A Gentlemen's Game: How Pro Sports Went Wrong

Welcome to the dawn of an era in professional team sports where athletes are expected to behave like monotonous, emotionless, clones. Athletes are so constrained by today's professional sports landscape where rigid rules instituted by the authority of athletic organizations over the past two decades has removed most of the passion and raw emotion once associated with sports. At some point professional sports became too worried about their perceptions than the actual product on the floor.

For the NBA, the shift began the moment the ABA, the NBA's last remaining competition was absorbed, although it took years for the effects to manifest themselves after a number of the old ABA players bought their flashy style of play to the NBA. The most significant contribution -- and Dr. J epitomized this more than anybody else -- was to that flamboyance and selfishness were not synonymous. You could flash style and still be a team player, that you could entertain and still play the game in a way that deserved respect, that button-down was not the only way to play.

At the time, the "brown ball" NBA was still trying to build upon its expanding fan base. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone and Michael Jordan among others helped unleash a freewheeling yet intense style of basketball which attracted fan curiosity. As the NBA's popularity soared, team values grew, salaries multiplied and basketball became the hottest sport on the planet. The sport remained at the height of its popularity until the retirement of Jordan as hip hop began to seep its way into the NBA's infrastructure and the NBA's along with its wealthy sponsors began to profit from the association. However, since a few rebellious Pacers decided to lay the smack down on a few self righteous Pistons fans in the melee at the Palace in Auburn Hills just before a blowout win, the league needed a scapegoat and hip hop culture was the perfect victim. (It didn't help that the main culprit, Ron Artest had recently gone off the deep end by asking for time off to promote the release of his upcoming hip hop album. Hey, I probably would have thrown a drink at him if he'd sold me a bad CD too. But I digress…) Since the Basket-brawl at the Palace in Auburn Hills, David Stern has become obsessive about the league's image to a point where he's tainted the game itself.

The USFL and the (original) AFL were to the NFL what the ABA was to the NBA. The USFL's innovation and outspoken as well as overpaid athletes ushered in a new era for professional football. Initially the league was viewed as innovative and a serious challenger to the establishment NFL thanks to its willingness to sign marquee talent such as Herschel Walker, Brian Sipe, Doug Flutie, Mike Rozier, Reggie White, Jim Kelly, Steve Young and other young stars of the day(including 19 year old Marcus Dupree). Almost all of the USFL's on-field innovations were eventually adopted by the older league, and a multitude of star players would go on to very successful careers in the NFL. The NFL would also eventually have franchises in some of the markets where the USFL proved fertile or renewed interest in the game.

But most importantly the players had fun. "This was the most fun I ever had associated with football," said Irv Eatman, the Philadelphia Stars star. "It sounds corny, but it was so pure. I had a hell of a time." "It was much more fun than the NFL, a little bit of that old AFL thing going on. They were more willing to try things."

The NFL was once referred to by a former player as the last bastion of Fascism. Conservative probably is a fairer word. While the NFL was plodding along, mired in the 1930s, the USFL was encouraging celebrations, offering two-point conversions and keeping officials honest with a replay system. "Yeah," Eatman says, "we did all that stuff in the '80s, before the NFL finally came around."

To compete, the NFL also loosened its collars as players became more innovative and marketable than ever before. As for the present day NFL, the days have passed since players could display genuine jubilance when they reach a rare venture into the end zone for 6 points or make a huge play. In today's NFL, such displays of emotion after long and arduous 70 to 80 yard touchdown drives by athletes is discouraged and is now detrimental with the advent of penalties for celebrations.

In doing this, professional football has begun a backwards movement to reverse the USFL effect by attempting to assimilate each character into a singular entity and gradually drain the fun back out of the league. When the NBA and NFL reached their present status as monopolies in their sport, they seemed to stop concerning themselves with the quality of their sport and focused their efforts more intently on attaining sponsors, TV contracts and expansion instead of tailoring the sport to what true fans wanted to see. Somewhere along the line, they lost sight of what professional sports was and money became their lone pursuit.

