I seldom pay attention to the world of professional sports these days of my life, which is a 180-degree difference from my childhood and adolescent years! Having been born and reared in Dallas, Texas, my family and I were always in front of the television watching the Cowboys and the Mavericks mostly, and later the Stars and Rangers (respectively, the local professional football, basketball, hockey, and baseball teams in this metroplex - all but the Rangers are known by the city of Dallas in their team names). During these last four decades, I have had the chance to see each of these teams win the National Championships in each of their leagues. It is not an understatement to say that euphoric celebration is second to none! Especially when the Dallas Cowboys win Super Bowls.
But the times of my youth have ended. To say it is a different world does not even begin to capture the idea. There is a completely different spirit in the world of professional sports from the era of my youth. The biggest example of this is the Dallas Cowboys. In 1989, when Arkansas businessman, Jerry Jones, bought the team, I was in middle school. I remember watching the news when we got home as Jones announced the firing of beloved longtime head coach, Tom Landry, who would be replaced by Jimmy Johnson who was coming out of the University of Miami after coaching that college football program to a national championship. Jones’ words after the announced changes, though foreboding, were very prescient: “We must win. We will win. Win is the name of the game.” That was 1989.
Within the first ten years, the Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowls and began an ascent in terms of financial success that has never ended. As of today, the Cowboys are the most lucrative sports franchise in the world, worth over $10 billion, and growing. By this rubric, Jerry Jones can be considered a massive success. And he is recognized as a maverick and genius both within professional football and outside of it as well, having been inducted into the Pro-Football Hall of Fame and being awarded dozens of honors from other institutions and forums.
But there is another side to this success. The Cowboys won their last Super Bowl in 1995, the third after Jones bought the team in 1989. (Jimmy Johnson was the coach from 1989 to 1993, having won the Super Bowl in 1992 and 1993, and Barry Switzer coached the team for the next three years and won the championship in 1995). Since that time, professional football has changed immensely. In 1989, Jerry said, “We must win. We will win. Win is the name of the game.” But since 1995, the Cowboys have not won. And they are the most valuable team in all professional sports. The motto seems to be now, “Whether we win or lose, we will make money.” With all the mediocre performances through the last 25 years, the Cowboys are still the most valuable team in the NFL and in all of professional sports! And this is now the model of virtually all the teams in the NFL.
It is above my skill or “pay grade” to assess science and skills in football or any other sport. But spiritual and moral destruction exacerbated by sports media and marketing, that is another story. There are alarming trends in the world of sports. The Apostle Paul told his protégé, Timothy (1 Timothy 6:10) that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Evil is more than just the committing of a few bad actions. Dietrich Bonneffer, the martyred German Theologian, once wrote that “what was worse than doing evil was being evil.” That was in Nazi Germany. While the world of professional sports has not committed genocide, I would say that it is evil in the business end.
There are several moral and ethical issues that people should be aware of these days. Off the football fields and basketball courts is the world of legalized sports betting/gambling. According to U.S. Sports Betting Revenue and Handle, “The US sports betting industry is in its seventh year of regulated operations outside of Nevada, and proceeds are pouring in. Operators have so far combined to generate more than $40 billion of lifetime gross revenue from handle approaching $500 billion.”
Gambling has always been a part of professional sports. But in the past, it was mostly consigned to Las Vegas or in the nefarious underworld of organized crime. This has changed as many states legalized gambling and large-scale business entities have gotten involved in the trade.
Did players and teams “throw games”? Did referees manipulate games to give an unfair advantage to a particular team in a significant playoff games? In fact, there is evidence that such things did happen in the past. Former NBA referee, Tim Donahgy, was arrested and sent to prison for betting on games that he refereed, most notably the 2002 NBA western conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. There are rumors that basketball great, Michael Jordan, bet on games when he was a college player at the University of North Carolina, and other notable players as well.
Gambling, point shaving scandals, these all did happen, and we can conclude that such things are not beyond the pale in the present-day world of athletics and legalized gambling. In many ways, professional football, basketball, and baseball seem to be following the trend of Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment in which a winner is predetermined, and everything will be done to make sure that team wins and that one superstar shines. It has been noted, particularly in the NBA, that there is a marketing bias towards Los Angeles and New York teams. Afterall, the star power in both places will ratchet up viewership immensely. And if gambling is involved, the amount of money to be had is off the scale!
The amount of money involved in professional sports has increased substantially in the last ten years. According to Google, the average salary of an NBA player is between $11 million to $12 million. That’s for the average guy who may not even get up from the bench during an average game, much less a playoff championship game.
