Skewed Priorities

I have a confession to make. I am a closet sports fan.

And the reasons for my remaining reticent about this are many. Mostly they stem from the fact that I am often outraged at how dearly we pay for our entertainment. We, for the sake of distraction, seem to forget all sense of ethics, logic, and sanity.

This distaste of sports was further strengthened and solidified when I was in undergrad. I took a sex education class full of football players. We were asked, periodically, to submit written reports on assigned topics. Football players would read these reports, which they had obviously not written themselves, and mispronounce key words and stumble all over themselves during the delivery.

We knew that graduate assistants had written these reports for the athletes, but to challenge the administration on this point was totally futile. One professor stood up against the system and ended up being fired in the process. She refused to pass two athletes and found herself with a choice: change their grades and remain employed, or stick to your convictions and be let go. As the old saying goes: sometimes you just can't fight city hall.

I felt bad for these athletes, many of which came from small towns all over the country with one dream: to play Pro Football. Statistics have shown than the odds of going pro are very slim. We are depriving most athletes of a quality education when we do not take the time to properly educate them. If they don't make the pros (and most won't) then they are left with nothing. What tools do they have with which to build a career? Most meander at dead-end jobs and some even resort to petty crime.

Since I've moved back home, a scandal has broken out at my high school alma mater, Hoover High. Allegations of grades being changed for athletes arose about two weeks ago. As every day progresses, more and more allegations of impropriety have come into public knowledge. Now it appears that several thousand dollars worth of contributions are unaccounted for. The question that remains is, who has got the money?

The principal of the High School, who was there as an assistant when I was in school (and who I never liked), has been threatened with termination. The front page headlines this morning reveal that he has threatened to sue the school board if he is indeed let go.

The principal was high school roommates with the football coach, who has built himself the best dynasty money can buy. Under his tenure, Hoover has won several state championships in a row. It has obtained national attention both for this success and because it was prominently featured on two seasons of an MTV reality television show called Two-a-Days.

Now all hell has seemingly broken loose. I believe the next thing to be revealed will concern the dubious moral standards of the head coach, Rush Propst. It is rumored that despite being married, he has a mistress in a adjacent city and has spawned three kids with her. To add insult to injury, his wife, who he been nothing but cruel towards, is physically disabled.

Very soon, I predict, this will become a national scandal and many of you readers will hear about this.

All of this just to have a successful sports program. It reminds me of the sort of people who said they felt a sense of pride when we successfully conquered Iraq. Allow me briefly to paraphrase from one of my idols: Bill Hicks. Who are these people with such a sense of low self-esteem that they need a WAR to feel good about themselves? Who are these people with such a low self-esteem that they need a winning football program to feel good about themselves?

Instead of a war or a winning sports team, may I suggest: Sit-ups? Fruit cup? Exercise? Inner Peace? 6 to 8 glasses of water a day? Community service?

I'm not telling you how to live your lives, I'm just saying this: use your options.

We think nothing of paying our hard-earned dollars to distract us from our lives. What are we afraid of? Must we live lives of quiet desperation? Is it fair that a schoolteacher makes per year a fraction of what a professional athlete takes home in a month?

There's nothing wrong with sports, per se. They can be a positive outlet for athlete and spectator alike, but when they become all about money and nothing about positive values like community, teamwork, and discipline then their whole appeal is lost to me.

It seems as though the whole purpose of school has been lost. Academics are somehow less important than who can suit up and play on Friday night. I feel sorry for the students of the Hoover City System, because they will be the ones who will suffer the most. Due to the selfishness of the Board of Education and a corrupt sports program, they will no doubt be distracted from their studies and not get the quality education they deserve.

It's about the kids, for God's sake! When did we forget this?

I can't fight the system, but I can refuse to support the skewed priorities with my money and my attention.

Part of me says: this is the South and this is Alabama. Football is king. The legendary football Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was far from a stellar individual. He was a heavy drinker, smoker, gambler, and womanizer. But he won ballgames. And here in the South, that's all that matters.

I had a conversation once with a woman who, back in the 1960s, had her mailbox destroyed when an intoxicated starter plowed into it with his car. By eight o'clock the next morning, Bryant and several assistants showed up with a checkbook, offering to pay out whatever it would cost to repair the mailbox. Along with the money was the implication that she wouldn't let what had transpired become public knowledge. I'm sure instances like these happened all the time.

It's pointless to fight the system. You make no headway and end up getting yourself frustrated in the process. In this regard, sports are no different than politics. As Bismark famously pointed out, "The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night."