Welly welly welly welly well. We all know the sports industry is huge, making billions every year. But, what exactly are these athletes contributing to society? Are they finding cures to diseases? Helping improve life in anyway? NO! They aren't! Would anyone like to make a guess why? Because sports are pointless.They don't PROVE anything. All they do is show how someone, with no education, no plans for life, can become a football, basketball, baseball or soccer player. And not only that... but we're spending MILLIONS on research on these people. Like that guy from Kenya. Who cares how he can run the mile in four minutes! I guess if you had to deliver a letter a mile away with no transport of anykind, maybe then he'd be useful. But, there's about a 1/1000000000000000000 chance of that actually happening.
My resolution: If we're going to keep sports, we should heavily tax these athletes so they don't make any more than any other working man of their education.

sports have been around for...well..probably forever. When was there a time when people didn't compete against each other? Sports are good for society. They boost our spirits. AND the athletes, most of the time, do things for charities.
I will list them here:
NASCAR: Victory Junction Camp, other nascar charities
NBA: "Basketball without Borders"= The league’s community relations outreach program expands to four continents including Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.
other nba charities
MLB: community outreach programs mlb.com

They do what they can. SPORTS ARE GREAT!

what the hell...just b/c they make more doesn't mean they should be taxed more. you already get taxed based on your income and such...why heavily tax anymore. many of them DO give back. they just don't flaunt it around. sports are NOT pointless. they're just another form of entertainment. are you saying you don't like music and television and movies? it's the same case there. if you don't like how the system works, get out of it.
~Serena

quote:

Originally posted by StillbornFetus:
Welly welly welly welly well. We all know the sports industry is huge, making billions every year. But, what exactly are these athletes contributing to society? Are they finding cures to diseases? Helping improve life in anyway? NO! They aren't! Would anyone like to make a guess why? Because sports are pointless.They don't PROVE anything. All they do is show how someone, with no education, no plans for life, can become a football, basketball, baseball or soccer player. And not only that... but we're spending MILLIONS on research on these people. Like that guy from Kenya. Who cares how he can run the mile in four minutes! I guess if you had to deliver a letter a mile away with no transport of anykind, maybe then he'd be useful. But, there's about a 1/1000000000000000000 chance of that actually happening.
My resolution: If we're going to keep sports, we should heavily tax these athletes so they don't make any more than any other working man of their education.

Can't the same argument be used against artists? You could say the same for them, but they (just like athletes) add to our culture and society.

I don't think I have enough hands to drink, smoke, and bowl at the same time...besides the fact it'd be highly illegal for me to do so. But has that stopped me before?

Actually shooting is a sport. So is bowling. As is fencing, archery, and some other bizarre things. However, my dad doesn't call bowling a sport. His theory, "Anything that you can do while drinking and smoking at the same time isn't a sport."

quote:

Originally posted by panterayall:
i shooting a sport?

If by that you meant, is shooting a sport? Then, no, it's not.

i shooting a sport?

I can bowl. But nobody (save me) calls bowling a sport. And here I was hoping for Division I bowling. Curse you NCAA!

quote:

He can run a mile in 4 minutes????!!!!!?!!!!! Damn thats fast@!!!!!!!

My friend ran a mile in four minutes and threw up right after. It was very sad... poor ed...

quote:

Yea Nerds!

Rejoice Nerds!

I love nerds...I feel like stabbing idiot jocks everytime I date one.

"It's great to be a Nerd, It's great to be a Nerd,
The only light we ever see is from our monitor

We argue about comic books and Internet connections
The biggest highlight of the year is the Star Trek Convention
Our Town's not big enough to sign up any stars
But we once met a red shirt who was phased by a Borg

It's great to be a Nerd, It's great to be a Nerd,
We wear our Star Trek uniforms and talk like Captain Kirk

We have our own heroes, who we try to emulate,
I dream of one day being as sexy as Bill Gates
We hate watching sports cause were reading Carl Sagan
But we'd watch the Olympics if they played Dungeons and Dragons

It's great to be a Nerd, It's great to be a Nerd,
We think Tolkein was a genius and Shakespeare was a turd

I'm A hobbit

We rarely get a date, or get talked to by a girl
Unless they're having trouble with their Algebra homework
Were emotionally bereft and sexually frustrated
But we can download photographs of agent Scully naked

(Nerdish Laugh)

It's great to be a Nerd, It's great to be a Nerd,
We know the truth is out there but we'd have to leave our rooms

We are the nerds in your neiborhood
Polyesters a fashion statement
But theres more room on the beach for you
Cause were locked in our basement

It's great to be a Nerd, It's great to be a Nerd,
We like to wear colors that do not appear in nature

It's great to be a poorly dressed
Fashionless
Star Treking
Role Playing
90 Pound
When Wet Down
Pasty Skin
Pop Drinking
Underfed Genius
Yes, It's great to be a Nerd "
~The Arrogant Worms

He can run a mile in 4 minutes????!!!!!?!!!!! Damn thats fast@!!!!!!!

