Category: Sports

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Hodgepodge

By Jim Spiegel

Here’s a review of a new biography of Frank Sinatra.  The greatest male vocalist of the 20th century wasn’t interesting just for his singing.  His life off the stage and away from the studio was a fascinating tumultuous drama.

Here is an interesting essay on Galileo, which shows us a different side of one of the founders of modern science.  And it suggests yet another way in which aesthetic concerns have been pivotal in the history of science.

And from the department of “stranger than fiction” comes this bizarre, serpentine tale of criminal intrigue.  It shouldn’t be long before this is adapted to the silver screen—that is, if its complex plot can be made intelligible to viewers.

Lastly, after the Chicago Bears’ loss to Green Bay last week, sports journalists piled on Jay Cutler like a pack of hyenas on a gimpy gazelle.  I was astounded to hear sports commentators draw hasty conclusions and slam the Bears’ QB for lacking courage and toughness.  Wow.  Golden Rule, anyone?  Anyway, here’s one level-headed sports journalist who is getting it right.

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The Best and Worst of 2010

By Jim Spiegel

It’s been another exciting year, and we want to thank you all for reading and, if applicable, posting comments on our blog.  Once again, we would like to close out the year with some summary remarks about good and bad stuff related to film, music, books, politics, and family.

Best Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  Shutter Island and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Though these are films in different genres, they are both superbly directed, well-acted, and have compelling stories.  And both films successfully transport the viewer into an alternate reality (or two).  But while Shutter Island leaves you questioning your perception of the world, Dawn Treader inspires you with the hope of transcending it.  Oh, and Toy Story 3 was brilliant, too—transporting the viewer in still another way.
  • Amy:  No Man of Her Own, Emma, and Tangled. In reviewing my viewing choices this year, I must acknowledge that my standards have lowered a bit this year.  These films are a bit more movie than film but great nonetheless.  No Man is a fab film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck.  While there are enough adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma to sink the Titanic, this one is excellently done and it’s two discs long!  I just took our two youngsters to Tangled a few days ago as an act of love and ended up laughing (and crying) along with them.

Worst Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  This is an easy call: Greenberg.  What a colossal waste of time.  Yet, this reviewer at A.V. Club recommended it, while admitting that this film, like all of director Noah Baumbach’s comedies, is “plotless, self-consciously literary, and populated by characters who flat-out suck from the time they roll out of the bed until they angrily switch out the lights at night.”  He’s right about that much.  But he also finds the film to be “hilarious” and “a pleasure to look at.”  I wonder if we watched the same film.
  • Amy:  Inception.  Maybe this film doesn’t deserve to be called the worst I watched, but it was such a disappointment that I am placing it in the worst experience category.  I anticipated a smart and mind-bending experience.  What I got was an action movie with a side-serving of love story.  I actually fast-forwarded several sections of shoot-me-up.  A close second is The Last Air Bender.  I only make it second because I couldn’t actually make myself watch this much anticipated live action version of our most beloved Nickelodeon show.  I had heard it was awful and made the kids watch it.  Even they hated it.  M. Knight Shyamalan, you’re killing me!

Best and Worst Musical Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  Josh Ritter’s So Runs the World Away and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.  I actually purchased both of these CDs on the same day, so I spent the next month in musical bliss, bathing in the musical beauty.  For the most part, I avoided stinkers, due mainly to my careful research before purchasing new music.  But what I could not avoid was hearing the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” everywhere I went.  Blecch!
  • Amy:  I am starting to sense a pattern of shallowness in my aesthetic sense this year.  I am sensing a New Year’s resolution coming on. Anyhoo, my musical selections were mostly limited to good workout music (“Stuck to You” by Nikka Costa, “Strip Me” by Natasha Bedingfield and “The Way I Are” by Timbaland).  I have just purchased albums by Rosanne Cash and Emmylou Harris, which I hope to enjoy in the New Year.

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moment of the Year: Two of my three favorite NFL teams playing in the Super Bowl.  Well, the run-up to the Super Bowl was actually more satisfying than the game itself, which at times felt like watching my kids fight.  I was sad for my Colts but thrilled for my Saints, with whom I have suffered as a fan since the early 1980s.  Who Dat!!!

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moment of the Year: All of the LeBron James summer free agency hype, culminating in an hour-long ESPN James announcement TV special.  LeTacky and LeShameless.  My interest in the NBA and respect for ESPN have declined faster than the U.S. economy.

