On the TunneySide of Sports September 21, 2020 #814 Up next… Where Do We Go From Here?
After further review… There are so many facets and personal opinions to the idea I am proposing herein that the printed word may not be understood by all. As a preamble, let me say that I have been involved in sports all my life – multiple decades! I was raised in a family with a father who grew up without a father. Dad found sports with a passion that provided our family with an adequate living.
Jim Sr. was a superb and talented athlete throughout his high school, college, and professional days. Sports served him well. After his daily task of selling newspapers as a youth on the streets of downtown Los Angeles which provided his family with some support, dad found sports to be a fun and relaxing activity. I grew up in that atmosphere of hard work – never expecting anything to be given to me that I didn’t earn.
Many of today’s athletes – more than you might guess – grew up in that kind of family as well. They worked hard to become the best in their sport in order to play at the professional level. The salaries and benefits accorded athletes today were not in existence when they first dreamed of playing at the professional level.
The money and benefits in today’s professional-level are what many fans consider outrageous– especially during this 2020 pandemic. Homes are being foreclosed, jobs have been lost, businesses have been abandoned and far too many are homeless. What bothers many fans about these wealthy athletes is they are promoting causes and are not focusing on what the fans are paying to see. Fans want fair and proper social justice as well as improvements.
Fans are abandoning watching games because they are coming from their jobs or lack thereof to enjoy the athletic talents of these players. They don’t watch sports to hear a diatribe on social issues. With fans walking away sponsors and television networks will begin to as well.
So, how about this: NFL, NBA, and MLB players are making a good living. If their leadership would step up and create a foundation or trust to which these wealthy players would contribute in order to create some meaningful dialogue among all races to improve relations, I believe they would take a step towards a positive solution.
Will you log-in your thoughts about how to improve racial relations?
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To contact Jim, go to www.jimtunney.com or email jim@jimtunney.com.
