Yeah, that's right, I'm a red-blooded American male and I hate sports. My 'home teams' are the Flyers, the 76ers and the Eagles; I wouldn't watch them if they were playing on my front lawn.

Take Terrell Owens (take him far, far away on a one-way ticket). This greedy wad of muscle, who can't count to 21 unless he's naked, will collect $3.5 million this season. He's due for an increase to $8.28 million next year for his seasonal work. He may not show up at training camp today in protest; he's not being paid fairly and he's been "disrespected" by Eagles management. I'll bet he can't spell the word 'disrespected'.

And how do many of these steroid soaked simpletons arrive at the door of fame and wealth? They go to college and represent their 'alma mater' (be careful! Don't say 'alma mater' to these college guys. They'll think you're insulting their mother.) I guarantee that there are no chemistry or geology majors, no French or English Literature scholars. No, these guys are up all night studying Athletes Foot 101, Advanced Jock Itch and Senior Seminar-Using 'Yo' and 'Ya know' Effectively.

I've seen some of these boobs interviewed; many can't even form a simple sentence much less know what a noun, verb and modifier are. And they're paid millions for their ability to catch a ball and run real fast with it.

I resent it. Not because I think I'm worth millions; it's because I worked damn hard for my college education. I paid every cent myself for my undergrad degree (majors: French, Spanish, Italian, German and Latin) and my MSA (major: hospital administration). And nobody offered me millions for my services.

We should keep college for those who deserve to attend and examine our priorities so that salary is commensurate with position requirements and value to society.

And catching a ball and running real fast with it is not at the top of the list.

I used to love watching my son play football when he was in high school. Now my girls are both on softball leagues and it's been one of our best times together. I myself used to be on a softball team. These are the kind of sports I love.

But the kind of greed topped with illiteracy that has taken over college and pro sports is sickening, and I really can't add much to what Rich has already said. It's demeaning to both the idea of a sporting event and this as a society.Hard to believe we've allowed this shameless mindset to go on for YEARS.

[I don't feel sports are inherently obnoxious in themselves - just the grubby, belching masses who make themselves fools at sporting events. I just can't get really excited about much except baseball!]

Here in Canada, where hockey is like a religion, it was interesting to see the results of 'the year with no hockey'. Many people got their hockey fix by watching amateur players, and the minor leagues. Dads got out in the backyard rinks and skated around with their kids. Now the strike is over, the reaction of many people is not unrestrained joy, but rather "Yeah, well, maybe we'll watch..." They have learned that there is more to hockey than the nonsense of the NHL.

I'm afraid it won't change any time soon, as long as they fill the arenas and folks watch the games on TV and buy the merchandise that these "role models" and their teams promote. It's easy to be resentful when, as vendome said, we worked very hard...on our own nickel...for our college degrees, and have toiled for years in a career that really makes a difference (I'm a middle school teacher)and don't make the salary in our lifetime that these guys make in a year. It gets even worse when the few loudmouthed, arrogant jerks complain they are being disrespected because $20,000 an hour is just not enough to motivate them to work hard!

I'm with Vendome. When it comes to professional sports, I can remember when it was 'mandatory' for school kids to know the names and positions of baseball players, for instance. We could do this because the players stayed with the same teams for years.
In football, the core players returned year after year, picking up a few new names each season.
The players came from colleges because that's where the team scouts look for new talent. It mattered not if they couldn't count to 21 "without getting naked."
Can they remember the basics of the play book?

The star players are obscenely overpaid for what they do, but those fans filling the stadiums still pay the price of admission. The team owners are multi-millionaires to begin with. Owning a team is not a money making proposition for them, nor do they care much. It is a vanity move to acquire one more expensive bauble and get their faces in the newspapers.

Only one thing will bring salaries and egos out of the stratosphere: the apathy of fans who will stop buying tickets and watching games on TV. Fat chance of that happening.

That's pretty much the bottom line, fjohn. We are certainly just the latest in decades of complaining fans...I remember hearing my dad being appalled by the same problem, and complaining non - stop about it ...back in 1965!

I agree. These guys have won the lottery and they don't even know it. And not the lottery of life, either. They deserve their pay as much as some random person who puts a couple bucks on a ticket.

