When I heard the news about the bounty pool conducted by the New Orleans Saints organization, I was completely speechless. Disgusted, shocked, disappointed. I could not believe that a professional athlete could ever intentionally try to inflict serious injury on another player, much less be rewarded for it. What could be worse?
As I processed my thoughts on the matter, I had a really hard time getting a grasp on what I was hearing, this coming one day after I witness a collision at centerfield that sent one high school baseball player to the hospital. That young man was in surgery to repair a seriously injured shoulder as news of "Bounty Gate" broke. Unbelievable, horrible, awful.
We all know that injuries can result from participating in sports. It seems that in recent years many organizations have developed rules that go too far trying to take some of the physicality out of sports. I've voiced my opinion before about how they may as well give quarterbacks poms and skirts these days. We love the brutality on sports, the kind that occurs as a result of playing hard and aggressively. What the Saints were doing is a different kind of brutality. These guys were trying to end other players' game, season, careers. These guys have families. This is their livelihood. I'm still shaking my head.
There is good and bad in everything. The great things about sports are innumerable. But, there are bad people in sports too. We've heard of players betting against their teams, point shaving, illegally using performance-enhancing drugs, spying on opponents' practices, etc. Bounty Gate is truly sports at its worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment