BarrieBergman

Siss Boom Bah!

College athletics have ben important to me since I was a young child.  Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, I became a UNC fan.  My first hero was football player Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice.  When Carolina won the NCAA basketball championship in 1957, I was as excited as I’ve ever been about a game.

Later I switched allegiances, when I went to Duke, but switched back UNC because we had too many family members split, and I lived in Chapel Hill anyway.  The Tar Heels became my team.  I have gone to a lot of games.  I’ve traveled to Bowl games and Final Fours.  I’ve spent countless hours glued to the TV screen.

The reason that I’ve recounted this personal journey is because I have just about had enough of college athletics.  The greed and the lying, the insistence that “it’s all for the student athletes,” is making me ill.  Now we are faced with several sexual abuse scandals, which were covered up by schools to protect the programs (i.e. the money).

We need a new model for universities.  Either sponsor teams with paid players, who don’t attend the schools, or revert to a inter-mural model more like the Ivy League, but less commercial.

The athletic tail is now wagging the educational dog.  The schools have lost their way, and it’s starting to hurt their educational goals.  In a time when budgets have been cut and tuition costs are going out of sight, it makes no sense to occupy college time and energy with a preoccupation on the business of athletics, which has nothing to do with education.

Athletic Supporter

Jim Tressel, the Ohio State football coach, got fired this week.  His crime was a cover-up, which included lying to the NCAA.  His players had gotten discounts from tattoo parlors and car dealerships.  Even with the penalty, the players were allowed to play in a bowl game, that was OK’d by the NCAA.  This looks somewhat suspicious, since it raised the TV ratings of the game.

It’s hard to find a place to start because there is so much stupidity and greed at play here.  Normal people can get discounts or free stuff and it’s OK with everybody, but college athletes can’t get anything because they are amateurs, whatever the hell that means.

The NCAA, the conferences, and the schools are making billions of dollars, but the kids can only have a scholarship, which many of them don’t want in the first place.  The kids aren’t allowed enough money to go to McDonald’s.  If I trade my t-shirt for a tattoo, it’s not an issue.   But let a 350 pound lineman do it, and he’s an ogre.

Coach Tressel got in trouble for lying to protect his players.  He was covering up a rule that is so stupid, that I can’t even figure out if he was wrong, except that he pontificated all the time about what an ethical guy he was.  If a player plays a video game and sees his likeness on the game, he doesn’t get paid.  If he sees his jersey in a store with his name on it, he gets nothing.  Is that fair?

I love college athletics, but this stuff is nuts.  I’ve given money to schools before, because I’m an athletic supporter, but from now on I’m giving my money directly to the players, under the table, of course.

Rumination

I’ve been reading the new John Grisham book, The Confession.  It’s about a guy on death row and the difficulties that our society has with killing a person, who is convicted of a heinous crime.

I’ve been back and forth on the death penalty.  Years ago I was convinced that it was a deterrent, and that tipped the scales for me.  But eventually I decided that civilized societies don’t operate by the code of Hammurabi, i.e. “an eye for an eye.”

To actually put a person to death in our country takes many years and millions of dollars.  It seems to me, in our cash strapped society, that there must be better use for the money than spending it to kill someone, not to mention the ethical concerns.

Read the Grisham book.  It’s a good narrative, and it made me think about a subject that’s become far too politicized.  Art that makes me think is worth my time.

On a lighter note, Bristol Palin earned $260,500 last year advocating against teen pregnancy.  She wants teens to abstain from sex.  I have no comment on this matter.

Ethical Hero

We recently hosted a reception in our home for the UCSB Capps Center.  Gordon Massie, AIG whistleblower, was the guest speaker.  Read about the ethical dilemma Massie faced and how he bravely handled it.  http://www.ethicsstupid.com/hero.html

Video Clip - Barrie Bergman speaks about Jane Fonda and Freedom of Speech

At a recent speech I told the story of an ethical dilemma I once faced, when the outspoken Jane Fonda was scheduled to visit a Record Bar store to launch a new fitness video.  Vietnam Veterans were protesting her appearance, and I was forced to make a tough decision.