Sports may look the same, but they are not.
Maybe one of the saddest aspects of sports is watching a former star playing his last days in a strange uniform and with an unfamiliar team. Willie Mays or Joe Montana wearing colors which we have never seen on them before—we were ready for them to go, but they weren’t. Tom Brady changed colors and won a Super Bowl. The following year, he came back down to Earth and finished his career.
Just as our stars get long in the tooth, so do our sports leagues. Oftentimes, two things look very similar but are actually quite different. When we were growing up, the Pro Bowl was a big deal, and players treated it as an honor to be a part of the annual game. The few clips I saw from this year’s affair had guys without pads playing some type of flag football. The NBA All-Star activities just passed, and the dunk contest looked pathetic. They changed the All-Star format because the games had become so boring. This year, final scores of multiple round robin games of “Stars,” “Stripes,” and “World” included 47-21, 48-45, and 37-35 (USA “Stars” defeating “World”). We have gone from 397 points in 2024 to less than a hundred in two years.
What happened to professional sports? One could say, “Who cares?” And that is not a bad answer, but 330 million Americans need some respite from the challenges of their lives, and sports have traditionally been one option to temporarily leave the cares of this world, if only for a few hours. So, sports do matter. The U.S. is poised to host soccer’s World Cup and the upcoming Summer Olympics. These are major international events that will bring some of the greatest athletes in the world to compete in the U.S. It should be a really big deal. But something has changed in sports, and that something is money.
As I said, some things can look quite similar but not be the same. Michael Jordan was the ultimate competitor. Everyone knows about the NBA Finals game when he played super sick. Now fast forward a few years, and another Bulls player, Derrick Rose, was cleared by doctors to return to the lineup during a critical playoff series. He demurred. He stated at the time that if he were to be injured again, it might impact his earning potential. So, instead of playing and helping his team and teammates win, he sat on the sidelines as the Bulls exited the playoffs. But he is not alone. LeBron James once blurted out that he and his NBA colleagues were “entertainers,” which is a far cry from the competitors of Michael Jordan’s playing days. He was angry about lost business opportunities in China when the latter retaliated against the NBA over Hong Kong comments made by a coach. That which has changed in sports is money, lots and lots of money.
It makes perfect sense that the meaningless Pro Bowl has become a weekend flag football contest or that nobody wanted to play defense in the NBA All-Star Game: getting hurt is bad for business. Maybe Derrick Rose said it, but they all feel it. When Lionel Messi was injured while playing for Argentina, his bosses at Barcelona FC probably had multiple heart attacks. And while contracts take into account potential injuries or extraordinary events, players are valuable commodities and are often forbidden to ride motorcycles or even engage in sports outside of their contractual obligations. Ben Roethlisberger famously had a motorcycle accident when he should never have been on a motorcycle. On the one hand, one can cheer for athletes making bags of money—we should always be happy for others’ successes. On the other hand, the games have changed. Look at the impact of NIL money in college football and the rapid movement of players between teams. Look at the massive TV deals that have turned the traditional Midwestern Big Ten into something more like the Big 26, stretching from USC on one coast to Rutgers on the other.
In the end, play changes when one goes from competitor to entertainer. You will never again see a Pete Rose smash into Ray Fosse (in the 12th inning, no less), as neither the runner nor the catcher wants to end his career or end up out of action and miss contract milestones. And while there are still competitors out there, the fact that money is generally the deciding factor where a player lands means that he has already told the fans that his decisions will be made with his bankers as well as with his coaches.
One often does not appreciate the difference between inventing something and making millions of copies of the same invention. The U.S. is the land of invention and innovation because inventors believe that they can get rich and keep a big chunk of their earnings. China invents little of international importance, but they do know how to crank out millions of iPhones and other goodies invented by others. The modern sports leagues became cash cows because of people like Pete Rose, Michael Jordan, Mean Joe Greene, and Wayne Gretzky. They were champions, and their lives and their sports were nearly inseparable. After a few decades of true grit champions, kids growing up look at how much money and fame these guys got and also want to be like them. Playing to win versus playing to get rich may get you similar outcomes most of the time. But when push comes to shove, and things get tough, the champion fights to win, while the money man just does his best not to get injured. As these issues play out in the brain, we can’t know what our modern gladiators are thinking, but sometimes we see players tank before the game is over.
There was a story of a very big rabbi and a student of his sitting at a table. Each had an apple. While the student said nothing out loud, he thought to himself, “What’s the difference between me and the big rabbi? We both have apples, we both make a blessing over the apple before eating, and then we eat.” Though he did not say a word, the rabbi stated, “I’ll explain to you the difference. You make a blessing so as to be allowed to eat the apple. I eat the apple so as to have another opportunity to bless God.” Playing to win and playing to make a pile of dough may give outwardly similar outcomes. But ultimately, as sports move away from their tough, competitive days to their flag football/don’t get injured condition, the fans will feel and notice the difference. Long gone are the days when my brother and I could get a $20 bill from our mother and spend a day at Wrigley Field. Heck, that bill wouldn’t even cover parking. Seat licenses, tickets in the hundreds or thousands of dollars, expensive food and parking—going to a game is no longer a takeaway from life’s challenges but a major financial commitment. It has already been noted that for Super Bowls and World Series, some diehard fans are not seen, replaced by the deep-pocketed occasional fans who can afford $2,000 tickets. The “cheap tickets” for the most recent Super Bowl cost over $3,000, with top seats going for over 10 times that amount.
People can live their lives without watching sports. Our European father did not sit in front of the TV to catch a game, though our mother was a big baseball fan. As sports become business over combat, their interest to the general population will wane. 2023 marked nine straight years of decline in baseball attendance. That should be strike three.