THERE'S A REAL WORLD OUT THERE

Japan is besieged by a natural disaster worse than my most vivid nightmares.  The Middle East is erupting in violence.  A tour bus in the Bronx flipped over and 13 people who were enjoying themselves at Mohegan Sun an hour earlier were killed.

Gas prices are threatening to approach $5.  Partisan politics have hit a boiling point in Wisconsin where politicians actually fleed the state and abandoned their responsibilities rather than representing their constituents.

Now, will someone please explain to me why I should give a hoot about a bunch of spoiled football players under the misguided direction of power-mad unions and owners greedy enough to make King Midas seem like a benefactor threatening the NFL season?

One other thought regarding the hypocrisy of big-time college sports ...

Kids are recruited out of their poverty-stricken surroundings to represent dear old State U. They are given free education, which I wholeheartedly agree is invaluable, but in many cases is not a practical benefit. These kids spend hours and hours practicing and playing.  Ostensibly, they are spending time on their studies, too.
When do they have time to go to work to make a few dollars?  They don't.  Then when they sell some memorabilia to put some jingle in their pockets, they're treated like criminals.  Others ARE resorting to criminal activity, perhaps out of desperation.

As they work at their respective games to fill the stadiums and arenas with fat cats plying $200 tickets, $7 hot dogs and $5 sodas, the colleges are filling their coffers, but God forbid a player sells some memorabilia.  The system stinks! The NCAA is an anachronistic joke! Big time college programs are in cahoots with these amateur sports organizations with back-alley agents that prey on high school athletes are like organized crime syndicates and drug cartels.  Stop this endless cycle of filthy recruiting practices and exploitation of kids who may not be geared to take advantage of higher education. 

You want to see college sports the way they ought to be, go down to Wesleyan or Yale,