MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

I have always believed that if you want to know why something occurred, follow the money trail. Money gives you the power to get whatever you want. Little wonder that money can bring out the best or the worst in people. Several stories recently made me disgusted with the greed that feeds off sports and athletes these days.

Turns out that the Reggie Bush scandal with agents paying him while in school that rocked USC's football program and caused him to return the Heisman Trophy was only the tip of the iceberg. A sports agent, Josh Luchs said that he routinely payed players, over 30 at last count, from 1990-1996. Too bad that it only took 20 years to break the story. And during those twenty years, we naively assumed that football players played for the love of the game and the opportunity to play professionally. Wonder how those payments affected the outcome of the games and the draft order of the players in the NFL draft. I can only believe that an agent who is willing to go to those lengths to sign his players would be capable of paying off team or league officials to position his players to make the most money possible. Wonder how money is ruining the game right now, and we will not find out for another 20 years.

I guess this 20 year thing is the window of opportunity for greed and cheating to occur before you are caught. Took about 20 years for the steroid scandal to hit baseball. Took probably the same time for the doping accusations to emerge in cycling. Wonder what we will find out 20 years from now.

Speaking of greed, looks like there is a real possibility for the 2011 football season to be canceled. The NFL owners and the union can't seem to find a way to share the billions that they make together. The owners claim that the league will lose up to $1 billion if they cannot negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement before March 3, 2011. Something seems wrong that the players need a union at all, but you only have to look at the underfunding for the retired players with all their medical conditions to understand the distrust the players have for the owners. Seems like the owners only care about the players when they can make them some money, and cast them aside when they are finished with them. What ever happened to the idea of responsibility to account for the human cost of playing the game that makes millions for owners and players alike?

Guess that falls under the same idea as post-war funding for the mental and physical needs of soldiers. Nobody wants to consider those costs. If they did, maybe there would be less wars and better rules to reduce the violence in sports.