How else do you explain the 2011 Super Bowl in Arlington which would generate the largest single payday in NFL history? The North Texas bid offers up a new Cowboys stadium that can seat 95,000. Tickets for the 2007 game cost $600 apiece, doubling in price over the last 10 years. Tickets for the 2011 game project to be in the $900 range. Recent talk of moving the Super Bowl and certain regular season games overseas has now become the latest venture for the overly capitalistic NFL and has irked fans. What the NFL cognoscenti have not considered is or cared to, is how are the loyal fans of these teams supposed to fly to Japan and watch a Super Bowl at 4 a.m. on Monday morning? As for the NFL's overseas experiment, Goodell will observe how it pans out on October 28th when the Giants and Dolphins do battle at London's Wembley Stadium Yet how will the constant traveling and jetlag affect this new IFC (International Football Corporation) teams game preparation and on field action? Not to sound stereotypical but English fans aren't exactly known for their civility and riots at sporting events are common for them

How will security be handled? In fact, just as recently as last month, security at the new Wembley Stadium was exposed as a shambles yesterday when a People reporter smuggled in a fake BOMB on Cup Final day. In what could be a bigger success than Monday Night Football or a colossal flop like David Stern's Vegas vacation during All-Star Weekend , what matters most is that when the 90,000 British fans and the measly 10,000 upper class American fans fill sold-out Wembley Stadium to capacity October 28th, it'll make the NFL a boatload of money.

Meanwhile, Roger Goodell and Paul Tagliabue have teamed up in a joint effort in recent years to turn the National Football League on our soil into a trillion dollar corporation instead of the homegrown professional sports and entertainment organization it is. He's stripped the players and fans of their voices and turned the NFL into an Owners League. After Tagliabue removed touchdown celebrations from the league, he stripped a little piece of the NFL's personality and USFL influence with it.

Now, Roger Goodell has begun suspending players for off field transgressions, not in Goodell's little professional playground. Is it me or has his authority begun overstepping its bounds? He's apparently has the authority to suspend players for the unjustifiable act of creating negative headlines for team owners! Goodell's policy of presumed guilt has gone out of control. As much as I admire his plan to rid the world of law breaking athletes that is not his job description.

While Goodell's objective may have been to present a more convict free-league to fans and sponsors, that's not what the average fan is concerned with. We're focused on what type of offensive game plan will Lane Kiffin institute in Oakland and how will Petrino utilize Vick as a passer not hoping (Name Athlete Here) is available for next week's game for getting that speeding ticket after leaving the strip club with PacMan Jones".

Can you imagine the backlash against David Stern had suspended Kobe Bryant for the season during his 2002 rape trial? Just like the USFL once sued the NFL for its monopoly, someone needs to build up the courage to challenge Goodell's monopoly over NFL decision making because the guy is on an unprecedented power surge. What perplexes me is how under spoken the NFL's usually outspoken figures have been about Goodell's carte blanche policy. In his eagerness to establish a legacy early, Goodell has ignored the NFL's actual issues such as its archaic overtime format, it's 6 hour first round Draft setup(I mean honestly after 6 months of scouting do team execs really need an extra 15 minutes) as well as a possible Saturday night Super Bowl. While Tagliabue watched over the greatest economic period in the NFL's history, Goodell seems intent on putting a stamp on his tenure as the NFL's unwavering disciplinarian.

At the same time, Stern has allowed the referees to takeover his institution by putting an inflated value on good, clean, basketball and attempted turned the once intense physical NBA into a gentleman's game. Instead the average fan wonders why the NBA playoffs last longer than production of the Rush Hour trilogy. Next thing you know he'll start removing fans for getting too rowdy during foul shots. In today's NBA, the slightest on court violation can result in a suspension, a far cry from days when elbows, shoves, even misfired punches were tolerated in NBA playoff games, when there was too much at stake to punish a player something as relatively minor thing such as for example, Stern's costly suspensions of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for jumping out of their seats in disbelief and stepping across a metaphorical line after their point guard was unnecessarily flung into the air in the waning of a sure win.

It's almost as if David Stern's basis for a perfect league was modeled after the dystopian city of San Angeles in the film Demolition Man where disobedience is rare and merely a remnant of the 20th century. In no way am I saying that the NBA, NFL or MLB should encourage the excessive aggression displayed in the WWE but a little excessive physicality wouldn't be too bad would it? Those characteristics are what defined the NBA's greatest rivals such as Bulls-Pistons, Lakers Celtics and Celtics-Pistons throughout the 80's. And who can forget the classic battles the Heat-Knicks-Pacers triumvirate produced in the late 90's?

