Take A Look Around

Bill Simmons wrote his weekly article in the hypothetical today (check it out here). In doing so, he more or less openly questioned the sanity of the NFL ownership, who seemed to have been in a power position only weeks ago, but now seems to be losing public credibility by the fistful. In a similar sense, I was having a conversation the other night in which I was lambasted for questioning the direction everything (not just sports) was going in.

It seems to me that so much is hanging by a thread, and that the future is more uncertain now for a large portion of this world's population than ever before. The Middle East is in a great deal of turmoil, from Libya, to Egypt, to, all too quietly, Iran. The entire region seems to be ready to burst, and this time it doesn't have to do with a US invasion of a neighboring country. We are (mostly) out of Iraq. We are focusing on an endgame in Afghanistan. Even the Saudis can't ignore the reality that this wave of fervor across the region might lead to massive upheaval. Of course, even in the ivory tower that is the USA we see this upheaval, and it impacts those who have least the most. Gasoline costs soar, daily it seems, in this country, making travel cost prohibitive at a time when people are traveling further to go to work than any time before, due to the lack of jobs. I remember going to Los Angeles in 2004, driving through the desert east of LA, and having to stop for gas at the oasis there. The price of gas was north of $3.00 a gallon there, a price I couldn't comprehend. Now, it's everywhere, and all because the region has been lost.

I'd have to write a book to accurately take you back through the blunders which compounded upon each other to lead us here, to a time where the Middle East was out of control, and that our economy seemed inexorably tied to that out of control train. I may have the time to do so at some point, but for now it becomes obvious: too many dictators backed, too many revolutions thrown down, too many countries invaded for less than compelling reasons, and too much support for an Israeli regime that has made a living being too similar in its' actions to the very dictatorships in the region that threaten it. Still, perhaps this was inevitable. Perhaps we were always heading here, to a point where our options seem to be: fundamentally change our approach and expectations, or continue allowing the rich to get richer, the poor to stagnate, and the backbone of this country to fall apart.

At times it is really difficult to imagine a palatable outcome to the situation which engulfs us. Optimism borders dangerously on being out of touch with reality at times like this. The NFL, NBA, and MLB labor situations are a microcosm of this bigger stage. The NFL owners, for one, don't feel that being worth billions of dollars is enough. They want more, and they are willing to raze their very economic playground to accomplish it. They don't care about anything but the ever increasing bottom line. Same thing for the NBA, only the NBA doesn't make as much money as the NFL. MLB has quietly flown under the radar, with their labor deal set to expire in December. Maybe it's time to try something radical, and to set a price limit on professional sports. Perhaps it's time to allow socialist thinking into the way we regulate sports. This is capitalism run amok. Why stop with billions of dollars of profit, when you can push further and continue to make this situation even more ludicrous than it already is?