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  #1  
Old 06-18-2006, 01:20 AM
HajiShirazu HajiShirazu is offline
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Default The Demise of Professional Sports

I am only 21 years old and every single major sport has gone to hell even in the ten years since I started really watching sports. In the NBA, we have rules changes such that the tiniest touch, and often no touch at all but instead "implied" contact based on player reaction is a foul, and any hard foul is an automatic suspension, even in playoff games. And the complaining to the refs has turned into a total [censored] joke. Literally every single call is argued regardless of how obvious it is. And you can't even really blame the players for doing it, because working the refs leads to obvious make-up calls. The best players in the game today are nothing compared to those of even ten years ago, they hardly even try to score (and hardly anyone can make a jumper) and actually have games built around drawing fouls and using the threat of foul shooting to get open shots.
In baseball, even when the other team throws at your own hitters twice, you can't even retaliate any longer lest you be ejected due to pussy-ass warnings, which are often given (along with ejections!) even when the beaning was obviously unintentional. But hey, they're TOUGH on steroids, let me tell you, I wouldn't even DARE to touch a steroid, not with the MLB's drug policy and the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT chasing me down.
I don't watch hockey, but I know the rules were changed such that penalities are rampant as well, although at least they haven't pussied out yet and cracked down on fighting.
The NFL is a total joke. The emphasis on cracking down on hits to the head and hits to the quarterback has gotten totally out of hand, with game-changing calls and $25k fines levied for contact that was incidental at worst. And they are continuing to try and shut down endzone celebrations, which is totally pitiful as they harm no one and the "worst" celebrations that will be targeted are the funniest of all. God forbid the players aren't lifeless drones who hand the ball back to the ref and jog to the sidelines after a score. College football, they've done most of the same things, although college football might as well not even be considered a sport since the players don't decide the championship anyway, the schedule-makers, (who keep the number of competitive/interesting games down to one every two weeks) and pollsters do and probably always will.
And now we have "international" football. Anybody who watched the game today knows it has gotten out of hand, with good, legitimate fouls drawing yellows. The red card was a pitiful call on a play that wasn't even dangerous, but was kind of an isolated event as most of the "crackdown" has been in the form of yellows for small change fouls, although honestly I see nothing wrong with handing them out like they have been doing for some of the other stuff like blatant time wasting or arguing obvious calls with the referees. But the whole "two yellows cumulative misses next game" is pathetic. Look at the Ghana guy just now who misses the game with the US because he hit the ball before the whistle on a penalty kick in a loud stadium where people were blowing whistles. If you want to do that stuff, why not have somebody review the game tape after each game and start handing out suspensions for obvious dives, or negating cards when they were unwarranted but the ref had a bad angle? Personally I think taking a dive should be an automatic red card, as it has no place in any sport and is about the least sportsmanlike thing you can do, but I know that it is almost impossible to tell if a player is diving in real-time. And what the hell is a referee who was suspended six months for corruption doing working a game at the very highest level? With all the bs garbage about trying to "clean up the game" by calling a million fouls and dishing out the cards, they have this? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to, I don't know, never allow him to work a non-Italian game ever again?
In my view these changes reflect what is wrong with affluent society today. So much money has found its way into the hands of a select few (usually by way of often dishonest and almost always ruthless business dealings aided by corrupt government) that there are actually people able to pay someone 25 million per year to kick, throw, or hit a ball. These same types are also able to pay people large amounts of money to commit slighty less dishonest acts in most part for the sole purpose of making money for them, which allows [censored] yuppies to pay obscene prices to go to games while keeping legitimate fans out, making pro sports ownership profitable even at current salary rates. The players hence have so much money already that they are impossible to control as their guaranteed contract handcuffs the coaches, and with so much money on the line, there is little need to respect one's opponent or play to win with instead an emphasis on playing as hard as possible in a way such that you can look good and make more money. This leads to the rule changes above. Combine that with the new arrogant attitudes shown by referees who believe that they are more important than the game itself and you get the mess we have now.
Whatever happened to everybody playing hard, to win the game, based on personal, team, and national pride, and then based on that, having officials that simply let the players decide the game? I know that's why I watch sports, to watch the best players in the world give their best effort (which with all the money and bad attitudes these days happens only in the playoffs/big tournaments and not always even then) and make great plays and incredible comebacks (but not due to the refs letting them back into the game/calling the game in favor of the team down in the series like CLE/DET, SA/DAL, or LAL/SAC from a few years back.) The best solution to this problem is having more officials, contracting the number of teams in most leagues so the quality of play is raised (and pussy rule changes are not needed to drive up scores), using replay and computerized/automatic officiating systems whenever possible, and most of all, holding these guys accountable for poor decisions in the form of suspensions/reduced pay while issuing firings for consistant poor performance. But to solve the real problem, we need competence and honesty in our government officials, a dream so impossible that it is worthless even to talk about.
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  #2  
Old 06-18-2006, 01:24 AM
MCS MCS is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

