Creating Gladiators

I heard an article on NPR the other day about college basketball coaches looking at recruiting a 10-year-old in the Chicago area. Obviously the kid has talent, and he's probably bigger than any other 4th or 5th grader. The conversation tended toward a more generic look at college basketball recruiting, where coaches are having to become interested in players at younger ages, even getting freshman to sign letters of intent. More and more pressure is being put on kids playing sports sooner and sooner in their lives.

So this got me thinking about sports in the world today. It's a big business with a lot of money at stake in advertising and ticket sales. The money is spinning the industry in a downward spiral, where the style of games are being completely changed due to the demands of TV networks (for instance, changing the time of the NFL draft, spreading it out over the course of several days so as to show it live during Primetime) and athletes are lifted up like "gods" in all forms of marketing.

It is also allowing athletes to make a ton of money, all in the name of entertainment. College scholarships are allowing (I hate to say it) young adults who could care less about learning to, at least on paper, get a college education. It starts to remind me of the Roman Empire and the honor given to gladiators in the Coliseum. Our society is now in a sense paying more respect to someone who can run really fast or jump really high than an chemist intent on researching a way to stop certain diseases or an educator imparting wisdom to the next generation. Are we stepping back in time, sliding from a forward-thinking, innovative society to one in which only the physically strong survive?

Now I for one am a big fan of being in good physical condition and I enjoy being able to climb high, technical peaks, not to mention a good college football game every once in a while. However, when a disproportionate amount of our time and money goes toward fueling the feeling that athletes should be lifted up on a pedestal, it's time to reflect on where we are going. We should be encouraging kids to become other things, other than gladiators in some arena.



I took a lot out on athletes in this post, but entertainers of all forms are being held in too high a regard for my liking: musicians, actors/actresses, etc.