I think that sports an an after school activity is a great idea, because it keeps people in shape, but I also think that teachers and doctors should get way more than pro athletes.

Boo sports. Yea Nerds!

StillbornFetus, don't anger me. I don't like Sports personally, but what do athletes add to our society? C-U-L-T-U-R-E. Culture and the cultural arts are dying in our society, and it's opinions like these that are killing them.

Athletics are also an outlet, and a form of exercise. I have a friend that uses sports as anger-management, and when she's sad she uses it. She would probably be suicidal by now if it weren't for her sports. It's that fundamental to her.

Look skills are what we're talking here these athletes have worked their tails off to get were they are the deserve some rewarde and lawyers shouldn't be paid at all(scum bags) but Doctors get paid alot! I know that my Doctor has a really nice car in the garage of his really nice house so whats the problem

The athletes should not penalized. That goes against the American way. People should be taught to achieve as far as their talents will provide and suceed. Today, sucess is equal to money. If athletes are able to earn millions of dollars, then let them. If anything, the millions accumulated by athletes shows the deterioration of American moral values.

everyone who is against overpayed athletes is right on. What the ****? Doctors and others do way more and save lives, yet they dont get payed half as much!! and im sick of hearing all these athletes complain like lil ******* cause they dont get enough $!! Theres people around the world who dont have a job, home or food but they do their best. take randy moss for instance. the guy got a 10,000$ fine for pretending to moon the packers crowd. when they talked to him in the parking lot after the game, he said "if i would of knew that it was only 10,000, i would of whiopped my dick out!!"
now thats just sick!!! i love you all (not that way) but stay cool

PEACE!!

Why is nobody questioning how much actors get paid? It's the same thing. "Why do we pay athletes so much"... well, if you buy a baseball hat, you just paid each player a few cents. Add up a few million people in the nation buying baseball hats and watching games, and you've got yourself millions. Proffesional athletics is an entertainment industry. It exists because it can make money, and it can make a lot of it. Heck, the athletes don't even make a fraction of what team owners do. THAT'S why they demand more: because they CAN. And that money doesn't come straight from the people, it comes from the teams. And the companies who pay to advertise on billboards, commercials, ANYTHING they can stamp a logo on. And we buy those things. It's not the atheletes' faults.
As far as a 4 minute mile... there isn't that much money in that. Yeah, every 4 years at the olympics, everyone the world over lines up and watches fixedly as the runners start off... but it's not like the NBA or NFL. It's not popular almost all year every year.
As far as school athletics go, I apreciate them more than anything. I'm a soccer player and tennis player, and I can beat anyone I know in a hundred meter dash. Heck, I can probably beat anyone I've ever even seen in person. And I love pushing myself, and having something to push myself against. The fact that it's organized does two things for me: It garentees that I'll always have someone to play WITH who's about at my level, and it brings the team and the whole school together on something. Common ground.
Early on in this board, someone insinuated that atheletes are (or can be) stupid; big brutes who can't tell their assymptotes from a hole. Well, the kid on my soccer team who got MVP and player's choice award is also head of the math team and got top scores on the Calculus AP exam as a Sophomore... he's no brute, but damn, can he run.
So yeah... there's my two cents. (that go to atheletes after buying a hat)

Though I think athletes are grossly overpaid, there are some reasons that they make so much money. Simply because I am an obsessive baseball fan, I will use baseball as an example.

[LIST] Why Baseball Players Get Paid So Well

They are constantly on the road, often not seeing their families for weeks and sometimes months in many cases.

They are expected to be role models and therefor have to be "goody two-shoes".(Although many don't do this, and when they don't, they end up in the news)

Changing jobs usually means moving all the way across the country.

They have to take ALL kinds of ridicule from fans, sports talk radio, newspapers, commentators, etc. that the average person doesn't get.

Their lives are almost always under the microscope.

I know there are more that I can't think of at the moment. I'll say it again- athletes are WAY overpaid. But some of it is justified.

Bushism of the day:
"If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow." —George W. Bush, Jan. 2000

"If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated," p.60, "1984," by George Orwell