Step in the Ring

In response to College Football vs. Professional Football

by Adrienne Amos

College and professional football both have their highs and their lows. I enjoy both within reason, but for me college games hold a special charm. They bring back warm memories of my far too brief college days. Autumn on the campus of Michigan State University is spectacular in its beauty. Add to that the excitement of college football and you have the making of a Norman Rockwell painting of college life before women’s lib and free love. You could smell the anticipation of victory on game days, long before the opening kick-off. Granted, all is not ideal in college football. Even back then there was too much favoritism given to the best players, like under-the-table deals.

Photograph by R Desai. Some rights reserved.

But professional football is big business at its worst. Players make obscene amounts of money to play a game, then throw “drama queen” fits if someone fails to bow down to them or things don’t always go their way. To be fair, that’s not all players all the time, but it happens entirely too often for them to be considered role models for our youth. There are great exceptions, of course. I am impressed that more professional players are giving back to the communities that support them–like Warrick Dunn, to name one.

However, from the owners down, many teams hold their host cities hostage the majority of the time. Just ask the people of Tampa, Florida. They pay every day for a stadium that in my opinion has inadequate seating and is overdone in glitz—replete with a roaring cannon to mark scores.

The game is brutal. I can understand being compensated for possible injuries. But if we all follow that train of thought, our soldiers should be making more than any player in any sport. Fat chance of that!

In this technological age, players are better conditioned than players of old, and the medical support available to them is top-notch. Wouldn’t it be nice if every citizen could have the same care players receive at our expense? Oh yes, it’s on our dime. We pay for that with every ticket and every hot dog.

We know that in olden days there were many alcoholics and tobacco chain smokers in various sports. But now we have steroid users and abusers of other illegal drugs added to the mix. Many players are womanizers and/or abusive. It makes me sad to think today’s college players are already well on their way to misbehaving like the pros, and no one seems willing or able to stop it.

College or professional? If you want to see a real game of football, watch some high school games. They still have a lot to prove and are willing to give their all to do what needs to be done. Or give me nostalgia: take me back to Joe Montana in his prime, or even further back to legends like Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr. That’s where the best spirit of football lives.

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