Colleges, too, compromise themselves and the sports they exploit, while spending public resources meant for education on small numbers of student-athletes, most of whom would not qualify academically for admission. Although athletic departments protest that marketing revenue and ticket sales "earn" whatever they spend, and even that some of their profit supports scholarships in less popular sports like wrestling, the awkward fact is that college athletic departments drain enormous academic and administrative resources from (public) universities and divert attention from the primary raison d'être of a university.
Call Them Commercial Sports Businesses (CSBs)
The most accurate term for what are inappropriately called professional sports teams appears to be Commercial Sports Businesses (CSBs). Let us agree for now to use the initials CSBs as a convenient abbreviation, so as to keep clearly in mind the essential commercial nature of these enterprises.
Another possible term, "commercial sports pimps and prostitutes" has also been suggested, although that phrase becomes a bit wordy and rolls less readily off the sportscasters' tongues, so we must settle instead for CSBs.
In summary, CSBs distort the noble nature of sports just as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic distorts the noble nature of elected office in a democracy by auctioning an appointment to a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder; in each case deliberate exploitation debases the very activity which it attempts to leverage for a profit.
Commercial Sports Businesses Sap the Vitality from Sports
Commercial "sports" corporations debase the intrinsic qualities of true sport beyond recognition, thereby negating the very virtues for which sports are valued. League corporations, commonly called "professional sports teams", as well as the multitude of newspapers, network and cable sportswriters and sportscasters that fawn over them, have been willing accessories to this exploitation which has robbed sport of any integrity.
Why would an intelligent person voluntarily watch the 2009 Superbowl, where approximately 100 egotistical male jocks whose main vocational interest is obtaining lucrative endorsement contracts will run back and forth with a ball, when the viewer could experience so much more fun that day playing touch football in his or her own neighborhood? Does it serve the sport of football, for example, when just 50 athletes per squad (100 total) actually "play" while millions-most of whom would really benefit from some exercise--sit passively before their TV screens?
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