JOHNNY U AND ME: WE PLAYED FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

I am no fan of bicycle racing and do not even watch the last leg of the Tour de France. However, I have been following allegations of doping since Lance Armstrong was first accused as well as the doping scandal in this year's Tour de France.

The Tour de France ranks just below the World Cup of Soccer as Europe's major sporting event. I tip my hat to the Tour de France regulatory body for their unwavering commitment to root out illegal doping. In making this commitment to honesty and integrity the race leader and man expected to win the Tour, Rasmussen, was forced to quit because he lied about his training program. Another top racer, Moreni, was followed up the mountain by a police car and arrested for using testosterone as soon as he got off of his bike. These events, as well as others before them concerning doping of riders in previous Tours, has turned the Tour from the high for European race fans experienced as a combination of watching the World Series, Super Bowel, and NBA Finals for Americans into a shambles of shame.

What is certainly a breath of fresh air in the fight to make professional cycling drug free, especially given the cost to all concerned, it is also a lesson in ethics and morality - to say nothing of expecting professional athletes to abide by the same laws as everyone else - American professional sports teams and leagues must learn. For far too long American professional sports teams and leagues have turned a blind eye to the doping of American athletes which is just the tip of the iceberg of their all too often unethical, immoral, and illegal lifestyle.

It is no secret that an estimated 80-90% of linemen in the National Football League use Human Growth Hormone. When you add in the abuse of pain killers and uppers most football players resort to at some time in their career to keep playing, I seriously doubt that 10% of all NFL players are not drudged at some point during their career. As for a lack of morality and illegal behavior, consider that in 2005 seventeen key players of the Minnesota Vikings hired two party boats complete with prostitutes from Florida and Atlanta. Most but not all of the players performed sex acts in public and according to several retired players this is not the first time such an incident has happened. No arrests were made as a consequence of any of these party boat trips. Consider also the many players including Ray Lewis or the Baltimore Ravens who was charged with homicide, defensive back Pacman Jones who in his two year professional career has been arrested more times (7) that he has interceptions and is now suspended for the season, and that since 2000 the Minneapolis Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals had a combined total of 44 players arrested.

The use of various steroids in baseball has been on the front page of the news for the past three years. There was even a Congressional Investigation where Mark McGuire and other players were evasive in their testimony and it was later proven that at least one, Rafael Palmero, flat out lied.  While the government is building a case to reel in big name players for an indictment, Barry Bonds who is one of the biggest suspected steroid users, broke Hank Aaron's all time home run record.

While the National Basketball Association does not appear to have the drug problems of the National Football League or Major League Baseball, it has had its share of criminal behavior both on and off the court. Who can forget Ron Artest's charge into the stands with players following him or Kobe Bryant standing trial for rape. More telling are the over 80 players who have been charged with everything from domestic assault, to drug and alcohol offenses, to assault with a deadly weapon.

The only conclusion to be drawn from the above is that American professional athletes are out of control and the teams and leagues have done little or nothing to stop them. A part of the problem is that player's unions have been very successful in negotiating contracts that prohibit teams and leagues from testing for certain kinds of drugs and steroids. Another part of the problem is that the bottom line in American professional sports is such that economics and not as sense of ethical or moral behavior or even respect for the law is a major consideration when compared to an athlete's performance and what such a performance means to the bottom line of the team and league. However, perhaps the most important part of the problem is that we have created a culture of entitlement for professional athletes that begins for some as early as middle and high school.

Consequently, the problem from which all others stem is our glorification of sport and subsequent deification of athletes. We need to look no farther for proof of this than to the state of Texas where high school football coaches are paid $100,000 or more and commonly red shirt players to give them time to "grow." Such coaches wouldn’t dream of coaching for a school that didn’t have a stadium that rivaled college stadiums in size and appointments. These are concepts of high school football and coaching I cannot begin to understand to say nothing of what I believe is necessary for an "extra-curricular activity" or even to prepare young men to become college football players.