Stern's policy of forcing players into a dress code for pre and post game team activities has been one of his most asinine decisions to date which attempted to distance the league from the hip hop community which Stern feared had corrupted the NBA and was a major cause of the brawl in Detroit. The NBA had found its scapegoat and it was bon voyage from there. Yet where was the overreaction to Disco Demolition Night in 1976? In what became the riot which makes the cleverly nicknamed Basket brawl seem like a pillow fight, baseball did nothing to separate itself from disco or rock because frankly, it was an anomaly and they realized that? What the NBA has to realize is that Ron Artest's brain wiring is an anomaly too, and you have to recognize that (monitor it too, because he is a ticking time bomb).

Meanwhile, sports such as baseball and hockey which represent a scarce number of black athletes present bench clearing brawls and regular fistfights as staples of the game while the predominantly black leagues, the NBA and NFL attempt to cover up these elements in their sports so as to not project an image of thuggery among its viewers and sponsors.

Every major sport has prevalent issues to confront. Goodell has the issue of the effects of concussions as well as the retired players union, Stern has on court violence to avert, and Selig has performance enhancing drugs to banish plus the age old issue of parity to resolve. Oh yeah, I almost forgot and hockey has to counter the general public's apathy towards their sport. Quick name last season's NHL champions. Nothing? How about the four teams who made the Conference Finals or only team in the Stanley Cup Finals so far? I thought so.

The point is that all four have overreacted to their current league's predicaments and have diverted attention from the actual problems with their sports on the playing field. The NFL has transformed into the No Fun League by instituting rules which have stunted player enthusiasm and the entertainment factor. Then, Major League Baseball lacks parity between smaller market teams and bigger market teams because of its unfair revenue sharing agreement. The NHL has already installed rules to increase scoring yet the renowned physicality of the sport seems to gradually be dying down although scoring is on the rise. In Major League Baseball the steroid problem has been addressed, and its time to move on instead of using George Mitchell to dwell on the past. How about eliminating alcohol from the clubhouse for starters?

The NBA on the other hand has allowed the referees to take over the sport and assume celebrity status (see Dick Bavetta as the main attraction on All-Star Saturday night or Joey Crawford grabbing headlines for his suspension). Only corrupt boxing refs have more clout than these guys and that's because in boxing they are only three men in the ring. NBA commissioner David Stern should also look into revisiting the advent of the zone defense into the NBA and cutting down the shot clock to open up offenses.

Why are there no former athletes as commissioners in the major sports? This idea has only contributed to the prevailing perception of sports as legal system of slavery for all athletes. While allowing the average athlete to accrue large sums of money and popularity playing for the owners, they refuse to allow an ex-athlete to with absolute authority in decision making for fear that he may take sides with empathize with the players more often, understands the game and (gasps!) actually treat the league for what it is, a game.

In essence, the modern athlete is meant to be seen not heard and to follow the rules not have a hand in changing them. It's time for a new era in the leadership of the major professional sports. Owners want a commissioner who will make decisions in their favor and not for the actual benefit of the fans and players. Bettman has driven the NHL into debt, dramatically lowered salaries for players and out of the consciousness of the average American, so what better way to revive the league than outputting Gary Bettman and inputting "The Great One", Wayne Gretzky or perhaps Mario Lemieux, who has management experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins?

When Bud Selig, the only commissioner who appears to be out the door in the near future, retires as planned in 2009, why not appoint a former player as commish? And in the NBA, as highly as I once thought of David Stern, he can't be commissioner forever. The NBA needs new blood and modern ideas to advance forward and with Jerry West leaning towards retirement, why not bring in the NBA logo's silhouette in this capacity or rescue Michael Jordan from those woeful Bobcats? Perhaps even Chris Mullin from the Warriors front office just to name a few?

The commissioner should have provided leadership and insight toward the resolution of the Suns-Spurs suspensions instead of simply reciting the rulebook. Good-bye David Stern....It's been fun.

As for "His Accidency", Roger Goodell, I'm wondering "Is it possible to suspend a commissioner for front office decision making? Wait a minute... this is the NFL, under the current bargaining agreement can't we just release him?"



