Do we care about integrity sports?

[YosemiteSam]

without integrity sports will fade in popularity or reach a lull that can be hard to dig out of (NHL anyone). they'll never crumble though (NHL anyone).. this will be exemplified when you hear the few falcon fans who are more annoyed vick isn't playing than the accusations that he ran an animal abuse center

You mean like WWF or WWE or whatever that predetermined wresling garbage (Sports Soap Opera) is called now.

 

[THUMPER]

Article in USA Today asked the question, do we care about integrity in sports? With Vick and his deal, with cheating officials in the NBA, with Bonds and Steroids in MLB, do we really care or do we just want to see the TDs, the dunks and the HRs? Are these things important enough to stop watching or do we just want to stop hearing about it and watch the game, real or not?

I voted "NO" because while this stuff seems to be rampant in professional sports, in reality it is a small percentage of the players who are actually involved in criminal activities.

I don't have a clue what the actual percentage would be but the number of player who have been caught is pretty low compared with the number of players in the league.

The same applies to the NBA referees, only one guy has been implicated and it appears, so far, that his was an isolated case rather than something that is going on across the board.

The NFL & NBA have a lot of safeguards in place to help limit criminal activities among its employees (players, coaches, officials, etc.) because they understand how important public opinion is to their livelihood.

There has always been a certain amount of criminal, unethical, and immoral activities associated with professional sports. Two of the NFL's biggest stars were suspended for a year in 1962 for gambling (Alex Karas & Paul Hornung). Connie Hawkins was banned from the NBA for life (later rescinded and he was allowed to play at the end of his career) for not reporting a points shaving attempt while in college. There have been several others over the years and the leagues have dealt with them so this is really nothing new.

What is relatively new is the glorification of the "thug" or "gangsta" lifestyle common among many young athletes today. There are things associated with that lifestyle that are not conducive with being a professional anything, let alone a high profile profession like sports.

In many ways it is similar to the "hippie" movement of the late 60s and early 70s where the "establishment" was something they wanted nothing to do with and "sex, drugs and rock-and-roll" were what they were about. Now it is sex, drugs, and rap, not a lot of difference. Neither lifestyle works for adults because you have responsibilities in life once you reach a certain age and you either meet them or suffer the consequences.

The biggest difference was the financial implications in both eras. In the 60s & 70s players didn't make that much relative to the average professional in the workforce but now there is a huge gap and athletes make many times what the average college-degreed professional makes.

The point is that as a professional athlete making millions of dollars they have a responsibility to represent the league in such a way that it is not detrimental to it. If they can't do that then the league would be foolish not to cut ties with them no matter how talented or famous they are.

If Vick is found guilty and never plays in the NFL again he will quickly be forgotten. The same is true for Adam Jones. These guys will become the Art Schlichter's of the world "Hey, didn't you used to play pro ball? What ever happened to you anyway?"

Falcons fans may bemoan his loss and endlessly debate the "what if"s of not losing him but in the end the league and the fans will move on and he will become a footnote. That is something that doesn't impinge on these guys' psyches, that in the end, they are ultimately unimportant to the game as it will go on with or without them.

 

[Concord]

It would take a whole hell of a lot to make me stop watching Football...and I'm no where near that point yet.

Probably never will be.

Baseball and Basketball...Rarely watch them.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Papa Thumper, that was a hell of a post, I agree

 

[Doomsday101]

you crazy! i'm not gonna pass up watching the nfl over a few entertaining punks

I have been called worse things. I think you missed the point. You said there is nothing that can be done and of course there is. The NFL like any other sports relies on fans going to the games and tuning in should that fall off drasticly then there is no product.

 

[chinch]

You mean like WWF or WWE or whatever that predetermined wresling garbage (Sports Soap Opera) is called now.

hehe... that is entertainment.

while sports is entertainment, i think this discussion is about legitimate sports not WWF or or "american gladiator" or "Survivor" or whatever cultural entertainment fad of the times that might cross over into sports.

WWF is mostly male kiddies... sports are generally cross-cultural, all ages and genders. baseball has been america's national past time since babe ruth for a reason. one of which is historical integrity.

 

[chinch]

I voted "NO" because while this stuff seems to be rampant in professional sports, in reality it is a small percentage of the players who are actually involved in criminal activities.

you sorta went off tangent and assume it's not rampant and this is an isolated time. we don't know what will happen. but it's safe to say teh more $$$ we place in the hand of imature, spoiled, incomplete humans the more problems that might arise.

if you have the same scenario the NFL is facing in 2007 & the cycle repeats itself with different people and different charges year after year the NFL will be effected dramatically.