[ QUOTE ]
The best players in the game today are nothing compared to those of even ten years ago, they hardly even try to score (and hardly anyone can make a jumper)

[/ QUOTE ]

This post looks amazing, and I will read it in full later. But for now, I want to say that I completely disagree with the above (quoted) sentiments.

Today's best players would be stars ten years ago too, and the "no one can shoot" stuff is a myth that has weaseled its way into people's brains.
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  #3  
Old 06-18-2006, 01:24 AM
Jack of Arcades Jack of Arcades is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

Line breaks are your friend.
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  #4  
Old 06-18-2006, 02:41 AM
SMB SMB is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

This is completely unreadable.
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  #5  
Old 06-18-2006, 03:00 AM
RunDownHouse RunDownHouse is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

All,

Unreadable? Maybe to you idiots. He's 21, Japanese, thinks every sport has become a farce in the past decade, and rejects capitalism. Everyone needs to read this treatise and memorize most of it.
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  #6  
Old 06-18-2006, 03:25 AM
Schwartzy61 Schwartzy61 is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

How about the demise of societal standards?

When did a forearm shiver to the head, a nut punch, a clothesline, and a hip check become standard "hard fouls" in the NBA that shouldn't be punished?

There are some good points in there but unfortunately most of it just sounds like a whiny 21-year old...
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  #7  
Old 06-18-2006, 11:15 PM
MyTurn2Raise MyTurn2Raise is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

[ QUOTE ]
I am only 21 years old and every single major sport has gone to hell even in the ten years since I started really watching sports.

In the NBA, we have rules changes such that the tiniest touch, and often no touch at all but instead "implied" contact based on player reaction is a foul, and any hard foul is an automatic suspension, even in playoff games. And the complaining to the refs has turned into a total [censored] joke. Literally every single call is argued regardless of how obvious it is. And you can't even really blame the players for doing it, because working the refs leads to obvious make-up calls.

The best players in the game today are nothing compared to those of even ten years ago, they hardly even try to score (and hardly anyone can make a jumper) and actually have games built around drawing fouls and using the threat of foul shooting to get open shots.

In baseball, even when the other team throws at your own hitters twice, you can't even retaliate any longer lest you be ejected due to pussy-ass warnings, which are often given (along with ejections!) even when the beaning was obviously unintentional.

But hey, they're TOUGH on steroids, let me tell you, I wouldn't even DARE to touch a steroid, not with the MLB's drug policy and the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT chasing me down.


I don't watch hockey, but I know the rules were changed such that penalities are rampant as well, although at least they haven't pussied out yet and cracked down on fighting.


The NFL is a total joke. The emphasis on cracking down on hits to the head and hits to the quarterback has gotten totally out of hand, with game-changing calls and $25k fines levied for contact that was incidental at worst.

And they are continuing to try and shut down endzone celebrations, which is totally pitiful as they harm no one and the "worst" celebrations that will be targeted are the funniest of all. God forbid the players aren't lifeless drones who hand the ball back to the ref and jog to the sidelines after a score.

College football, they've done most of the same things, although college football might as well not even be considered a sport since the players don't decide the championship anyway, the schedule-makers, (who keep the number of competitive/interesting games down to one every two weeks) and pollsters do and probably always will.