Amy’s Best Eating Experience of the Year: While attending a conference with Jim in Atlanta, we “attempted” to visit the Atlanta Art Museum.  We sighed with regret as we took an afternoon siesta and mumbled something about going to the Art Museum.  We didn’t make it to the museum, but we did make it to the restaurant adjacent to the Museum.  I had rabbit with pumpkin ravioli.  That’s right—rabbit and let me tell you, Bugs Bunny was tasty!

Amy’s Worst Eating Experience of the Year: If we are talking overall experience, it would have to be an ill-fated family trip to Cracker Barrel.  The bad side was the service, which was horrible and slow; also, the food was cold and the manager snapped at me when I pointed this out.  The up side was that, in the end, our dinner was on the house.  I also hosted a dinner party at which I unfortunately served grey soup; not a shining moment in my culinary career.

Satisfying Reads of the Year:

  • Jim:  Howard Storm’s My Descent into Death was the most engrossing and inspiring book I’ve read in years (see my May 30 post).  Keaton, the classic Buster Keaton biography by Rudi Blesh, was also excellent (see my August 8 post).  I also enjoyed numerous short stories by Flannery O’Connor.
  • Amy:  The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley were both great book club selections this year.  I spent a good part of the year reading books with Bailey and Maggie so for tween boys I recommend the Gregor the Overlander series or Mr. Popper’s Penguins and The Moffats.

Political High Point of the Year: Kicking (a lot of) the bums out of Congress in November.  We’ll see how many of these newly elected folks turn out to be bums as well.

Political Low Points of the Year: Amy’s low point was the day after the November elections when she had the sinking feeling that all the newly elected Senators and Representatives would prove to be just as disappointing as the bums that we threw out.  Jim’s low point was the passing of Obamacare in March.  Already two U.S. District Court judges have struck down part of the health care law as unconstitutional (portending much bigger legal wrangling to come).  What a mess.

Good 2010 Memories of Our Kids:

  • Bailey learning to play guitar and his ability to imitate us with frightening accuracy.
  • Watching Sam finish first in the Fairmount James Dean race for his age group
  • Maggie having her first spend-the-night at a friend’s house.  Coincidentally, this was also the quietest night of the year at the Spiegels.
  • Andrew declaring himself the “King of Potato Wedges,” among other things.  He also is now fully potty trained—a major family milestone, to be sure.

Favorite Backyard Adventures of the Year:

  • Jim:  Installing a zip-line and watching the kids’ creative uses of it (not including Sam’s inadvertent back flip and landing on his shoulders)
  • Amy:  The raised bed in which we planted cucumbers, carrots, and onions.  The cucumbers dominated impressively.

Most Satisfying Shared Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  Eating at the 1280 Restaurant in Atlanta—the $18 scallops were worth every bite (which is saying a lot, as they averaged out to over $3.00 per bite).
  • Amy:  Any of our several family bike rides—the back of my bike is finally toddler free!  A close second was the camping trip the kids and I took to Indiana Dunes State Park.  I was so proud of myself for going, proud of the kids for being such troupers and amazed at the beauty of Lake Michigan.

New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Jim:  To read ten books in New Testament and historical Jesus studies; also to stop biting my nails (without having to forego following sports).
  • Amy:  To run a 10K race and read at least six books by C.S. Lewis (and not just his fiction).

Happy 2011 everyone!

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A Theology of Sports—Part 4

By Jim Spiegel

Thus far I have extolled the benefits of sports, but it would be remiss of me not to note a few caveats:  First, athletic competition is not an end in itself.  Notice that each of the benefits I mentioned underscore this fact, for the moral, aesthetic, and social values of athletic competition and spectatorship are each good because of higher ends, such as personal character formation, the betterment of society, and acquaintance with God’s glory.  To return to Paul’s remarks in 1 Timothy 4, the value of physical training should be understood in light of the value of godliness.  This is central to a Christian perspective on sports and is a crucial antidote to the obsession with sports which is a growing plague in our culture.

To put this point positively, involvement in sports, as an athlete and as a spectator, is healthy part of a well-balanced Christian life.  The Christian mind must be fed from all cultural quarters, from the arts and sciences to civic engagement and domestic politesse.  Four-square cultural nutrition also includes sports, just as exercise—yes, even being an amateur athlete—is necessary for optimum physical health.  But we must, in the words of the writer of Ecclesiastes, avoid all extremes.  And focusing all of your spare time on sports by watching ESPN non-stop or playing fantasy leagues to the detriment of your work and vital relationships is just wrong.  And as a former Sports Center junkie, I speak from experience.

