Ahira's Hangar

Might as well get this rant off my chest here because I was very tempted to do it in public earlier. The guy who runs the local 24/7 Sports talk radio has a new show in the morning (since Imus was kicked off the air). Usually he's pretty good at what he does, even if he is Canadian and roots for the Packers. But lately he's really come across as a doomsayer...of course he doesn't come right out and say it...but there's this new whiny tone in his voice that says, to me at least, "too much is going on, how can we stop it...OMG what are we going to do?".

I've never called into a radio show before (actually that's not true as I joined the Australopithecus debate on an NYC show in '73, because everybody had their facts wrong about anthropologist Louis Leakey-not the questionable Richard Leakey, mind you) but I was just about to. I was ready to tell this guy, "If the face of sports today is so damm bleak-as you're painting it- why don't we all just give all sports up-and you can quit your job."

Of course he was talking about Mike Vick, the Bonds/Selig situation and the dirty NBA ref--and he was even worrying about dirty refereeing at the college level. Maybe it's how old I am and how long I've followed sports, but I find all this whiny, hammer something to death, the sky is falling, ESPN mentality attitute sickening. Maybe I accent the positive too much--my reasoning with Vick is this: That's between him and federal prosecutors, sure everything to do with the allegations is incredibly stupid and sick, buy Vick doesn't get paid all that money to be a rocket-scientist.

Immediately I think about the Falcons team-Harrington needs to step up for once, or pick up Culpepper, will Norwood blossom into a bigtime back given this huge running void, how to you change the offensive strategy-in other words: what possitive things can you do to make them competitive. Time moves on and s--t happens. I'll pause, for now, to hear some of your thoughts.

Anything involving as much money and fame as professional (or major college) sports in the US is going to be incredibly corrupt, as are many of the people involved in it. That is simply human nature. Some athletes, given the constant adulation, will and do think they can get away with anything - and some of them try.

On the other hand, I try to celebrate the good people and good things I can find - some of the pro athletes are good and down to earth people, who really are the good role models they should all aspire to be.

As an example, take my favorite Detroit Tiger, Brandon Inge. He lives in the Ann Arbor area, and he and his wife frequently visit the local children's hospital, where they spend time with the terminally ill children, doing what they can to raise their spirits. He and his wife recently donated a huge sum of money to the children's hospital to build a new play room for the sick little ones.

I guess that my point is - sure, there are a lot of crooked and corrupt criminals and arrogant worthless asshats in the sporting world. But there are also some very decent and good people - and the good ones, unfortunately, are the ones who never seem to make it into the news.

And yes - the several 24-7 sports channels are not helping. They want to go for the angst and drama rather than for quiet stories about modest people who quietly go around doing what good that they can...

Those are great points-and I think that sports in general are strong enough to go on by themselves even though the NBA might be a different ball of wax. I think David Stern has done a really good job to keep interest in that league afloat, but the NBA really didn't need this. Considering that the league has weathered the hip-hop inflitration, bad boys, fights, these guys are too good, they get all this $ and aren't motivated, it's all about the bling and the shoe deals, the basket needs to be taller and the court longer issues it still was in OK shape, Teetering but OK. True, no real big TV markets in the playoffs lately and a number of people preferring the college game over the Pros. But still it was keeping afloat, barely, popularity-wise. I do worry that the NBA might lose a chunk of fans over this, maybe not, but if more than one dirty ref is found it could really hurt the sport.

As far as football and baseball are concerned I think it all comes down to the individual-if you're found guility of a major crime you need to be kicked out of the league, period. The league will do just fine without you. And repeated minor crimes as well. Should Jamaal Lewis have been allowed to ever play football again, and what about repeat offenders like Pac-Man Jones? If were sending any message to the kids, society in general needs to be, if anything, tougher on the individual. I'm starting to ramble...