The Problem with All Sports

Let me make one point clear... I love all sports! I love playing them, and now that I am past the big 40, I love watching them. I really love to watch college football, and I enjoy college more than pro.

But lately there seems to be the same things creeping into the college game that have tainted the pro game. This latest incident when a Florida player tried to injure a Georgia player's eyes at the bottom of the pile has me really re-thinking the whole college and pro thing.

I hate pro sports because it is only about winning. There are no fundamentals in the pro game. Coaches coach little and manage egos. Strategy is gone and defense is unheard of... the team that wins finds the most loop - holes to exert and the best athletes have all the power. Of course these are extremes.

I love college sports because it is not only about winning but about being a student-athlete in support of your school. I love college sports because fundamentals are still important and taught and coaching matters. I love college sports because good coaches with good strategies can still win, and sometimes, good coaches with a less superior team will win. I love college sports because character is still important and needed in college sports. And my list goes on, but recently I have begun to see an ugly side to college sports.

The Florida/Georgia incident is just one example. It was an ugly game with both teams doing things once thought taboo yet one player was caught red handed. The responses to this incident tells us a lot. Originally, the player was not going to be suspended by the NCAA or the school. Coach Meyer's responses were typically coaching 101 classics... we don't condone that, teach that or allow that. The star Christian quarterback's response was a fallacy... everyone else was doing it so its all right if we do it.

As a fellow Christian, I must admit that, at times, I have been disappointed in Tebow's responses, but he is still a kid that thinks like a kid who is living in a fish bowl. I do not expect him to be anything but a kid, therefore he gets lots of grace from me. But, my point is this: are we now at the point in college football where the win is more important than character, safety and training these kids to not be self-centered pragmatic men?

We have already seen plenty of evidence in pro sports that it is only about the win. Are we now seeing the new breed of college coaches pushing this agenda? Is there no room for the coach who still believes his role is to build kids into respectful men? What that Florida player did was with intent, and any other player doing something similar did it with intent. A response sends two messages... it is okay to do this in life, or it is not okay to do this in life. Which message is being sent every Saturday? My prayer is that it is not the same one being sent on Sunday. Blessings!