Because sports are so entertaining, they can become a distraction from the things that are most important.  Whether you are an athlete yourself or mainly a fan, there is always the temptation to overdo it, to allow your participation in or spectatorship of sports to consume you and cause imbalance in your life.  Beware of this distinctively American vice.  Just because it isn’t regarded as vicious in our culture doesn’t mean it can’t be a serious problem.

My second caveat would not have been necessary a generation or so ago.  But, sadly, today it is:  Winning is not the only thing that matters.  You are familiar with the old adage that what matters is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.  This dictum sounds quaint to us these days, a relic of a more relaxed and refined time.  But it is deeply rooted in a Christian worldview which recognizes the proper role of athletics as a means to moral-social ends such as building character and enriching relationships.

Today’s American sports culture no longer accepts the old adage, and perhaps this is itself symptomatic of the demise of Christian values generally in our culture.  Today the catch phrases are “Just win baby” and the Lombardi-ism “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”  We find these expressions amusing and may even pretend to endorse them ourselves.  But  they are anti-Christian in so far as they place pride and vanity above the true ends of athletic competition—physical health, character formation, and social enrichment.

Here some will object, “If winning is not important, then why do we keep score when we play sports?”  In response, I would note that I did not say that winning is unimportant.  I do think it is one gauge that can be used to assess how well one competes.  And to this extent, winning is a valuable motivator.  Indeed this is why keeping score is a motivator.  We play harder when we keep score.  This shows that most of us do play to win.

But do most of us play to win just so that we can have objective proof that we are playing well?  We all want to be excellent at what we do, including sports.  And to win suggests that we are meeting that goal.  I admit that this motive is noble and idealistic, but it’s not a realistic answer for many, perhaps most, of us.  If we’re honest with ourselves we’ll admit that we can be quite happy when we win even if we don’t play well, and we can be deeply disappointed when we lose even if we did play well.  This shows that we are motivated by something more than just playing well.

So what does motivate us to win and not just play well?  I’m afraid in many cases what we play for is just the right to be able to say “I won.”  And if we are ever satisfied just to have won when we didn’t play well, this is proof enough that all we wanted was to be able to declare “I won.”  Well, obviously, this is a vain and prideful motive for playing hard.  To be able to tell others that you won is a braggart’s motivation and a sign of small mind, not Christian maturity.  But it’s no surprise that this prideful motive is so common, even in Christian circles, because it has been embraced wholeheartedly by the American sports culture.

Sports and Shalom

Christian community aims ultimately at peace or, in theological terms, Shalom.  This is a feature of our purpose as a Christian society in the eschaton.  God promises to reward us with rest.  (cf. Heb. 4:10-11)  Because of this, theologians properly recognize the significance of leisure, as a pointer to Shalom.  In recent years more writers have addressed this topic explicitly, which is a much needed foil to our workaholic culture.

Sports are a worthy leisure time activity for spectators.  And to kick back and relax by watching a game can be itself a gesture toward our future Shalom.  I say it “can be” because sometimes we take our games too seriously and turn our spectatorship into something quite the opposite of peace.  We are all familiar with the tragic news stories of riots at soccer games, brawls between parents at little league contests, and the drunken rowdyism at football games.  These are sad confirmations that in this fallen world sin has managed to corrupt even leisure and relaxation.  Indeed, human depravity has left no activity untarnished by sin.

But the good news of the gospel is that Christ is a thorough redeemer.  He has come to transform human nature itself and thus to redeem all of our undertakings, including our work as well as our leisure.  By the power of the Spirit we can demonstrate how to be balanced and virtuous athletes and sports fans.  And we can demonstrate grace even in athletic competition.  That God has blessed us, even in this fallen world, with the privilege to engage in and observe athletic competition is an aspect of his common grace.  We Christians should respond in kind by being gracious in competition and when rooting for our teams.  Even in such apparently small ways, we can live redemptively.

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A Theology of Sports—Part 3

By Jim Spiegel

In the first two installments of this series, I discussed how sports have aesthetic value and provide clear examples of excellence.  In this post I want to highlight another significant way in which sports are valuable.

