Yes It’s True: I pour cold water on U-M’s big win

Congratulations certainly are in order for the University of Michigan football team in its huge victory Saturday afternoon over Ohio State.

I’ve been a big sports fan nearly all my life, but my interest in collegiate and professional athletics has been severely diminished over the years. I began my community journalism career as a sports writer and sports editor, and I even came to believe in the 1980s I should return to the “playground of journalism,” thinking I was better suited to it than news.

So, I came away from the “Big Game” Saturday with three less than positive interpretations:

Sports is more than just entertainment, it’s big business

I came to the conclusion after the Wolverines’ conquest that “Our mercenaries are better than their mercenaries.”

In years gone by, I noticed that though they wear the maize and blue uniforms of the University of Michigan, a majority of the players aren’t even from our state. I even saw a story in the media that crowed about a highly-sought football player who went to a high school in Ohio decided to attend U of M next year because of that 45-23 victory in the horseshoe.

“You just wanna be on the side that’s winning.” — Bob Dylan.

I’ve known for a long time that professional sports is a business, but it’s becoming even more apparent in the colleges, where the highest paid employee other than the president is the football coach. And each of the schools is in a bidding war for the best athletes, who usually choose that side that’s winning, making it so the winners keep winning and the losers keep losing.

In more recent times it’s gotten so bad that changed rules make it easier for athletes to transfer from one school to another if their current situation isn’t to their liking.

“So be true to your school.” — The Beach Boys.

Too much of this seeps into high school sports, where quality athletes leave their local school to play for a powerhouse to get more notice (and scholarships) from colleges.

Of course, it’s even worse in professional sports, like when the Detroit Tigers gave away Justin Verlander and J.D. Martinez, and most recently the Lions with T.J. Hockenson, for a song because they were getting paid too much and their contracts were coming due. I suppose that’s better than in bygone days when players were bought and sold like cattle.

Sports has whipped us into a frenzied hatred of others

Many folks these days bemoan the lack of civility in politics and the poor sportsmanship that creeps into high school and even Little League contests. I submit too much of it gets a nod and a wink and a guffaw with pre- and post-game behavior of games such as Ohio-State-Michigan.

I was inundated with Facebook posts all week before the game and then plenty of unnecessary hubris in the wake of the Big Game. We’ve become a society of ungracious winners and even worse as sore losers.

As the illustration with this column suggests, we can’t just celebrate the victory, we somehow must rub our opponents’ nose in the dirt.

This really isn’t anything new, it’s a trend that unfortunately seems to get worse every year and now it spills over into our public discourse of politics. Facebook still is littered by unflattering depictions of people with whom we disagree on political issues. I have grown weary of demonizing the enemy, especially if the enemy is a fellow American.

Just as guilty is the Genteel Beast known as the media that never fails to over hype the coming event and then act astonished about something as unbecoming as Michigan State’s attack in the tunnel against Michigan players occurred.

Is this REALLY that important, or does someone want your money?

Old friend Jon Gambee once observed that when you’re out golfing with friends, your next shot, for the next few seconds, is the most important task in your life. But at the end of the day, you probably won’t even remember it, unless it was something fabulous.

So it goes with these overhyped sporting events for us in the best entertained and least informed society in history, I used to ask high school students who won the Super Bowl or NCAA basketball title three years prior, but no one could answer correctly. Yet it’s the talk of the high school when it approaches.

Then I showed the teens a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and asked who he was. Again, no one answered correctly. And no one ever correctly answered my question about how many of those 19 nuts who took out the Twin Towers were from Iraq.

My unpopular position is that we pay far too much attention to entertainment and sports than we do to things that matter much more in our lives.

So I ask the question — who benefits most from this unpleasant, but accurate assessment?