So what are we to make out all of the black eyes that professional sports has taken in the past week.

San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds is about to become the all-time home run champion, despite whispers and allegations that he is a steroid abuser.

Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback Michael Vick has been told to stay away from training camp because he is alleged to have been a leader in a vicious dog fighting ring.
An NBA referee is accused by the FBI of betting on basketball games in which he officiated.

As long as games are played by human beings, there is going to be wrong-doing. That’s the nature of the beast. Theologically, we refer to it as the stain of Original Sin. We are all sinners and we are going to do bad things.

Corruption in sports is nothing new. There was the college basketball point-shaving scandal in the 1950s. Corked bats. The Black Sox scandal in baseball. Paul Hornung and Pete Rose both got involved in gambling. Spitballs. The dirty laundry list could go on and on.

Yet, we continue to tune in every evening and we rush to the ballpark or arena on weekends, all in hope of seeing our heroes display a little bit of magic one more time. We want to believe in big league athletes, even though they continue to let us down.

There are lessons to be learned, especially when we think of the influence that sports has on young people. Our youth are the most impressionable. They want heroes. We would like those heroes to be worth the adulation. So, sports must be governed by set rules and guidelines and they must be enforced. No winking when a situation becomes abusive.

One problem about professional sports – and organized sports in general – is that superior athletes think of themselves as superior human beings. They see themselves as above the fray. They play by different rules and they want to be governed by different rules.

Parents’ Roles

This starts at a very young age when Johnny or Susie begins to excel at playing a certain sport. Maybe it’s in CYO or YMCA or high school. Parents want to see their children do well and so they naturally dote on the budding star. The kids are taught that they are better. They’re treated differently. They get more breaks.

They’re given everything they want in the hopes that this little star will grow up to be a highly successful big star.

This is a very dangerous situation and the quicker it’s nipped in the bud, the better. Johnny may be a better baseball player, but he is not a better kid than the others. He must play by the same rules and made to uphold the same standards as every other kid with lesser athletic ability. He has to be held to the same accountability as everyone else or he risks growing up thinking he really is better than everyone else.

As young people mature, the risks are even greater. In some sports, it’s even possible for a kid to earn a few extra bucks to play on an amateur team. Gifts become available if someone is available to play for a certain team. Some teachers will look the other way in order to get a star athlete through a course.

It’s only natural then that when the prized athlete gets older, he feels he plays by a different set of rules than everyone else. The erosion of values and principles begins.

But the law doesn’t look the other way as we are finding out in the headlines almost every day of these past two weeks.

There really are standards that society sets and tries to uphold. Eventually, luck runs out and people get caught. A lifetime of privilege and accolades can disintegrate into a legacy of greed and failure.

The Gospel Has a Message

Parents and youngsters need to use their heads. God-given talents should be appreciated and cherished and nurtured but with a realistic appreciation for who we all really are. The Gospel message about gaining the whole world and losing one’s soul comes into play here. The problem is that it’s not heard often enough. Maybe we don’t really believe it until it’s too late. We should tell our kids about it before they learn the hard way.

This week or whenever Barry Bonds hits the historic home runs that will propel him past Hank Aaron, how will everyone really feel about it when the cheers have subsided?