Since the time of Shawn Kemp, NBA teams have been scouting high schools to find the next mega super star (i.e., Kobe Bryant, Lebron James) who could immediately change the situation of a team. As one analyst pointed out, apparently it is no big deal to offer tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and business propositions to 18 year olds who have hardly matured mentally. Every enticement is offered. And in certain environments, there are extenuating circumstances as well as people who are pushing for the “get rich quick” scheme.
It has been observed by many pundits that it is dangerous for people who have never had money to get money without having learned maturity in life and/or the wisdom to manage money well. Back in 2022, on the Fox Business channel, Mr. Craig Brown, a partner with NKSFB Sports Business Division, revealed that (according to their statistics) 78% of professional athletes go broke within three years of retirement. This trend is not new, but rather a significant increase. Back in 2009 in an article in Sports Illustrated, it was reported that 35% of NFL players and 60% of NBA players will go broke after their playing days are over.
Charles Barkley revealed in a podcast interview with Shannon Sharpe (another character we will get to in a moment) last year that much of the cause of bankruptcy goes to frivolous spending. Almost always it starts off with buying their mothers a new house. And then it becomes sport cars, jewelry, and then pretty soon the people in the old neighborhood all shows up at the door looking for a handout, all in the name of “giving back to the community.” It never ends.
For several athletes, in addition to paying the bills or acquisitions of people around them, child support payments will wipe them out. Which brings us to the issue of immoral living. (What I am about to say, I will try to say it as cleanly and decently as possible, but that will be difficult.)
It is a known fact in professional sports, that the sins regarding the Lust of the Flesh is a lifestyle that is fostered by many pro teams, “under the table.” For example, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired a notorious reputation both in the past and in the present for the womanizing that was behind the scenes. There is no way to sugar quote this. This debauchery existed with the Lakers (and the NBA) long before Sean “Diddy” Combs’ “freakoffs”, and virtually every superstar in Lakers history from Wilt Chamberlain onwards was involved.
The environment for such behavior was fostered by the late owner Dr. Jerry Buss (whose daughter, Jeanie, is the CEO of the Lakers presently). Nothing has changed since the 1980s. Los Angeles, the center of Hollywood entertainment industry, where pro athletes have greater fame than actors and actresses and where the most beautiful women in the world are like a “dime a dozen” and available for “anything.” It is a world where outrage is feigned (like it was during the Me Too movement) and yet nothing changes for the better.
(As I write this article, the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is going on and many a commentator is expressing shock and outrage at what is being revealed about Combs and his treatment of women, some men, and even children. That outrage is just theatre. Combs’ behavior and crimes were an open secret. And many notables in entertainment and politics were firsthand participants in those parties. Many a superstar athlete (i.e., Lebron James) had similar “freakoff” parties).
NBA great, Dennis Rodman, who won five championships with three teams during his playing days, would end up in court in 2012, unable to pay $800,000 in child support payments, as well as $51,000 in alimony (payments made to divorced spouses). According to sources, Dennis Rodman made $27 million at the end of his playing days. Today, he barely has $500,000 to his name. It was not just the issues regarding child support and alimony, but a whole host of others which devoured everything this man once had, including his health. According to Shaquille Oneil, Rodman was (hygienically speaking) a dirty, stinking man, and yet he had an entourage of beautiful women, and his affairs and romps are still infamous, as testified by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Yet all of this was swept under the proverbial rug while he played hard and helped teams win championships. Today’s professional world has its own media industry to do this particular dirty work on a grand scale.
The control of information via the media and marketing: the “establishment media” is not just a phenomenon in the federal government in Washington D.C. or New York. It is the controlling apparatus in professional sports.
One of the questions that I feel compelled to ask everyone who questions the existence of God is if they question the existence of the Devil. Do you believe in the existence of the Devil? Those who read the New Testament are well aware that after His baptism at the Jordan River, Jesus was led to the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil for 40 days. Those three temptations plus the little conversation that the snake had with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) should be the most obvious template of answering the question of the existence of the Devil in this present day.
I would subscribe that in the high-end world of professional sports, a superstar athlete will rise and fall according to their assent to the prevailing orthodoxy of unholy political and marketing apparatus in high places. In other words, Satan will present himself not as a snake, but as marketing representative (or some other similar individual), showing said athlete all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. “If you bow to me, I’ll give you all of them.”
Virtue Signaling the leftists/woke/liberal/democrat party talking points is the way to stay on the “positive side” of the “powers that be.” That is the method of operations. The signals are all political correctness of the left. This also means what Isaiah 5 says about calling good evil and evil good. There is an antichristian spirit prevailing in the world of professional sports. Especially among most of today’s “champions and superstars.”
