I was born in 1946. I was a typical American boy. I played sports and dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. Like most young men I had my successes and failures playing football, basketball, and baseball as a boy in a nation which continued to recover from the great war.

I was a good, not great athlete. That did not stop me from spending many hours each day attempting to improve my average skills.

I grew up in Los Angeles, California. I was fortunate to have lived in a city which considered Professional Sports a major concern for both the city and its people. In 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to my city. I was 12 years old. In 1960 the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles. Jerry West was a rookie and joined Elgin Baylor and other legendary players who would eventually become historical figures in the history of the NBA.

Although the Los Angeles Rams offered more disappointment than success, my city had teams in all three major professional sports franchises.

As a teenager, I had certain abilities in all three sports. I had a strong and accurate arm which allowed me to be the second string quarterback on my football team. That same arm strength offered me an opportunity to become a pitcher on my baseball team. However, I was very inadequate as a batter, and soon discovered an end to that ambition. Basketball became my primary sport, and I practiced every day of my life for hours in an attempt to move forward into a career. I had several major successes throughout high school but never grew beyond six feet tall and failed to play in college.

As professional sports began to change from the purity of my youth into major corporation corporations, I became less involved in the entertainment I once cherished more than anything else in my life.

First it was baseball. I was aware that many of the greatest players I had grown up watching were underpaid while the owners became obscenely wealthy. When money became more important than the game I no longer cared about what once was considered the “American Pastime.” Free agency eliminated ‘teams.’ As a young man in Los Angeles, I never despaired when my beloved Dodgers had an unsuccessful season. I knew that the players I loved would be more successful in the next year. When that changed, my interest followed.

Basketball was next. Teams became a mixture of players who I no longer considered members of ‘my team.’

Today the only sport I watch faithfully is professional football; and that is nearing an end.

A combination of corruption by the league office, and another effort which involves ‘free agency,’ has produced a product which is less genuine and all too frequently displays prejudice by the announcers and the officials who were once intended to insure that the game remained ‘professional.’

Tonight, January, 13, 2018, I watched the divisional playoff game between the Tennessee Titans and the New England Patriots. I ceased watching the game at the end of the first half. I have witnessed the officials give preference to the Patriots for more than a decade. After the Titans took the lead at seven to zero, the officials made several calls which insured that New England would not lose the game.

Bill Belichick is the greatest and most corrupt coach in the history of the NFL. I expected his team to win tonight, but collusion between his team’s owner, Robert Kraft, and Commissioner Roger Goodell once again guaranteed a victory. I have watched every game played, or their highlights in the NFL for more than 50 years, and I have never witnessed more collusion between one team and the commissioner’s office than what has occurred between the Patriots and the officials in five decades.

Tom Brady has been given accolades by multiple announcers who never witnessed football in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Tom Brady cannot withstand physical punishment. When he is physically assaulted, he loses those games. Tonight the officials protected him once again and he and his team will be in the Conference Championship once again next Sunday.

I am considering an end to my love and devotion to professional sports. Like everything else in America they are becoming an effort by corporations to increase their revenue at the expense of the American people. It is always a case of ‘follow the money.’

Please re-post; thank you.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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