3. Athletic competition builds character. It seems to me that the most significant benefits of sports pertain to the impact that athletic competition can have on the competitors themselves.  By participating in sports athletes develop leadership skills, teamwork and dedication to a shared goal, an attitude of service and mutual submission, discipline and poise under pressure, and many other virtues, including patience, courage, and self-control.  Athletes also learn how to graciously deal with disappointment and to persevere through difficulty and pain.  We might even say—if it’s not too melodramatic to put it this way—that athletes learn that grief is the price you pay for love.  This is true for fans too, as any Chicago Cubs fan knows.

Every sport provides a microcosm of the human experience, and this includes the fact that it is our lot to suffer in this life, as Moses reminds us in Psalm 90.  The sooner you grasp this fact, the better your chances to make it through to the end without losing your mind.  You don’t have to be a fan of the Cubs or Detroit Lions (I happen to be both!) to know that the love of a game or a particular team carries with it both joy and sorrow.  While the joys and sorrows on the field or court pale in comparison to the birth of a child or loss of a loved one, they do provide healthy metaphors for these and other more serious life experiences.  And I would even say that to have been exhilarated or disappointed in these less significant ways provides valuable preparation for life’s greater joys and sorrows.

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A Theology of Sports—Part 2

By Jim Spiegel

In the first installment of this series, I discussed how sports provide clear examples of excellence.  In this post I want to highlight another significant way in which sports are valuable.

2. Sports have aesthetic value. Why is it that we are so drawn to sports as spectators?  Why are we willing to spend hours of our valuable time going to games and watching them on TV?  And why are we so enthralled by game highlights, even of plays that we’ve seen hundreds of times, from Franco Harris’s so-called “immaculate reception” in the 1972 NFL playoffs to Bill Buckner’s booted groundball in the 1986 World Series?  Why are Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Maria Sharapova, and Tiger Woods household names, even celebrities?  I can sum up the answer in one word: beauty.  No, I’m not referring here to the physical appearance of these people.  The point is that their athletic performances are aesthetically pleasing.  We all are naturally drawn to things that are beautiful, and the best athletes satisfy this longing by the precision, efficiency, and even elegance of their performances.

In one sense, this is another facet of excellence within sports which, given Paul’s mandate in Philippians 4, warrants our attention as spectators.  But beauty is a particularly important biblical category and thus deserves special attention.  This is evident in the Genesis creation account, where God’s first recorded value judgment is an aesthetic judgment.  When he declares of his creation “it is good”—repeated no less than seven times in the first chapter—he is calling the world beautiful.  Divine concern for aesthetics is also clear from the construction of the tabernacle, as he makes painstaking artistic requirements for the workers and specially endows Bezalel and Oholiab with artistic talents to bring the plans to fruition.  Thirdly, the form of Scripture itself is a testament to God’s concern for beauty and aesthetics.  The Bible is an artistic masterpiece, a showcase of literary genres, including poetry, parables, song lyrics, and even drama (cf. Ezekiel 4:1-3) and featuring a wide array of literary conventions, including irony, metaphor, simile, and hyperbole.  I should add that even the phrase “the glory of God” is aesthetic language, as this refers to divine beauty in its most expansive sense.  It appears that the whole point of human existence—to glorify God—is itself an aesthetic concern.

So what does this have to do with a Christian view of sports?  Simply this:  If beauty is a fundamental biblical concern, then the fact that sports provide vivid instances of beauty should draw our interest as Christians.  This, of course, is a strong argument for Christian involvement in the arts (though, given divine creativity, this should need no argument).  To lack involvement in the arts is to live a truncated life (and, I would claim, also to be morally stunted).  To recognize the significance of aesthetic values is also to see the significance of sports for this reason.  I suppose there will always be those who fail to see the beauty in an alley-oop, a triple-axle, or a perfectly executed suicide-squeeze play.  But then again, there are also those who are unmoved by Pachabel’s Canon in D, Shakespeare’s Henry V, and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.  In each instance the failure to perceive beauty reveals a flaw in the observer, not what is observed.  What such a person needs is to be educated about the subject, whether it is film, a fugue, baseball or badminton.

