Each year certain issues present themselves that need rectification. Opinions vary on these topics as most people would refer to them as “hot button” issues. Some media outlets fight against them and others embrace them. Regardless of where your mindset or opinion is on these topics rests they will always inspire debate among the populace.
4 Things That Need to Change in Sports
The Washington Redskins Team Name
The Washington Redskins have been a football team for eighty-five years. In another eighty-five, the indigenous population of which they mock with their franchise’s name may be extinct. The franchise was named in a time when ethnicity was used as an oppressive tool. A tool used to hold down anyone that did not fit the paradigm of the “American Dream.”
The time has come to alter it. If nothing more, than to be a beacon that shines through the mist of ignorance, racism, and bigotry that seems to have enveloped our nation again. We need world wide symbols to step up to the forefront in a battle our country is losing against racism. A team named after the hue of a people’s skin is not helping. It is only solidifying that a problem exists.
Colin Kaepernick Being Unemployed
What I have learned in life is that human beings can make a controversy over anything. Colin Kaepernick is unemployed because he knelt for the National Anthem. Experts can say that he is a system quarterback, has a limited sill set, or wants too much money to be a backup but, we all know the realism of his situation.
Veterans, like myself, and active military personnel fought and fight to protect Kaepernick’s freedom of speech. We can’t tell someone when and where to use their protected rights. He used the platform he had in the manner he saw fit. Meanwhile the scrub he replaced in San Francisco last season has a job in Arizona while Kaepernick does not. The list of terrible quarterbacks that are employed is thorough.
Aside from horrible players having jobs, plenty of teams employ criminals. There are currently twenty-seven active players in the NFL with multiple arrests. The Cowboys gave woman-beating Greg Hardy another shot in the NFL and yet a man that exercised his constitutional rights is unemployed.I don’t agree with what Kaepernick did but I support his expression and his message. As Americans, that all value their freedoms, everyone should.
Lavar Ball’s Mouth
Lavar Ball had his chance to play professional sports and gain the notoriety he so desperately clings to, he failed. Living vicariously through his son has become his new avenue to fame. Not unlike the Williams sister’s father or Eli Apple’s mother, Ball has taken his son’s talents and fame and attempted in every way possible to get that spotlight to shine on him. Whether he is picking fights with real celebrities, successful athletes, or Hollywood figures his incestuous need for attention rivals that of a two year old child. Please, Lavar, keep your mouth shut and go away.
This clown is going to get his own reality show, meanwhile, an individual that cares about humanity, like Kaepernick, is unemployed. This is what our nation has become. We reward and revere ignorance and we hold down those with worthy causes to fight. Anyone who doubts this please look up how much the Kardashian’s collectively made last year. Kim is famous for nothing more than putting out a sex tape and doing a spread in Playboy. Now Lavar Ball is famous for running his mouth and gravy training his son.
Guaranteed Contracts
Bobby Bonilla got paid again. Bonilla has not played a MLB game since 2001 yet he cashed a check on July 1st for $1.19 million. He will continue to cash July 1st checks until 2035. He will be in his seventies, thirty-four years post playing days, and he will still get a pay day from the New York Mets. You have got to love guaranteed contracts. I understand that an athlete’s career is short and the idea is to maximize their economic potential but, having to pay a man for thirty-four years that isn’t playing for you is ignorance at its finest. No other job in the world provides guaranteed pay regardless of performance. Why should athletes be different?
Athletes complain all of the time about their restricted amount of earning potential due to short careers. Their careers are short however, when the minimum pay scale resides in the mid-six figures area of income I do not possess a lot of sympathy for them. Players should be paid on incentive based contracts. Perhaps that would inspire them to play hard every play, not sit out games, and create a greater competitive product for the fans. Paying someone on what is essentially an honor system contract is ridiculous.
Main Photo: LANDOVER, MD – JANUARY 01: Quarterback Kirk Cousins #8 of the Washington Redskins passes the ball against the New York Giants in the third quarter at FedExField on January 1, 2017 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