Why can’t I understand what is happening in Texas and many other parts of the county regarding high school football?  I say I cannot understand it because when I played high school football I played a full 60 minute game; that is, I played every down on both offense and defense. Our coach was our high school physical education teacher who received an extra $250 to coach football, assistant coaches were all volunteers and lined the field before games, and our "stadium" consisted of bleachers on each side of the field. That said we did have one appointment some of our rivals did not and that was a press box: a small, unheated, plywood box sitting on stilts behind the home side bleachers. However, our press box was so small that it was difficult for the parent volunteer who "called" our game using a hand held PA system that couldn't be heard on the other side of the field and the parent volunteer who filmed our game with his 8 millimeter movie camera that enabled us to have "film day" every Monday to more freely about.

Yet we played each and every game as if it were our last, we left nothing in the locker room but spent it all on the field, and if my memory is correct we did it in a way that brought pride, honor, and dignity to our school and town. And yes, just like those boys playing football in Texas today, we were proud of our statistics and those who made it to the next level.

We like to think that when we look back 25 or 50 years we can see the progress we have made as a society. We like to think that we are more "advanced" and "civilized" than prior generations. And in America this has most often been the case except in one area: professional sports. Yes, the players are bigger, stronger, and faster today than they were 25 or 50 years ago. Yes, offensive and defensive systems are infinitively more sophisticated now than they were then. Yes, players are multi-millionaires today.

Yet I would argue that the game of yesteryear was a more pure, richer game. Those of us who played, regardless of what level we played, truly played for the love of the game. There was no thought of striking it rich playing sports when even professional athletes had to take off season jobs to pay the bills.  For instance Johnny Unitas, the Hall of Fame quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, worked at the Bethlehem Steel Mill during the summer throughout most of his career.

Consider the salary of the man considered by many to be the greatest quarterback who ever played the game. In 1955 Johnny U made $15.00 per game playing semi-pro football in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania. In 1956 he signed with the Baltimore Colts for a salary of $7,000 and in 1957 made $12,000. By the 1958 "Greatest Game Every Played" against the New York Giants that put professional football into the consciousness of America, he made $17,550 while team captain Gino Marchetti made $9,000 and Giant star middle line backer Sam Huff made $8,000. The winner's share of bonus money for that game was $4,718.

This means that Johnny U, Marchetti, and Huff made a combined salary of $38,678 for 1958. Compare that with the $225,000 minimum rookie salary for the National Football League, the $380,000 for Major League Baseball rookies, and the $427,000 for the National Basketball Association rookies for 2007. That means that a rookie in the NFL made 5.8 times the combined annual salary of the above Hall of Fame players, a MLB rookie made 9.8 times their salary, and an NBA rookie made 11 times their salary and all of this is guaranteed before they showed up for the first day of pre-season practice.

If I haven't made my point above regarding money perhaps this true story will make my case that the way the game was played and the players of Johnny U's and my time was a more pure, richer game. The Colts last game of the 1971 season was in Miami. After the game the Colts' General Manager, Ernier Accorsi, came to Johnny U's locker and told him the Hall of Fame wanted everything he was wearing even the tape off his ankles. Johnny responded they couldn't have his shoes - the old black high tops only he still wore. When Accorsi kidded him about being sentimental regarding the shoes, Unitas told him that wasn't the problem. Accorsi asked what the problem was. Johnny U told him, "They're great for cutting the grass."

Johnny U is gone, the old black high tops are gone, and the purity and richness of the game is gone. If you still don't believe me go to Terrel Owens, Kobe Bryant, and Barry Bonds and tell them they have to cut their own grass - the green kind that grows in their yard. Tell them you will give them whatever shoes they want to wear. Just be sure you are wearing your shoes - your track shoes - so that you can outrun the missiles, verbal and otherwise, that will be hurled at you.