Count Inquirer columnist Ashley Fox among those who are operating under the naive assumption that sports and politics don’t mix. In her piece this morning on negotiations between the NFL and the Players Union, Ms. Fox laments the intrusion into sports of labor strife, citing the age that age old notion that “sports are supposed to provide an escape from the problems of everyday life….”
Let’s see. The NHL locks out its players and in the process cancels an entire season. The Winter and Summer Olympics are rife with drug-testing, judging scandals and security measures second only to those for heads of state visiting war zones. The WBC got off to a rousing start by including, excluding and finally including the team from Cuba. The Tour de France is beset by doping charges and countercharges. We could go on.
Ashley, I am shocked that big money is changing hands in the NFL let alone seems to be a stumbling block to labor peace. Next, you are going to warn us that if this doesn’t stop soon, Vegas Vick will appear regularly on Comcast Sportsnet.
2 comments:
I have no idea what the implications would be but I could not imagine the players of each sport would operate without an association.
Perverse as it sounds, I'm happy with a players association, principally because as fans we have no representation (lets not kid ourselves that a boycott would make any odds). If there was no players association, we would be at the whims of the owners, and if the players association had complete power, well . . . I wouldn't trust 'em much either. At least when they're at each other's necks and the owner's appointee is mediating like a spin demon with one eye on the public image, nothing too bad happens.
(If I could damn both groups with any fainter praise, you wouldn't be reading this . . .)
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