 

[Hoov]

i voted no, as in no i wont stop watching at this point.

There are good guys and bad guys in sports as well as anything else. And then there are guys that fall into the "foolish" cathegory, the guy that isnt necessarily a bad guy but that is always in the wrong place at the wrong time or making poor decisions on impulse or due to lack of maturity.

Remember these athletes are getting huge amounts of money at a very young age and with that money comes a lot of attention and people that try to manipulate you or pull you down. Many are just not strong enough to withstand the temptations that come along or the pressures. Doesn't mean that they get a pass for messing up, but just that it's part of reality.

Still i enjoy watching football and there really is no equal to the NFL for me, some like college ball because its deemed less of a business. But i enjoy the nfl, the hyped up coverage and the level of talent. I do care about integrity in sports, but i know not everyone will have it and i just accept that as fact and the reality of the situation.

 

[Seven]

Article in USA Today asked the question, do we care about integrity in sports? With Vick and his deal, with cheating officials in the NBA, with Bonds and Steroids in MLB, do we really care or do we just want to see the TDs, the dunks and the HRs? Are these things important enough to stop watching or do we just want to stop hearing about it and watch the game, real or not?

Ahem. This thing on?

WWF

Stupid question when they know the answer. Multi-billion dollar THRIVING industry. Well, duh.

 

[THUMPER]

you sorta went off tangent and assume it's not rampant and this is an isolated time. we don't know what will happen. but it's safe to say teh more $$$ we place in the hand of imature, spoiled, incomplete humans the more problems that might arise.

if you have the same scenario the NFL is facing in 2007 & the cycle repeats itself with different people and different charges year after year the NFL will be effected dramatically.

I agree, and in fact I believe it was negatively effected in the 90s & early 2000s under Tagliabue's reign as we saw more and more of this stuff happen without any substantial repercussions (other than for uniform violations :bang2: ).

Under Goodell, we are seeing a stricter enforcement of the League's behavior policies and I believe we will see a reduction in the number of thugs that are drafted or given huge contracts as teams will not want to take chances on them. Guys will be less likely to do stupid stuff if they know that their livelihood and enormous paychecks will be seriously effected.

We have seen how effective the Cowboys' policies have been over the last 5 years as we have weeded out the troublemakers and avoided guys with problems in the draft and FA. I do still believe that the vast majority of the players in the NFL are good people who don't do stupid things on a regular basis.

If the cycle were allowed to continue unchecked then the league would lose a lot of its fanbase over time and it would be severely detrimental to the game itself.


Edit: Just thought about the percentage of players who get into trouble each year. I would estimate that about 100 guys get arrested during the course of a year. Each team has about 64 guys (minimum) when you include the practice squad and injured reserve. That means that out of 2048 players 100 were arrested for something that year. That is a little under 5% (4.88%) which means that 95% of the players stay out of trouble in a given year.

Those are pretty good odds to me.

 

[Doomsday101]

I agree, and in fact I believe it was negatively effected in the 90s & early 2000s under Tagliabue's reign as we saw more and more of this stuff happen without any substantial repercussions (other than for uniform violations :bang2: ).

Under Goodell, we are seeing a stricter enforcement of the League's behavior policies and I believe we will see a reduction in the number of thugs that are drafted or given huge contracts as teams will not want to take chances on them. Guys will be less likely to do stupid stuff if they know that their livelihood and enormous paychecks will be seriously effected.

We have seen how effective the Cowboys' policies have been over the last 5 years as we have weeded out the troublemakers and avoided guys with problems in the draft and FA. I do still believe that the vast majority of the players in the NFL are good people who don't do stupid things on a regular basis.

If the cycle were allowed to continue unchecked then the league would lose a lot of its fanbase over time and it would be severely detrimental to the game itself.


Edit: Just thought about the percentage of players who get into trouble each year. I would estimate that about 100 guys get arrested during the course of a year. Each team has about 64 guys (minimum) when you include the practice squad and injured reserve. That means that out of 2048 players 100 were arrested for something that year. That is a little under 5% (4.88%) which means that 95% of the players stay out of trouble in a given year.

Those are pretty good odds to me.

I agree I think most of these guys are good people and the bad are the exception. I also think living in a 24 hour news cycle we have today makes thing look worse than they are. Face it growing up for me there was no ESPN and different media outlets trying to break the big story. Chances are if ESPN would have been around during the 50's and 60's I'm sure we would have seen a lot more stories about players misconduct then what we saw or heard.

