ball outside, complete yard work tasks like cutting firewood, mowing the lawn, or various other outdoor activities. However, when the Vikings play on Sunday afternoons, that is where you will find our family. It is also hard for me to pass up all of the great college football games that are televised on a weekly basis in the fall.
However, during this spring and summer, there is nothing that is going to keep me inside on a weekend. There are a few exceptions: the final round of the Masters golf tournament (yes, I like to watch golf) and an occasional afternoon Twins’ game. While I do love baseball, the pace of play in the major leagues makes it tough for me to watch all nine innings.
What is surprising to me, though, is my total lack of interest in the NBA (National Basketball Association). Professional basketball has seemed to take everything that is bad about professional athletics and wrapped it all up in one. TheNBA, which is struggling financially, has committed one major cardinal sin: it does not enforce the rules of the way basketball is supposed to be played. Rules in regards to traveling and the consistency of calling fouls has turned the game into a glorified pick-up game where the best players seem to get preferential treatment. In addition, the style of play has evolved into one that is dominated by physical contact.
The NBA is hurt further because it has an image problem. Tattoos, rap music, and individual image seem to come before the overall importance of a team. While as a kid, I would stay up late Friday nights or inside on the weekends to watch Magic and the Lakers take on Bird and the Celtics; I now have no such feelings for any of the players or teams in the NBA. I can no longer relate with what I see on the court. Theynow call it a “business” or “entertainment.” Like many sports fans, I just love sports.
My fear is that the NFL (National Football League) will soon have the same image problem, if it doesn’t already. While football is my favorite of the professional sports, it does have some challenges to overcome. Commissioner Roger Goodell is doing an admirable job with the league’s “personal conduct policy.” What he needs to understand is that fans are behind him, despite what any talking heads on ESPN say.
Just in the past few months, the NFL had Cleveland Browns’ player Shaun Rogers carry a gun through airport security that was cocked with a bullet in the chamber. In news that won’t leave the headlines, Pittsburgh superstar quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of raping a girl. This is the second such accusation for this superstar. Don’t the players get it? Theyare killing the very sport they love to play.
While the NFL is proactive and suspends players for drug and steroid use and is by far the strictest league in regards to its personal conduct policy, it does run the risk of alienating fans. NFL officials should look into a rule that reduces individual celebrations after every single play. When a guy makes a tackle on defense after the other team picked up eight yards, should he really have an individual celebration for that? NFL officials also need to understand that while they do need to protect their quarterbacks (whom fans pay money to watch), they also need to accept that they are going to get hit once in a while. Don’t veer too far from the game’s original rules.
Executives at all levels should understand that fans don’t like watching criminals and cheaters; they like to watch great athletes who are also good people. Thatis why fans embrace athletes like Joe Mauer, Phil Mickelson, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Dwight Howard.
Baseball officials could make a great statement about the future of their game by simply taking every former steroid user in their game and erasing him from the record books completely. Do we really think A-Rod’s home runs mean anything? Do Barry Bonds’ or Mark McGwire’s? That would instantly draw me closer to baseball and remind me of the days of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.
It might even get me to put off my yard work a little longer to watch nine innings of baseball.
Mitch Dorr, a Cook County
High School Class of 1993
graduate, is now a social
studies teacher and coach at
his former alma mater. Mitch
coaches Vikings football and
boys’ basketball.
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