Sports In My Lifetime: Changes For Better Or Worse?

With sports discussions come sports debates. Who was the greatest hitter of all time? Best team? Best decade for sports? But what about the debate of whether or not the current state of sports has improved or declined over the last several decades.

To answer one question, I doubt if anyone disagrees that the athletic ability of our modern athletes far surpasses that of past decades. Granted, there were rare talents that graced the courts and fields over the years, but the overall ability of modern athletes is at another level. This is evident as Olympic records are demolished and we as a society are dazzled by individual performances on a daily basis in other professional and collegiate sports.

Yes, today's athletes are more athletic, but does that correlate to an improvement in sports? Not necessarily, indicated by the increasing number of injuries that correspond to a higher level of fitness. Larger bodies moving at higher speeds equal a greater risk to the health of our athletes.

I will admit that sports today are highly entertaining to watch on a regular basis. I take in as much football and baseball that I can watch, and feel as though I am just as knowledgeable about many sports as the most die hard fans. It's not this aspect of sports that bothers me.

Anymore, an athlete's name makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. Drug issues, domestic violence charges, the list goes on. Professional athletes have been given an opportunity to better themselves yet seem to self-destruct under scrutiny of their escalated profile.

I don't want to it to seem as though I am wrongly judging all athletes when it is a relatively small portion that tarnish the image of their sports, but there are other issues that are beginning to make me question whether our state of the game has declined this decade.

There is an increasing issue with player demands in professional sports. When many Americans struggle to survive day to day because of fiscal difficulties, it is hard to swallow hearing that an athlete refuses to play because they want more money. If I refused to go to work and demanded a raise, I would be fired immediately. What permits these athletes to believe they can do this?

This effect is slowly starting to trickle down to the collegiate level as well. I have long supported NCAA sports over professional sports for one simple reason. Those kids are playing for pride of their school and a love of the game. Many will never have the opportunity to play at the next level, so they play with their heart behind them.

Now the age to transition from college to the pros has been raised to force athletes to gain some form of an education while their bodies develop to sustain themselves at the next level, but that makes it seem as though their NCAA days are merely an audition. Schools harbor these athletes to gain a year or two of elevated success and hope to reap the benefits that coincide.

And if many of these image problems weren't enough for college institutions and professional teams alike, there comes the nagging issue of performance enhancing drugs. It seems as though many of our greatest athletes from the past ten to fifteen years have cheated, with a collective groan let out from disappointed fans across the country.

Some of the changes that are hurting sports are now visible on the court and field as well. Basketball is no longer a skilled game that saw the likes of Pete Maravich and John Havlicek, it is no played within 5 feet of the rim with the dunk as the main spectacle.

Football has continued to progress towards a two hand touch league as each year passes. Granted, the safety of players is more important now, but what happened to the days of Nighttrain Lane, Dick Butkus and the Steel Curtain D. Players today get fined and penalized for hits half as vicious as we used to see. They wear pads for a reason, but a higher incident rate for injury is also a by-product of today's faster and stronger athlete.

Boxing has probably taken the largest hit of all sports. Long gone are the days of Ali versus Frazier and the quickness of Sugar Ray. Ask many fans who holds several of the belts at various weights and they would respond with only a puzzled look.

Sports today might be faster and stronger, with more demands for big hits, spectacular dunks and high scores, but I for one long to see athletes making a name for themselves on the field, not off of it. Players need to worry less about money and realize millions of people would give anything to be in their position.

So to every professional athlete: just play for the love of the game. Play hard. Play clean. Play the game the way it was meant to be played. And be on the front page of the sports section for charity work or for playing hard, not for drug charges and another arrests. You owe it to yourself and the fans, and you owe it to everyone who played the game right that came before you.