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A Theology of Sports—Part 1

By Jim Spiegel

In my previous post my alien friend challenged the notion that sports are inherently valuable.  My actual view is not quite as extreme as that of this unrelenting extraterrestrial (who enlightened me on many other subjects, I should add).  I do believe that athletic competition has value in many respects, even if this value is always, or usually, instrumental in nature.  In this post and several others to follow, I will count some of the ways that sports are valuable.  In so doing, I will ground my reasons in biblical values.  So my analysis will constitute a sort of Christian theology of sports.

1. Professional athletes provide clear examples of excellence.  Whatever your own vocation might be, whether you’re a teacher, carpenter, dentist, social worker, accountant, or auto mechanic, you will only excel if properly inspired to a high level of performance.  Professional athletes in particular inspire us to excel at whatever we do.  For one thing, the fact that someone is a pro baseball, tennis, or basketball player tells us that he or she is one out of a million.  Consider how even those baseball players that we criticize as among the worst in Major League Baseball are still in the top percentile compared to all baseball players in the world.  And so it goes for all professional athletes.  When we follow professional sports, we regularly expose ourselves to excellence, and this is all the more pronounced among the superstars, whose feats on the field or court often leave us shaking our heads in amazement.

In Philippians 4:8 the Apostle Paul tells us, “If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”  I take this to be a strong endorsement to appreciate many things in the world of sports, since there is so much excellence to be found there.  Dwelling upon excellence of any kind is inspiring, motivating us also to aim high and require of ourselves similar self-mastery.  Paul implicitly recommends this in 1 Corinthians 9 where he compares spiritual discipline to athletic competition.  And elsewhere he recognizes the significance of sports at least as a powerful analogy for “training for godliness” (cf. 1 Tim. 4:7).  This point should not be lost on us Americans, who glibly declare “no pain, no gain” when it comes to becoming better physical specimens but balk at the idea of hard work in the spiritual life.  Let’s admit it—prayer, Bible study, fasting, and the other disciplines of the faith are hard work.  But the payoffs are great.  Athletic competition provides a wonderful image of this truth, as Paul explains.  If only for this reason, sports have value for the spiritually devout.

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The Real Meaning of Sports (Or Things I Learned From An Extraterrestrial Acquaintance About Athletic Competition)

By Jim Spiegel

The other day I was walking across campus, minding my own business, when there came a sudden flash of light and the low, pulsing hum of something other-worldly.  I ducked and covered my eyes.  When I looked up, there it was—a giant spaceship.  I stared incredulously, as a sort of door opened from the bottom of the ship, and out walked three aliens—each with a large head, tiny mouth, and inky-black eyes.  One of them approached me, while the other two remained near the ship.  Either out of fear or curiosity (or both) I just stood there until I was face to face with the alien (well, almost face-to-face—he was about a foot taller than I).  Here is how our conversation went:

Alien:  Hello.  Don’t be alarmed.  We’re scientists from sector 1781 of Elzork Onjkoglion.  We want to learn about your species.

Spiegel:  Wow, you speak English…and with no accent!

Alien:  Yes, we have rather advanced translation software.  Its pretty nifty—downloaded directly into these giant brains of ours.

Spiegel:  Really?  Very cool.  I always wondered what—

Alien:  Apparently you have a modicum of intelligence, seeing all of these things your species has built.  Tell us about of your kind.

Spiegel:  I’d say we have more than a modicum of intelligence, sir.  We might not have spaceships like that—very nice, by the way—but we are quite rational.  Anyway, I’d be happy to give you more information about us.  Hmm…where to start…  Well, as you note, we do like to build things, as you aliens obviously do.  But you can observe those things easily enough, I suppose.  What you can’t directly observe are our various institutions—legal, educational, medical, and so on.

Alien:  Yes, good.  We have these institutions as well—all crucial for social flourishing.

Spiegel:  Exactly.  We also have various art forms—like music, dance, poetry, film.

Alien:  Yes, for the sake of beauty and learning, correct?

Spiegel:  Absolutely.  And we also love our sports—like football, baseball, soccer, and basketball.

Alien:  Right, we have observed some of these.  We have our frivolous activities as well.

Spiegel:  Frivolous?

Alien:  Yes, they have no inherent value.

Spiegel:  What do you mean?  Of course they do!

Alien:  Describe one of your sports.

Spiegel:  Like what?

Alien:  Oh, any of the ones you mentioned.  How about… ‘basketball,’ as you call it?

Spiegel:  Sure.

Alien:  What does it involve?

Spiegel:  Well…you take a ball—

Alien:  A bounceable spheroid?

