Have a little assignment for ya while watching Sunday’s NFL and MLB games:
Note how many times the leagues’ partner networks focus on players acting like self-smitten me-first show-offs — replaying shots of posing, preening, trash-talking and excessively uncivil professionals rather than showing them doing something skillful as it relates to winning team games.
And while noting this, consider the national epidemic that has led to the resignations of trained and qualified high school, Little League and rec league game officials, because they no longer will indulge the verbal and physical abuse from players, coaches, parents, family and anyone else in attendance who grew up on what TV and pro sports have thoughtlessly chosen to sell as the essence of organized sports.
From a recent missive sent to the parental figures within a Long Island region’s ball-playing kids:
“Dear Parents/Guardians of Bellmore-Merrick Student-Athletes:
“As we begin the High School and Middle School fall sports seasons, the availability of game officials is, once again, a significant hurdle.
“Frankly, due to the extreme shortage of officials available to officiate all sports in general, Section VIII has a limited pool of officials now, not just in Middle School sports but for ALL sports throughout the county, regardless of the level.
“For example, to date, we have been told that a number of JV soccer games at the HS level have not all been assigned officials as of yet, necessitating many to become scrimmages.
“Additionally, at the High School level, more and more football games will be scheduled as early as 11 a.m. so the same crew can officiate other games later in the day throughout Nassau County.
“Further, many, if not all JV football games will now be played on Mondays to accommodate the lack of qualified football officials …
“That being said, there are games currently scheduled that will not be assigned game officials. In these instances our coaches do their best to both coach and maintain the safest possible playing environment for our student-athletes.
“Please remember … this is not exclusive to just [this district] as this is occurring throughout Nassau and Suffolk County. Moreover, this is now considered a national issue.”
Signed, “Eric Caballero, Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics.”
I’ve been down this steepening perilous path before, writing several columns over the past 25 years about assaults on kid- and adult-league refs and umpires, how what was once a rarity has become a weekly, cell phone-recorded occurrence.
And it continues to grow worse. And a foresight-deficient leader such as Rob Manfred, who claimed that kids are MLB’s “top priority,” gave his certified stamp of approval to promo campaigns encouraging the sights of MLBers bat-flipping, me-dancing and in various other acts of unsportsmanlike conduct to best attract impressionable children to baseball.
And the fools at MLB Network, including parents, can’t show enough of it.
So give it some notice and thought Sunday, as you watch what TV and its NFL and MLB business partners continue to do to our sports.
Speaking of Rob Manfred and his bogus highest regard for kids, we’ve received several emails lamenting what MLB’s salivating addiction to TV money, especially for biggest-market games, has done to next Sunday afternoon’s Phillies at Mets, the last Mets home game of the season.
It’s now a Sunday night game, as per MLB’s sold-at-auction deal with game-wrecking ESPN.
This from former Post colleague Joe LoVerde:
“My family — 14 of us, including teens and tots — bought tickets to this game. Two of my adult kids are running the 7 Line road race that morning at Citi Field, and then we figured we’d all go to the Mets game at 1:40, after tailgating.
“But then ESPN grabbed the game, moving it to 7:15 — past the kids’ bedtimes and with the teenagers having school the next day in New Jersey.
“Family outing ruined. Thanks, Manfred!”
And, of course, this has and will be met with MLB-compliant media silence, same as with 15 years of can’t-miss-’em good seats in new Yankee Stadium, no pressure, let alone blame or shame applied.
Well, if Manfred and team owners’ grand plan was to eliminate the most exiting games from maximal view and short-term money behind paywalls — Friday’s Red Sox-Yanks, the latest — they have succeeded. And if MLB can condition fans to live without such games, it deserves the corrosion it has earned.
There’s little more harrowing for a cop than pulling over a speeding car with tinted windows. Cops can’t see if the driver is reaching for his registration or a gun.
Yet, Tyreek Hill, who last July reached a settlement with a charter boat worker he assaulted, according to a Sunday police report didn’t cooperate with the detaining officer, thus was reasonably — by the book — forced to the ground.
Informed that Hill is a star Dolphins receiver, the cop, as per video evidence, had no idea who he is or where he was headed — and hopefully didn’t care.
During the game, after Hill scored, he and teammate Jaylen Waddle performed a handcuff mime for pandering Roger Goodell to silently enjoy as Hill rejoined the growing legion of former college stars to degrade the NFL with their criminal conduct.
Hill, full scholarship recruit to Oklahoma, transferred to West Alabama after pleading guilty to assaulting a female.
Still, Hill claims his adventure-filled ride to Miami’s opener served him — and the cops, no doubt — as a learning experience.
But such is Goodell’s NFL.
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker suffered immediate public condemnation from the NFL (and much media and celebrities). The kind of backlash normally reserved for the likes of Deshaun Watson, who settled 23 lawsuits for sexual abuse of women and recently had a new one filed against him. Heck, Watson soon signed a fully guaranteed $230 million deal to quarterback the Browns.
But, again, this is the leadership provided by Goodell for $70 million per. Perhaps at dinner with his family this week, he’ll recite the X-rated lyrics of his latest chosen Super Bowl headlining rapper.
Here’s another one for Goodell: Now that he has standardized the black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice,” before large-audience games — a transparent public relations stunt rather than an act rooted in sincerity — what do white, Hispanic and Asian-Americans do at such games?
Do they respectfully stand, or would that risk accusations of “appropriating black culture?”
What do black folks do during the traditional, one-song-fits-all national anthem? Do they sit, as it’s not their national anthem?
Or is he such a quick-fix divisive fool that he never even considered such?