 

[Sarge]

I stopped caring about n'Ba for just that reason. There aren't enough Tim Duncans, etc. left to class up the product. Maybe someday, there will be.

The NBA is, and has been for a long time, a complete joke. It's only going to get worse......if that is even possible.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

if there were more TDs in the NBA, not only would the character of the NBA improve, so would the quality of games

 

[superpunk]

without integrity sports will fade in popularity or reach a lull that can be hard to dig out of (NHL anyone). they'll never crumble though (NHL anyone).. this will be exemplified when you hear the few falcon fans who are more annoyed vick isn't playing than the accusations that he ran an animal abuse center

League's that have "crumbled", to whatever extent we deem them crumbled...have we seen one crumble because of the character of the men playing them?

People stop watching certain sports because of things like strikes, inferior competition and play, and sometimes eventually come back. But I've never heard player conduct mentioned as a reason for a league failing.

The NBA had strikes, and the quality of play was so bad and unexciting through the late 90s and early 00s that people inevitably stopped caring all that much - plus there's alot else to watch other than an interminable 82 game season.

The NHL was prosperous, then they took that idiotic cable TV deal back in the day (after the olympics, when they had a golden opportunity), and it faltered before fading altogether during their recent strike.

Baseball was in an enormous lull after the strike, but rebounded with the home run chase. It's steady now, but people are starting to get chafed by Barry Bonds and the steroid controversy - but even that isn't to the extent that strikes affect these leagues.

So it seems to me, since bad behavior in the public eye has been around as long as sports - that personal conduct that doesn't deal with the game played on the field has very little to do with a sport's popularity. It might scare off some advertising dollars from companies that care about such things, but it rarely impacts viewership - or so it seems. Labor strikes seem to be the biggest potential problem facing sports. Player conduct looks to be way down the list. Because deep down, despite all our righteous indignation and moral outrage - I'm pretty sure we don't give a **** what they do on their own time.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

^^^I actually read all that you wrote

and I actually agree

shocking, I know

 

[Stash]

I actually do care.

That's part fo the reason why I won't watch the NBA anymore.

(And I believe their 'numbers' are lower than they have been for quite some time.)

I'm not running because Mike Vick is a *******, because the league is doing something about it.

If the didn't - and the problem got worse - I might change my mind.

Just my opinion, but I'm the only one who can control what I do - or don't - watch or support with my cash.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Article in USA Today asked the question, do we care about integrity in sports? With Vick and his deal, with cheating officials in the NBA, with Bonds and Steroids in MLB, do we really care or do we just want to see the TDs, the dunks and the HRs? Are these things important enough to stop watching or do we just want to stop hearing about it and watch the game, real or not?

I don't watch much baseball because I don't care too much about that sport but I do like the Giants and want to see Bonds crank 756. He is arguably a top 3 player of all time and definitely a top 10.

As for Vick, I won't stop watching.

 

[WV Cowboy]

The amount of money these guys make finds me losing interest.

Many people go to bed hungry or sleep in a box in our country and these guys wipe their butts with $20 bills.

 

[Vintage]

Yeah and no.

I hate baseball and find it about as entertaining as watching paint dry.

I watch basketball, football, women beach volleyball, and golf. I am really concerned about the lack of integrity in women's beach volleyball...

OK.

Honestly, I don't care much about the off the court/field stuff in regards to basketball or football. Yeah, I'd prefer players to live the perfect life. No, that's not going to happen. Ever.

What I care about is the integrity on the court/field. Similar to what superpunk said, cheating in the form of steriods, etc bothers me because it is tainting the game and making the playing field unlevel.

Using marijuana on the side doesn't do that. Fighting dogs (as illegal as it is) doesn't make the playing field unlevel.

Doesn't mean either are acceptable behavior....but it doesn't affect my opinion on that particular sport. I will probably watch a few Falcon games this year because one of my good buddies is a Falcons fan. I would watch them play regardless of whether or not Vick plays for them this year.

But if the NFL became steriod ridden, that would probably affect how much I watch other teams' play.

 

[Vintage]

The amount of money these guys make finds me losing interest.

Many people go to bed hungry or sleep in a box in our country and these guys wipe their butts with $20 bills.

Supply and demand.

There's a large demand for the most talented athletes to perform and a small supply of them....so they can demand more money.

I have no problem with it, personally.

If they can fetch that much money - they should, if they want too.