And now we have "international" football. Anybody who watched the game today knows it has gotten out of hand, with good, legitimate fouls drawing yellows. The red card was a pitiful call on a play that wasn't even dangerous, but was kind of an isolated event as most of the "crackdown" has been in the form of yellows for small change fouls, although honestly I see nothing wrong with handing them out like they have been doing for some of the other stuff like blatant time wasting or arguing obvious calls with the referees.

But the whole "two yellows cumulative misses next game" is pathetic. Look at the Ghana guy just now who misses the game with the US because he hit the ball before the whistle on a penalty kick in a loud stadium where people were blowing whistles. If you want to do that stuff, why not have somebody review the game tape after each game and start handing out suspensions for obvious dives, or negating cards when they were unwarranted but the ref had a bad angle? Personally I think taking a dive should be an automatic red card, as it has no place in any sport and is about the least sportsmanlike thing you can do, but I know that it is almost impossible to tell if a player is diving in real-time.

And what the hell is a referee who was suspended six months for corruption doing working a game at the very highest level? With all the bs garbage about trying to "clean up the game" by calling a million fouls and dishing out the cards, they have this? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to, I don't know, never allow him to work a non-Italian game ever again?


In my view these changes reflect what is wrong with affluent society today. So much money has found its way into the hands of a select few (usually by way of often dishonest and almost always ruthless business dealings aided by corrupt government) that there are actually people able to pay someone 25 million per year to kick, throw, or hit a ball. These same types are also able to pay people large amounts of money to commit slighty less dishonest acts in most part for the sole purpose of making money for them, which allows [censored] yuppies to pay obscene prices to go to games while keeping legitimate fans out, making pro sports ownership profitable even at current salary rates.

The players hence have so much money already that they are impossible to control as their guaranteed contract handcuffs the coaches, and with so much money on the line, there is little need to respect one's opponent or play to win with instead an emphasis on playing as hard as possible in a way such that you can look good and make more money. This leads to the rule changes above.

Combine that with the new arrogant attitudes shown by referees who believe that they are more important than the game itself and you get the mess we have now.


Whatever happened to everybody playing hard, to win the game, based on personal, team, and national pride, and then based on that, having officials that simply let the players decide the game? I know that's why I watch sports, to watch the best players in the world give their best effort (which with all the money and bad attitudes these days happens only in the playoffs/big tournaments and not always even then) and make great plays and incredible comebacks (but not due to the refs letting them back into the game/calling the game in favor of the team down in the series like CLE/DET, SA/DAL, or LAL/SAC from a few years back.)

The best solution to this problem is having more officials, contracting the number of teams in most leagues so the quality of play is raised (and pussy rule changes are not needed to drive up scores), using replay and computerized/automatic officiating systems whenever possible, and most of all, holding these guys accountable for poor decisions in the form of suspensions/reduced pay while issuing firings for consistant poor performance.

But to solve the real problem, we need competence and honesty in our government officials, a dream so impossible that it is worthless even to talk about.

[/ QUOTE ]


somewhat fixed...good read
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  #8  
Old 06-18-2006, 11:21 PM
MyTurn2Raise MyTurn2Raise is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

I have one comment: it was never as good as you remember it

The Red Sox sold Babe Ruth

An official is sitting in the basketball hall of fame because he helped the Celtics win every single home game they played in their era of dominance

Deckinger kept his job

UCLA got to play in an 'easy' West region on their home court nearly all the time during their run

QBs had/have some of the shortest lifespans in the modern world. I haven't seen the exact studies, but there appears to be a strong correlation with all the hits they take. Of course, I know that correlation does not equal causation, but man o man.

Many old college football and basketball powers completely ignored recruiting and NCAA rules


But, many of your points are still valid.

The big issue IMO is when sports gave up on the idea of competition and became entertainment.
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  #9  
Old 06-18-2006, 11:29 PM
MyTurn2Raise MyTurn2Raise is offline
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Default Re: The Demise of Professional Sports

also, I disagree with your opinion on league contraction

With the growth of the US and the addition and growth of players from around the world, the proportion of professional athletes in the major sports has shrunk.

I also think that today's players are much more talented. Unfortunately, due to many reasons, a compromise has been made where pure fundamentals are not treated as important. Many guys can do some absolutely amazing, never before done, type stuff in most sports, but they are not as good at the basics.
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