Professional Sports
I didn't really need to address the topic of professional sports but I thought I might because of their increasing popularity and the effect that they have on the economy. I also wanted to give my opinion about the ever growing list of athletes who are choosing to be bad role models for the kids who idolize them, and I wanted to talk about the foreigners who are being brought into our country to participate in pro sports.
Most of us like professional sports. They serve as a good release for a hard working nation. The thing that most of us don't stop to consider is that professional sports are very good for the American economy. By going to sporting events or even watching them on television we are providing thousands and thousands of jobs. This also applies to racing events of all types. Each event provides jobs.
Obviously the athletes are provided with jobs, but I'm not even considering them. I have in mind the support personnel. Consider the hundreds of workers at each professional sporting event. There are plenty of food service people, maintenance people, medical personnel, security workers, television production employees and parking attendants. Add in janitorial staff, those who sell and take tickets and other jobs that I'm forgetting and you can see that each professional sporting event helps keep a lot of people employed.
Major cities try to get sporting events in their town because of the money that trickles down to the rest of the area's economy, like the hotels, restaurants and car rental companies. The bigger the sporting event, the more desirable it is - because of the money that comes to that city. Playoff games, college bowl games and other special events are icing on the cake. Each event helps the local economy and our national economy. Every one counts. That's why cities want them.
I believe that some of the professional sports need to be expanded to other cities. Creating more teams would mean more jobs. It's as simple as that. For example, at this time there are 32 teams in the National Football League representing 32 large American cities. How many other large cities would like to have an NFL team? Considering the money involved, I bet many would like to have a team. I don't think that it would be a stretch of the imagination to say that 32 more teams could easily find support. Doubling the size of the NFL would double the number of support jobs.
I suppose that a number of studies would need to be done to find out how many more cities could support baseball, football, and other sport teams but I think that there is a lot more potential to create jobs. Each new sports team or racing event provides hundreds of jobs so this is an avenue that needs further exploration in my opinion.
Please allow me to say a little about the behavior of those men who are gifted enough to participate in professional sports. All of them have a responsibility to America's youth to act and live properly. They have the same responsibility to be a productive member of society as anyone else does. Along with the privilege of playing a game for a living goes a big dose of responsibility to be a role model. It automatically comes with the territory. There should be no exceptions.
Those unwilling to live responsibly and who are unwilling to act as good role models for America's youth should be banned from participating in professional sports. It is my opinion that all professional sports need a zero tolerance behavior policy for those who play their games. Many of the more gifted athletes eventually start seeing themselves as more important than they are. When this happens they often begin acting the fool and many become unmanageable.
It is my opinion that once an athlete starts down this path it becomes like a cancer for the team and for the sport. The lives of people like Terrell Owens, for example, become like a soap opera and a distraction to the sport. But more importantly, America's young people seeing bad behaving men like this getting rewarded with more money and more notoriety is a terrible example.
Terrell Owens is a superb athlete and has the physique that most men can only dream about. But he has personal problems, most likely from a bad childhood, that need to be dealt with before he plays any more professional football, in my opinion. I realize that teams see the potential that's there and think that they can bring young men like him around, but in their zeal to win they forget about the young people of America who are watching all of the foolishness and the rewards for acting foolish play out in society.
Therefore it is my opinion that professional sports should do a better job of policing their ranks for the sake of society. It's not right for those who play games for a living to have a deleterious effect on the society that makes it possible for them to exist. If they are not willing to police themselves then those outside of their ranks need to do it for them. I wouldn't particularly like to see the government get involved, but citizens groups made up of parents and grandparents might be a good alternative. I don't think that it's too much to ask for professional sports to cooperate with the guardians of the children that they influence.
One other thing that I would like to bring up about pro sports is the concern I have about all of the foreign athletes being brought in to take these jobs. There are a very limited number of these highly sought after jobs. It is my opinion that all participants in professional sports should be Americans. I have nothing against foreign athletes - and there are some very good ones, that's for sure. But these jobs are made possible by the American economic system. All of this money that is paid to professional athletes has no business finding it's way into the hands of Europeans, Asians or foreigners from South America, or any other foreign country. It should be paid to Americans - only.
There are many Americans who would love to have these jobs. Who wouldn't want to make a million dollars a year to play a game and have your ego stroked? These are dream jobs. Americans should be allowed to have them - not foreigners. It is my opinion that the global nonsense that has taken so many jobs away from Americans needs to be stopped. This includes bringing foreigners here to take away the highest paying, most desirable jobs that America has to offer.
I say send the foreigners back to where they came from and give their extremely high paying jobs to American athletes. American Taxpayers worked very hard through the years to build the economic system that we have. This includes the part that professional athletes play in our economy. Their children and grandchildren should be allowed to have these American dream jobs. If I'm wrong, somebody tell me why.
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