GREED IS SPORTS ACHILLES HEEL

I don't see much difference these days when I read the financial page or the sports page. All I see is the damage done by human greed. There are bailouts, legislation to control financial fraud and abuse, pension bombs, improper spending legislation, and many other issues that reflect the harm created by human greed on the financial page. When I went to read the sports page the other day, I was confronted by the same human tragedy. Once again, sports imitates real life.
Let me take them one at a time to illustrate my point:
1. Sports is big money:
Manchester United soccer franchise tops the list of most financially valuable teams in the world at a worth of $1.84 billion dollars. Second on the list is the Dallas Cowboys at $1.65 billion followed by the New York Yankees, and five other football franchises (Redskins, Patriots,Giants, Jets and Texans). Reminds me of the kind of money we hear thrown about by Wall Street banks. Both are great breeding grounds for greed.

2. USC and NCAA sanctions:
The story is about the return of a copy of Reggie Bush's Heisman trophy by USC as an act of contrition for the harm done by the greed of the agent and the Bush family. There was on-going consideration of asking Bush to return the Heisman to the Heisman Trust for his actions, but no decision had been reached. The loss of respect to the university, as well as future earnings by their football team, prompted the following quote from Nick Saban, Alabama Head Football Coach: "I don't think it's anything but greed that's creating it right now on behalf of the agents. The agents that do this - and I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?" Street life meets the gridiron, with both being arenas for abuse of athletes and women for financial gain.

3. Alex Rodgriguez 600th Home Run:
Turn the page and we have the story of how A-Rod is soon to hit his 600th home run, joining an elite group of only 6 players in baseball history who have achieved that feat. There is one problem with A-Rod's accomplishments - he is an admitted steroid user and the only one of the elite 7 who has cheated. Steroid use is driven by greed. When you hit more homers, you are paid more money. When you use steroids, you hit more homers. You are cheating, but you are paid megamillions. If I remember correctly, A-Fraud ,as the author so fondly called him, was one of the first players to be offered a contract that exceeded $100 million dollars. Not a bad paycheck for fraud and not so different than the huge bonuses paid to the financial wizards who created derivitives, credit default swaps and bogus junk bonds on Wall Street. It's a shame because we will never know how good or average A-Rod would have been without steroids.

I look forward to the day when sports and competition is about bringing out the best in people.Unfortunately, with the current influence of money, I fear we are bringing out the worst.