While I'm the first person to admire athletic skill, being someone who has only a little, I don't think their talents are worth any more than mine, and so, like Vendome, I resent it too. And even more unfortunate, I feel like many of these people also don't deserve it on another level. A lot of them are really unpleasant people. And they spend these ungodly sums on drugs, women, fast cars, lawyers to get them out of the trouble they get themselves into... they're glutons. Even if their skill really earned them their money, rather than the overinflated and overzealous affection of the fans who foot their bills earning it for them, I have often thought that people who are so bad at being people shouldn't have that much money at their disposals anyway. (That doesn't apply only to sports stars either, but it's also an idealist thought and not really worthy of discussion.)

I've never been a jock nor am I really even a spectator of sports except for soccer aka football and a few others from time to time.
However, I worked in the sports world for a time being, and got a taste of the money and glory and underside of the business. It's kind of scary and they get fed so much hype that they begin believing it. When you're surrounded with accolytes providing your every wish because you're going to make big money for them, you begin believing the nonsense you're fed.
I've seen this in the corporate world, mind you, but those guys (sorry, did I say "guys", I haven't seen any women thus far so cannot say 'gals') become so isolated from reality that they quickly only frequent people who flatter them, like the emperor and his new suit of clothing.

Sometimes they really didn't go into the sport for the money, but because they honestly were very good at it, however, when fame comes, not all of them react in the same way.

I would also say that the honest ones have a very hard time coping with this world and get cheated etc. I've seen that happen several times.

WEll there must be some every day people who love watching their team at a stadium or on tv and some must like buying and wearing the clothes of their respective team and I'm willing to bet there are kids who love a sportsman and look up to that person and have a dream of following their footsteps (and these kids may even head outside and chuck a ball around inspired by their heros) and shock horror, these people like to spend a bit of money on all this. And if this is what the people want to spend money on and want to see then someone is going to get rich out of it and it may as well be the people who are providing the entertainment.

Sure, Mary who works in the local library or Bob who runs a grocers or even Glen who is a ganger on the council might put their heart and soul into their job and be brilliant at what they do and may only just make a living out of it but I don't want to go and watch Mary sort books or see Bob price soup packets or watch Glen patch up a hole in the bitumen and wear a shirt saying "Glen rocks". I want to see Benji Marshall side step past Darren Lockyer to score a match winning try, I want to see Shane Warne bowl a ripper delivery that gets hit for six by Darren Gough and I want to see the Kiwis do the Haka before seeing George Greegan tackle one of their forwards.

Supply and demand.

It was too difficult to just sit back and find something to admire in all these complaints about professional athletes. So, I did my six push-ups and wind-sprinted several yards out to the mailbox and have come back to admire my new look and weigh in.
At my age I’ve decided to just admit that I’m jealous of the majority of these guys, the real pros, the ‘old timers’ who’ve put in their time and could easily have been the problem children in their rookie years. It’s really about the evolution of the athlete, to me, and how and why he either lasts or doesn’t. I participated in sports in school, at various levels, and even though I usually excelled at most I chose, it was also me who didn’t pursue them as a career, and that doesn’t and shouldn’t keep me from appreciating the games or the pros in any of the games.

No need to go into the economics details or why the wages are so ‘inflated’ (I don’t happen to think they are over-inflated; they just keep up with the demand). Marketing and demand keep things going up, up, up--a pretty basic economic fact. My grandfather was paid the princely sum of $6,000 for his first contract to pitch a baseball for Philadelphia. That was for two years, and even though the Depression was still in full swing, he and his wife were living quite well, thank you very much. They had so much, in fact, that they purchased a home and their first automobile, and although he was praised and celebrated as a home town success, many neighbors made snide remarks about his being a flash in the pan.

It’s all pretty relative to me, and the goofball youngsters we hear about are indeed immature and downright stupid in their choices, but that hasn’t changed a bit either. Anybody ever read anything about Ruth or Cobb’s early days? How about hockey’s Gordy Howe, and Bill Lambeer in the hoops.
My points are that these boys do eventually become men and, and many more than we will ever read about have become, and will continue to become, the quiet pros who go about their game with an aim of professionalism and keep the games alive. One also has to keep in mind how very, very difficult it is to make it to the top, to the bigs, in any legitimate professional sport. It’s not always the youngster drafted out of college or high school experience that shoots straight to the top. For the huge initiation part of any of these games, it’s a hard and long road they travel to either make it, or give it up to knowing they’re just not good enough. And something else many don't realize is that many of them do have a degree in one field or another, just in case. We’re talking about maybe 5% of these aspirants putting in the time and effort to just get a shot at breaking into the majors of any of these sports. Ask any of them if they paid their dues and if it was worth it. I say good on ‘em, and ‘Let’s play two’, in the words of one of my favorite players.