The State of the Games

Addressing recent events in the world of sport

Greetings, sports fans, and thank you for assembling here at the park formerly known as Enron Field for this week's State of the Games address. Please, hold your boos and catcalls until I am finished.

But first, I direct your attention to the balcony where some representative sports icons are sitting with my lovely wife. Let's hear it for Ron Artest of the Pacers, who was suspended for a confrontation with an opposing coach. Put your hands together for umpire Bruce Froemming, that even-handed arbiter who used an anti-Semitic slur against his administrator and was also suspended. A cheer for those two wise and sensitive Americans, Lloyd Ward and Marty Mankamyer, twin bulwarks of the United States Olympic Committee. Of course, Lloyd and Marty refused to sit together, so I put some Oakland Raiders fans between them. Down boys, down.

But what a special week this this past one was for the state of sports. Sadly, that citadel of Catholic education, St. Vincent-St. Mary's of Akron, Ohio, will no longer be the most admired high school in America, for its basketball meal ticket, LeBron James, has been ruled ineligible. Certainly, though, we can be comforted knowing that the excesses of college sports now begin in high school, even as school budgets are being sliced across the land.

What a delight to see the resilient National Hockey League hold its annual All-Star Game despite the fact that two of its franchises are in bankruptcy. It's reassuring, too, that even though the whole league is perspiring red ink and the players make 73 percent of the budget, the players' union is promising no relief -- assuring that no sensible human being will consider investing in the NHL.

But, hey, sports fans, there's always hope. NBC, having lost hundreds of millions on Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA, opened its Arena Football League coverage this week. And more good news: for this new NBC gimmick league, which succeeds the glorious XFL, Jesse Ventura will not be an announcer.

In Finland this past Saturday Hayley Wickenheiser became the first female to score a goal in a men's professional hockey game. That same day, the Lady Huskies of UConn won their 59th straight game, defeating Duke, which sold out Cameron Indoor Stadium for a women's game for the first time. Meanwhile, in Washington, a Bush administration commission continued its transparent effort to eviscerate Title IX. In college, two out of every three dollars are spent on men's sports, a net of 131 new men's teams have been created since Title IX was implemented and more money is spent on Division I football than on fast food, Michael Jackson's plastic surgery and atomic energy, combined. Still, the Bush commission has wisely decided it's time for that women's sports boondoggle to end.

There is equality we can be proud of in track, though, as our two 100-meter record holders, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, are both now reportedly training with Charlie Francis, who enjoys a lifetime ban by Canada's track and field federation for his involvement with doping.

All this excitement and we have two new proposed sports reality TV shows. In one, a man on the street will be given a chance to be pummeled by Mike Tyson. In another, 24 convicted embezzlers will vie for the opportunity to run the USOC.

Thank you, my fellow Americans. And remember, if you can't play a sport, be one.

Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He is a longtime correspondent for HBO's Real Sports and his new novel, An American Summer (Sourcebooks Trade), is available now at bookstores everywhere.

 

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