The Fans
On an actual sports front though…It's been suprising how emotional this playoff has been coming
off one of the most ho-hum regular seasons in recent memory. One of the biggest reasons in my opinion
has been the increasing involvement of the fans. While, the first round's Most Valuable Fans Award was
won in a landslide by the Golden State (as well as the best name for the city of a sports franchise)
Warriors, the second round has featured a tighter race for the mythical honor.


The 2007 NBA playoffs has probably been the greatest exhibition of fan involvement, I've ever seen
outside of marquee college basketball matchups. In no sport are thae fans as crucial as the NBA, and
in the playoffs, the fans stepped their game up.From the Warriors "We Believe" T-Shirts to the "Dirty"
chants from Spurs and Suns fans as well as Suns fans wearing band aids after Nash took a
World Cup-worthy head butt from Frenchmen Tony Parker.

(If the World Cup taught us anything its to avoid unexpected headbutts from the French. A bit of advice
Tony. Tell the media that Nash insulted your sister.)

The uncharted fan volume has even forced TNT to introduce a Fan-o-Meter and resulted in another unexpected
consequence; the players have begun to react to the fans movement. Boy, are we fortunate, Ron Artest and
the Kings failed to earn that 8th and final playoff spot.

I love Amare Stoudemire's strategy of simply flying to the rim when there's no open lane on the ground to the
basket.

One of the most overlooked storylines of the Suns-Spurs series has to be the differing miens of
the two coaches, Popavich and D'Antoni. While Popavich's calm and unwavering demeanor is a representative of
his team's mental toughness, D'Antoni's fiery attitude is just what the up-tempo Suns need to fire them up for
offensive explosions night after night.

Is it me or should NBA teams begin instituting 2-minute drills into their game strategies? I cannot
count how many times I've seen a team with a large lead in the waning minutes of a game play like it's still
the first quarter and going for quick, ill advised shots to build a lead instead of slowing it down, using up
the shot clock and using their possessions wisely. Then, go on to lose the game because of poor decision making.
That's what the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and on a number of occasion sin this playoffs alone. On
the other hand, there have been a number of occasions when a team down by two or three baskets doesn't know
what to do while the pressure is building and shoot themselves out of the game.

Why does Lebron always make that face where it looks like he just devours some bad General Tao chicken?

I hope the KG trade standoff doesn't last as long as Iverson's did. There was a 3 year period when
Iverson's trade value was discussed until the 76ers finally pulled the trigger.

Brett Favre is a great quarterback but he'll never be as great as Steve Young no matter how many
records he breaks.

Are Baron Davis and Donovan McNabb brothers or something? Not only do they both have that grandfather
beard but their both thick muscular 6 foot 2 athletes.

Ranking the teams with the best Off-season Situations/ Expectations 1-5
1.) Chicago Bulls- Only reason I rank the Bulls ahead of the Suns is because they are a young, developing team
with a wide window f opportunity to win championships. With a lottery pick in the upcoming 2007 NBA Draft as
well as pieces available to acquire Kevin Garnett if they so chose, the Bulls could enter next season, 2008,
2009 2010, 2011, and so on as perennial Eastern Conference favorites.

2.) Phoenix Suns- the Suns on the other hand are in the precarious position of having to tweak their roster
or possibly their system a bit. If they were to trade Marion on the brink of their ultimate success it would
rank up there with Finley's release from the Mavericks and Nomar's trade from the [Red] Sox as one of the most
heartbreaking trades of a franchise player who's seen both the ups and downs in one city. However, trade
Stoudemire and you possibly lose a player who will make you regret it forever. The only thing that eases
their worries is a potential top 5 Draft selection this season.

3.) ?- Whoever gets Greg Oden

4.) ?- Whoever gets Kevin Durant

5.) Golden State Warriors


These guys thrive on emotion and at times are viewed as volatile but we know better. They are the emotional
sparks for their teams which at times can be detrimental in this era of NBA basketball. But as the Golden
State Warriors showed us by infusing a little extra emotion into the post season, these type of players are
usually vital to a teams success.
All-Passion Team

G- Stephen Jackson
G- Kobe Bryant
F- Rasheed Wallace
F- Kevin Garnett
C- Ben Wallace
6th Man- Baron Davis
Coach- Avery Johnson

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