May Not Be Slaves But Still Gladiators

The entire country is in shambles over this new steroid scandal with the best player in the game, Alex Rodriguez. People thought that they put roids behind them after the sluggers from five years ago were disowned by baseball one by one, but people were mistaken. As long as steroids make athletes perform better and as long as we give hundreds of millions of dollars and fame to those who perform better, logic says athletes will use steroids. That is however is not the issue.

Professional athletes in sports like Baseball and Football are nothing more than modern day gladiators we pay to watch them rip each others' life apart, literally. Sure they are not slaves and sure they are getting more money for it than the average person will ever see, but that is never taken into consideration when we watch them meltdown.

These athletes are handpicked before they hit puberty, hand picked by standing out in athletics when they are young. They coast through high school and college on their athletic performances alone and then make it to the pros where they are still fighting to get that ring, that recognition, that Nike contract.

Then we hear about that player who got caught with a gun, drugs, used roids, assaulted his wife or just got plain old crazy and we scream "Oh the humanity." We are the guilty ones, not they. We are the ones who demanded they live this life and become part of this system so we can get three hours of entertainment every Sunday and then we turn around and expect those extremely over-paid athletes who live a life of fortune and fame that we worship, aspire to and admire to act like us. Do you know what this is? When it looks like it and it smells like it and it acts like it, call it what it is: Hypocrisy.