Spiegel:  Yeah, that’s right.  And you try to shoot it into a basket.

Alien:  A metal ring?

Spiegel:  Uh, yeah…right.

Alien:  And what purpose does this serve?  What is the inherent value of putting the spheroid through the ring?

Spiegel:  Well, it’s good physical exercise, for one thing.

Alien:  But many of your people watch when just a few others play, right?

Spiegel:  Yeah, when pros and other really good players play.

Alien:  And watchers just sit there?

Spiegel:  Yes.

Alien:  They don’t get exercise.

Spiegel:  Okay, good point.  But it has value in other ways.

Alien:  Such as?

Spiegel:  Competition.

Alien:  Competing to do what?

Spiegel:  To score and win.

Alien:  To win at placing the spheroid through a metal ring?

Spiegel:  Yes, that’s right.

Alien:  Why care about winning at this?  It is frivolous.

Spiegel:  No, its not.

Alien:  Are hungry people fed by watching others do this with the spheroid?

Spiegel:  No.

Alien:  Are people educated?

Spiegel:  No.

Alien:  Are sick people healed by watching?

Spiegel:  Of course not.

Alien:  Then where is the value?

Spiegel:  The value is in winning…or trying to win.  And playing as a team.  Yeah, there is huge value in that.

Alien:  If there is no inherent value in placing the spheroid through the metal ring, then why is it any more valuable to do it together?

Spiegel:  Hmm….well…because it makes you learn certain skills, like how to cooperate with people and unify around a goal.

Alien:  But there are many ways to do this that involve inherently meaningful actions like educating, healing, and doing other services.  Why bother with a frivolous task?

Spiegel:  Because people like to watch it and be entertained.

Alien:  Then your people are entertained—by the millions as we understand—by watching groups of people do inherently meaningless tasks, such as putting spheroids through metal rings.

Spiegel:  You make it sound so silly.

Alien:  Because it is silly.

Spiegel:  No, its not.

Alien:  Why not?

Spiegel:  Because the best players do it so well.  They are truly amazing athletes.

Alien:  But if a task is frivolous and inherently meaningless, then why should anyone care, much less be entertained by watching others do it well?

Spiegel:  Well, professional basketball players get paid enormous sums of money for doing it.

Alien:  More than your teachers and healers?

Spiegel:  Yes, a lot more in most cases.

Alien:  So let me get this straight.  Your basketball players are paid enormous sums of money to do a frivolous task that has no inherent value, while your teachers and healers who do the most inherently meaningful work are paid much less?

Spiegel:  Yeah, that’s the situation.

Alien:  And you call your society rational?

Spiegel:  Okay, look pal—I’m tired of your questions.  You’re going to have to find someone else to interview.  I’m leaving.  I have an appointment anyway.

Alien:  To do what?

Spiegel:  To play racquetball with a friend.

Alien:  What is racquetball?

Spiegel:  Arrgghhh!!

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The Bankruptcy Plague Among Professional Athletes

By Jim Spiegel

With the start of another NFL season, I’ve been thinking about an alarming statistic associated with the league:  78% of  former NFL players either go bankrupt or experience severe financial distress.  This is astounding because the base salary for rookies is $310,000, and this is bumped up to $460,000 after two years.  The statistics for NBA players aren’t much cheerier: 60% go bankrupt within five years of retirement.

There are many ways in which individual athletes squander their wealth—e.g., gambling, drugs, prostitutes, bad investments, etc.  But what it always comes down to is a lack of self-control.  Managing personal finances, no matter how much one earns, demands self-discipline on a sustained level that goes far beyond what is required in the gym or on the field.   So when you consider that most NFL and NBA players are coddled and pampered from their early teens (thus handicapping them in their development of self-control), it makes this figure less surprising.  Sad and even tragic, yes.  But not surprising.

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A Flaw in the Game of Soccer

By Jim Spiegel

What a thrill it was to watch the United States soccer team pull out a win yesterday in the final minutes of their match against Algeria.  Now it’s on to the field of sixteen and a chance at destiny.  However, the team’s success in the World Cup thus far has not been without controversy.  In their game against Slovenia last week, they were robbed of a victory by a referee who inexplicably disallowed what should have been the team’s third goal.  And in yesterday’s game the U.S. team was ripped off again through a phantom off-sides call.

