Athletic Manifesto

I was recently sitting down to a rousing game of cribbage with Karl Marx, and we began to talk. I believe it was somewhere around when I finished my second slice of Jenny Marx's delicious meatloaf, that we began talking about the present day culture of American leisure. I believe, that on some level, far too deeply rooted in the human psyche for me to grasp, we (collectively) reached a ruth - which I will refer to as the Athletic Manifesto.

It took much deep thinking and intuition, as well as a distractedness that led to my giving him a jack and a five in his crib, for me to cultivate what I saw as the underlying loci of fault in the deteriorating genes of athletic endeavor. Perhaps, my mind's eye is somewhat out of focus, but seemingly players are not as interested in winning or garnering success as a team, as they are with raking in honors and money.

I'm not sure that this has ever been more evident than in this past off season with baseball. One player, who was the epitome of a franchise- who nicknamed the franchise by characterizing himself, who patrolled a prehistoric park by enlikening himself to a prehistoric man; saw it best to leave a team who loved him, to leave a city that rallied behind him, and leave a persona that rivaled Clint Eastwood in the bad ass department. The cost of leaving is apparent in the aura surrounding Yawkey Way; the benefit of leaving is money. It seems that somewhere imprinted on the human heart is a lust, a deep lust for money- this desire overtakes all else, all decency, all loyalty, and even ten inches of hair.

This is the state of the modern athlete; it is a situation in which quarterbacks are refusing to play for a given team before they've even proven themselves.

It is a situation where wide recievers write books called, "Give Me the Damn Ball" and other wide recievers insult their teammates and badmouth their franchise and city- which leads to the melt down of said team.

It is a situation where the heroes of America's past time use drugs to rewrite the record books and erase the good, clean players of yesteryear with asterisks and syringes.

It is a situation where somehow, somewhere what was once a striking balance of physical, individual achievement coupled with team grit and chemistry has been overtaken by television, notoriety, and wealth. There are ageless people out there who remember the days when sports were looked upon as a brilliant reminder of all that could be celebrated in the world: teamwork, interpersonal bonds, and (yes) individual achievement- however, individual achievement in the holistic interest of a team.

So, where do the impending doom of the athletic universe and a game of cribbage with Karl Marx bisect? Well perhaps, it will take a page out of his ideology to mend the burned bridges of athletics in the 21st century.

Here's a novel idea: stop financially rewarding individual achievement. Yes, pay all stars their due with trips to the All Star Game, Pro-Bowl, etc. but do not allow this individual achievement to overshadow the goals of a team. The cornerstone of sports must retreat to the desire of victory, rather than an athletes desire to cash in on his walk year.

In the NFL for instance, the commish could implement a minimum salary - maybe in the 500 grand range (which isn't a shabby living). Then the better the team, the more each individual makes. This would create a situation in which the best players make the same as the role players, but depending on how well the team does, that amount could be quite substantial.

Perhaps, this is a scary idea - something that would never take place in America because even the slightest hint of communism sends us running for the bomb shelter. And, honestly, there's no hiding the socialist ideals on the breath of this animal, however, it is hard to know for sure that socialism would be a corrupt system if there were an honest government.
This is why a system of such values could be quite successful in the NFL, because the commishioner does not act alone, but he has the NFLPA (players association) as a checks and balances system. This creates a feasibility surrounding said proposal- which would encourage team unity and team achievement- which is after all what we're teaching our kids to cherish in little league, correct?