2008 Woodie Awards
Taking the money out of ballgames
Off the foul Pohl
Bart Pohlman
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Sports
This is ridiculous. Just ridiculous.
After reading that Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez makes more money than the entire Florida Marlins team, I had to stop myself and ask: is he really worth that much?
Or for that matter, should any athlete - regardless of how good he or she is - ever be paid that much?
The answer, of course, is a resounding no.
But this is the day and age we live in. Professional athletes are no more human than you or me, but they get paid ungodly sums of money. For what? To entertain.
Well, I can be pretty entertaining myself, but I don't get paid millions of dollars for it - so why should athletes?
But there's a bigger problem hidden beneath this mass sum of cash.
In short, today's society has created a monster.
By paying athletes exorbitant amounts of money and putting them up on pedestals, they begin to believe that, because of their larger-than-life status, they can get away with any and everything.
Take former Cincinnati Bengals' wide receiver Chris Henry, for example.
Henry has been in trouble with the law since his days at West Virginia. Those troubles have followed him to the NFL, where Commissioner Roger Goodell actually suspended Henry for the first half of the 2007 season.
The law has caught up with Henry yet again. On Wednesday, he was arrested on charges of misdemeanor assault and criminal damaging. On Thursday, he was released by the Bengals, who have apparently finally become tired of his damaging behavior. It's about time.
Now, it's entirely possible (and perhaps quite likely, in this case) that Henry would be in trouble with the law regardless of his monetary status. But, it seems likely that money and the celebrity that comes with being a professional athlete only helped foster this behavior.
Just look at Kobe Bryant.
Do you honestly think that, had he not been who he is, he could have escaped virtually unscathed after what happened in that Colorado hotel?
After reading that Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez makes more money than the entire Florida Marlins team, I had to stop myself and ask: is he really worth that much?
Or for that matter, should any athlete - regardless of how good he or she is - ever be paid that much?
The answer, of course, is a resounding no.
But this is the day and age we live in. Professional athletes are no more human than you or me, but they get paid ungodly sums of money. For what? To entertain.
Well, I can be pretty entertaining myself, but I don't get paid millions of dollars for it - so why should athletes?
But there's a bigger problem hidden beneath this mass sum of cash.
In short, today's society has created a monster.
By paying athletes exorbitant amounts of money and putting them up on pedestals, they begin to believe that, because of their larger-than-life status, they can get away with any and everything.
Take former Cincinnati Bengals' wide receiver Chris Henry, for example.
Henry has been in trouble with the law since his days at West Virginia. Those troubles have followed him to the NFL, where Commissioner Roger Goodell actually suspended Henry for the first half of the 2007 season.
The law has caught up with Henry yet again. On Wednesday, he was arrested on charges of misdemeanor assault and criminal damaging. On Thursday, he was released by the Bengals, who have apparently finally become tired of his damaging behavior. It's about time.
Now, it's entirely possible (and perhaps quite likely, in this case) that Henry would be in trouble with the law regardless of his monetary status. But, it seems likely that money and the celebrity that comes with being a professional athlete only helped foster this behavior.
Just look at Kobe Bryant.
Do you honestly think that, had he not been who he is, he could have escaped virtually unscathed after what happened in that Colorado hotel?
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