For a long time I’ve been critical of the game of soccer, at least as regards how its design and rules make scoring so difficult.  Now, to be clear, I do not favor higher scores in soccer just for the sake of fan satisfaction.  Rather, the problem is that where there is so little scoring this amplifies the effect of bad officiating.  One blown call can easily decide an outcome of a close soccer match, as we saw last week and as would have happened again yesterday were it not for Landon Donavan’s winning goal in the 91st minute.

Of course, in all sports a game can turn on a bad call by an official.  And even historic accomplishments can be nullified, as was Armando Galaragga’s perfect game three weeks ago.  But the point is that soccer rules and design make this far too common, much more so than in any other sport.

The saddest thing of all is that the problem could be easily solved with a simple rule change (e.g. legalize off-sides) or design change (e.g., slightly increase the goal size).  But, alas, I don’t expect we’ll ever see such adjustments made, even though it would dramatically improve the sport.  Not only would it make the game more interesting for viewers but it would make the game, well, more just.  Sporting events should be decided by the players’ performances, not officials’ misjudgments.  And until the game of soccer is somehow altered to correct for the frequency of the latter, it will remain a significantly flawed game.

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On Football, Dogs, and Athletic Achievement

By Jim Spiegel

I love football, particularly of the NFL variety.  So for fans like me, this is the most exciting time of the year, as the playoffs begin next week.  Of course, post-season play is the most exciting time in any sport at any level, but in the NFL it’s especially thrilling, because it’s a single elimination tournament culminating in the single most viewed sporting event of the year—the Super Bowl.

I follow the NFL closely—well, at least as closely as one can without the benefit of television or lots of free time.  I do manage to watch a few regular season games, usually those featuring one of my favorite teams—the Colts and the Saints (a great regular season for both of these teams, and their fans, by the way).  And I’ll be sure to watch all of their playoff games in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, while playing fetch with my dog, my thoughts drifted off to football.  Not random daydreams, my thoughts were inspired by the fact that my dog is quite a nimble beast—fleet of paw and amazingly elusive.  Watching him romp in the yard is a treat, as he can stop and start on a dime and instantly accelerate to a full sprint.  As a young, 50-pound standard poodle, he might be rather ordinary, but compared to humans his athleticism is impressive.

So the thought occurred to me that has occurred to many football-loving dog-owners:  How would an NFL team fare against my dog, or any dog for that matter, if they had to run him down on the field?  Of course, this premise has been the subject of a few silly films over the years.  But consider this:  If dogs were allowed to play in the NFL and if a dog such as my standard poodle could be given the IQ of, say, a human 7-year-old, then that dog would be the MVP of the league.  In fact, he would easily be a Hall-of-Fame player.  How so?  Well, no one could catch him.  Even the best NFL defenders would look inept trying to tackle him.

What position would he play?  Clearly you wouldn’t want to play the dog at quarterback or wide-receiver, where good hands are a must.  Nor would you want to give a dog the task of blocking or kicking, for obvious reasons.  So, granting our canine friend the right to carry the ball in his mouth (which isn’t illegal by NFL rules, as far as I know), the position of running back becomes an obvious choice.  Also, kick or punt return duties would be a possibility.  In any of these positions, once the dog gets possession of the ball, forget it.  He’s gone—leaving a trail of flailing defenders in his wake.

Yes, it’s a silly suggestion that conjures funny mental images.  But it also raises some interesting questions, both about football and athletics generally.  First, what does it say about football as a sport that a dog with the IQ of a first-grader would be a dominant player, probably the greatest the game has ever seen?  I don’t have any answers to proffer here—at least not yet.  I simply pose the question for your consideration.

Second, this is a good reminder that much of human athletic achievement, as impressive as it is in so many sports contexts, is a species-centric thing.  True, only humans can play tennis, golf, baseball, hockey, and many other sports.  But when it comes to running, jumping, swimming, and some other basic athletic skills, the animal kingdom puts us to shame.  It isn’t just cheetahs, horses, and greyhounds that can outrun Olympic gold-medal sprinters, but even cats, raccoons, and squirrels can do so.  And I suppose there are thousands of species of fish who can swim faster than Michael Phelps.

So the next time you’re blown away by the speed, power, or agility of a professional athlete, you might want to put his or her ability in broader zoological context.  And when you’re watching your favorite team in the NFL playoffs in the coming weeks, just consider how much better they would be if they had my dog returning kickoffs.