The End of Sports As We Know Them?

Usually, I don't pay any attention to USA Today. It's the "local paper" (based in Reston) that nobody cares about. It's easy to get the writers as guests on local TV here; that's pretty much what it's good for. But today, The Nation's Newspaper hit paydirt with its attempt to sum everything up in nice, tidy 1000 word articles. Pro sports are in trouble.

Hockey kicked off the crap derby with the lockout and the ensuing idiotic TV contract (no, here's the real one. But that didn't seem SO crazy, did it?). Baseball's steroid scandal has come to a head at what is arguably the most important moment in the sport's history. Michael Vick has drawn worldwide attention to the "discipline" problems in the NFL, and the NBA has referees involved with the mafia.

All three of the latter situations have taken the strongest attributes of their respective leagues and run them into the ground. Baseball prides itself on records, tradition, and the like. The criticism of Roger Maris' record seems insane at this point. The NFL has built its empire on casual fans who know virtually nothing about the game's history, can't identify more than 20 players in the league, and treat Sundays from September-January as a social event.

The NBA is different. It came out of nowhere in the 1980s, and a slew of near-miraculous comebacks in games and playoff series from 1985-1995 led many people to talk of conspiracies within the league. Ironically, as Jordan faded away and the league became less popular again, this talk also faded. Well, it's back. The days following the announcement of the Pete Rose scandal in 1989 were chaotic, but I think this NBA stuff is going to be much bigger. Every call in every game can be questioned now. Monday was probably the happiest day of Rasheed Wallace's life.

It intrigues me when people just walk away from fandom because of a specific action. My dad will watch NHL games when they're at our house or we're there, but that's it. The lockout soured him on the sport. When I was a kid, those were basically the nights I got to stay up late during the school year - Red Wings nights. I have all but walked away from the NFL. Last season's Bears team won me back a little bit, but I think I've seen the Super Bowl 4 times in the last 10 years. A lot of people don't watch baseball anymore for a slew of reasons, including the steroids thing.

It's kind of amazing that nothing like pro sports ever existed in our 10,000 years of civilization. I guess the gladiators were sort of a similar thing, but this is a unique historical experience with no precedent. With problems abounding and other sports like NASCAR, soccer, golf, and the "extreme" sports on the rise in popularity, could we be watching the erosion of North American pro sports as we've known them for the past 100 years?