Norman W. Wilson: What Price to Build False Dreams?

by Norman W Wilson, PhD

Not quite like the Romans of old, but we still build are coliseums as great monuments for the entertainment of the masses. And not quite like the gladiators who went into the arena, we still have young men and women placed before the yelling throngs. And at what price to the taxpayer and to the player? Dallas, Texas built a $120 million dollar high school stadium. The University of Phoenix at Glendale spent $335.3 million on its stadium. The New Yankee Stadium? Over one billion dollars.

We begin building the false dream of fame and glory upon the playing field with Little League and Pop Warner, carry it on through junior and senior high school. And at what price? We build large stadiums, baseball fields, basketball courts for an elitist few. We install locker rooms, dugouts, press boxes, concessionaire booths, pay high salaries for coaching staffs. And all for the minority. And don't forget insurances, buses for travel, uniforms, and equipment.

There are roughly 28,000 high schools in the United States. The National High School Center reports that the number of high school students for the years 2000-2004 (the years the information is available) was over 14,000,000. That's most likely more today.

A football team has eleven players and a second string; baseball nine players and a second string. That certainly creates the false dream of 'I'm something wonderful' when only one in 17 of all high school students will ever play football, for example, at a NCAA member institution. And from these only 1 in 50 NCAA a NFL team will draft players. With only thirty-two teams in the National Foot ball League, as few as 8 in 10,000 high school seniors are ever drafted by an NFL team.

Is the cost to the taxpayer and to the self-esteem of a few chosen young men and women worth the millions of dollars it costs? Is creating this false dream of glory on the playing field the kind of values we want to instill in our young people—values to carry them through their lives? Hopefully, it is not! Sadly, it appears to be so!

Norman W Wison and his wife Suzanne are Camano Island residents.  This essay used by permission from the author. His website is http://www.shamanicmysteries.com

Comments

[CorporateMoneyOutOfPolitics]

Not only false dreams, but sports obsession creates bad habits in "real" life as well. We all know the arguments in favor of team sports ... Teamwork is truly a worthwhile life lesson, but it seems that for "sporties," everything gets filtered through the sports lens. There may be some value in seeing your job as a sports position, and your company as a team looking to win the big game. But politics is not a team sport, nonetheles, "fans" (partisans) see their party like as home team. Maybe that's OK for high school football, but very reckless and irreponsible for a voter. In sports, careful attention is paid to keeping the players honest and the playing field "level." But "my party right or wrong" seems to be the norm, and the cheerleaders are the biggest blowhards on TV and radio (with their own agendas). The media used to be the "referees" in the political world, but none of them can be trusted. None. Certianly not FOX, and not MSNBC either, which seemed to spend more time talking aout FOX last time I looked (which was a long time ago). These guys are not cheerleaders. They are salesmen, shysters, rabble rousers. Politics is not sports, it is your resposibility as an American citizen. It needs to be taken more seriously than any sport, and your players need to be held accountable, not put on a pedestal.

[Donna Groskopf]

Wonderful article, Norm! You hit the nail on the head about the false dreams sports gives to the young men and women. Thanks for writing it!