Foremost on my Mind: This is Sports?

I suppose I should be heartbroken over Calgary's loss to Toronto in the 100^th Grey Cup last week. Should be, but not. I feel badly for John Hufnagel, however; one of the truly class acts in the CFL, and maybe a little bit for Kevin Glenn, their underrated and unappreciated backup. He may never get to this dance again.

In fact, not only am I not heartbroken, I'm ecstatic. Note I didn't say anything about being happy with Toronto winning. I dislike any team from hogtown almost as much as I hate any team from cowtown.

And no, it's not sour grapes because the Stampeders clobbered my BC Lions the week before. Nor is it because I am so blindly loyal to teams from BC: In every other compartment of my life in Alberta, I'm truly Albertan.

Apart from whatever I like or dislike, there were two events that happened during the year that really turned me off the Calgary Stampeders as a team, and it was only creative justice that allowed the Stamps to fail at the Grey Cup. These two things reflect the arrogance and insensitivity of many of today's athletes—now caught in a microscopic way, via the Calgary Stampeders. If I say the name Jon Cornish and Nik Lewis, you should sense where I'm going with this.

You may recall Cornish “mooned” the fans at Taylor Field a couple months ago. Because of the gross, perverted nature of mooning, you should understand why I'm outraged at this vile action. Why he wasn't appropriately punished, I don't know.

I'd like to see (just an expression, of course) one of the athletes from either Foremost or Bow Island-area schools moon the fans in the other community, then see them get away with it. Not a chance.

You may also recall Lewis's tweet about having OJ Simpson's gloves and now “needing a white woman”—a direct reference to murder of Simpsons's wife, Nicole. All he got was a slap on the wrist (via a fine)--which is quite ironic, because that's basically all Simpson got.

If you smell something afoul, it is the smell of a double standard. Unless the crime is really severe, today's athletes, much like today's corporate leaders and politicians, seem to operate in a different legal stratosphere—far, far above the rest of us common people.

So when I speak of today's athletes, I am thinking of all professional athletes—hockey, basketball, baseball, and soccer--to say nothing of the less-flamboyant sports, such as golf, tennis, and auto racing. The millions of dollars they make, the morals they disregard, and the misery they foist on family, media and (ultimately) themselves, is fodder for a book, not a mere column like this.

And while I am in a sounding off mood, let's talk briefly about the NHL players' strike. I certainly can't afford watch a game live, and I rarely watch a game on television, so I am not missing much. The thumbtack on my seat is the fact that honest, common people—namely, the vendors, the arena staff, the area retailers, the advertisers, and such— are losing their shirts over this idiotic strike while billionaires and millionaires quibble over how to the divide the booty.

It's the same arrogance and insensitivity we saw in Cornish and Lewis, only a little more sophisticated and widespread.

I find it hard to feel sorry for the over-paid and under-worked professional hockey players. Even the bottom-feeders, so-called, rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars per season. Do they think of anything other than their cottage mansions, Caribbean holidays, and BMW's? Honest citizens are floundering in their businesses because of the intransigence of the players.

I don't know what world they live in, but the world I live in, hard-working people are close to losing everything they've worked for, because of these clowns. Just to put things in perspective: Many of today's hockey players make more in a week of hockey than these guys make in a year.

The business of sports—be it the Calgary Stampeders or professional hockey players, for example—is a mark of an economy out of kilter. They have assumed a much larger, powerful financial role than they should.

I know some players have Foundations whereby they contribute to health and education, and this is noble and proper. If there was a greater return to the local community through financial contribution, I would tone down my rhetoric instantly.

I can handle good old-fashioned gamesmanship, but I draw the line at mindless physical acts and heartless twitter comments—to say nothing of limitless greed posturing. Where's the sports in that?