There is a divide between this particular world (where this kind of selfishness is the norm) of professional sports and the life of the common man. I am not talking about the physical sense but rather in the sense of daily life. Several years ago, Robert Horry, who was a power forward in the NBA and retired with seven championship rings with three teams, was playing for the Phoenix Suns which was coached at the time by another NBA great, Danny Ainge. To say there was a disagreement between coach and player is an understatement. During a nationally televised game, Horry expressed his contempt for his coach by throwing his towel at his face. Horry was suspended for two games and traded to the Lakers, where he would win three championships. Or in Scottie Pippen’s case when he refused to play when Coach Phil Jackson called a play in which Chicago Bulls player, Toni Kukoc, took the winning shot in a playoff game. In the amateurs or college ranks, players are constantly told to just “win the game.” And in the outside of professional basketball, no player or worker would dare show that kind of disrespect to their boss without fear of serious consequences.
Many athletes come into the pros without any kind of Biblical moral center in their lives other than the “customary” going to church once in a while. They come into a world of the most sensuous temptations and with millions of dollars to acquire whatever they want to acquire. There are acolytes who are “giving them praise” (and are paid to do so) constantly - they can do no wrong. As long as they show up on the field or court to do their job, as long as they keep winning, the money will keep rolling. The problem - the lack of a Biblical moral center just became ten times worse as time goes by and the body starts to wear down.
The Last Dance: the documentary on Michael Jordan and the years in the 1990s where he and the Chicago Bulls won six championships is an example. While the story is powerfully informative with regards to Jordan and his relentless pursuit of winning, it comes across as depressing to the point of being repulsive. Jordan’s behavior to his team, teammates, coaches, and the late former Bulls owner, Jerry Krause, is legitimized in the name of “winning.” When a few years ago, the Bulls celebrated their 1991 Championship team (the first year the Bulls won), Jordan was not present, and when Jerry Krause’s widow was introduced on behalf of her late husband, the crowd at the United Center arena booed, reducing her to tears. The flippant attitude to members of his team as well as opponents in other teams, even 30 years gone by was more than just off putting, and yet it was justified as if the others should feel privileged to have been on the same court with the “black Jesus.” He made them winners. They got championships they would never get because of his greatness. Is it any wonder then that his time as an NBA team owner was anything but productive? When the intrinsic value of a championship is lost, what do you have?
We no longer live in a time where professional athletes inspire humanity to greatness. Rather, despite winning medals and trophies, many athletes degrade all mankind to the dregs of the gutter. I would caution everyone from becoming enamored of the world of athletics. Be careful. It is now a world where winning the contest does not inspire to new heights of human achievement, where the athletes lack the moral character to elevate good sportsmanship, where the off the field/court shenanigans is embarrassing, where behavior and manners are repulsive.
I do not want to give the idea that there are no players who are different. That would be wrong. Perhaps the most notable is NBA iron man, A.C. Green. Green was a power forward journey man who played in the NBA from 1985 to 2001. Notable for his rebounding and defense, he was part of three championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers and was a one time all-star. He still holds the NBA record of most consecutive games played (1,192), and throughout his time as a student, never missed a day of class. Green was most notable for his personal life. He was not just another “Born Again Christian,” he was a Believer with the Bona Fides to back-up his testimony. Green played during the “Showtime Era” of the Lakers. He was teammates with Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Byron Scott; this was the team infamous for its womanizing. And he did not participate. Rather, he announced his virginity and his abstention of alcohol and drugs and his faith to the team and to the public. His teammates (and he has never specified who, but one can certainly guess) did everything in their power to make him fall, including sending beautiful women to his room. He never once gave in. To this day, most of the NBA world and its media industry laugh at A.C. Green and his testimony. He is an outlier and an outcast. But his life also sparks a guilty conscience behind all the laughs of scoffers.
He married after his career in the NBA was over. Green was involved with youth ministry, encouraging young men and women, boys and girls, to live upward bound no matter what they did in life. His life was a challenge to everyone and anyone who doubts that one can live for God during the worst of circumstances and/or temptations.
No, he probably will not have the Hall of Fame notoriety of several of his contemporaries or teammates, but he never sold his soul for success. And he exemplifies Proverbs 22:1: “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold.” May God raise up men and women with that perspective in place of people who elevate the “thug life.” In a world in which (like it or not) people will look for heroes to emulate, may God raise people who will reflect Jesus Christ.
Let me invoke Dietrich Bonhoeffer again: It is better to be good than to do good. From the time of the ancient world to the present day, athletes have always been held in awe by the world, and their victories have made them immortal. May immortality be in tune with eternity.