I have long been aware of our society's love affair with winners, especially as it relates to sports. Legendary Packers Coach Vince Lombardi was known for sayings like "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" and "There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game and that is first place. The late Dale Earnhardt commented, "Second place is just the first place loser.
While some admittedly cherish a good underdog, the majority of people seem to prefer being associated with a winner. As a coach, I like competing and winning as much as the next person, but I've come to the conclusion that things are getting way out of hand. I don't know when it all started, but a paradigm shift certainly seemed to take effect sometime in the mid to late 1990's and the new way of doing business is advancing like an avalanche down Mt. Everest.
I think the shift started around the time that the stock market was making double digit gains every year, tech stocks were only going up, up, up, and housing values seemed to jump every year. The sentiment embraced by many, and popularized by Michael Douglas while playing the fictional character Gordon Gekko, holds that "Greed for a lack of a better word, is good." The movers and shakers of the collective sports world must have felt the same way, as the economics of the games began to spiral out of control.
Around the same time, corporate luxury suites began to spring up and the average "Joe Fan" was literally priced right out of his seat. Along came "seat licenses" in the mid 1990's and fans soon found themselves not only paying for rising ticket prices, but also this new privilege to actually purchase the lifetime rights to buy season tickets. More than a billion dollars later, NFL teams are literally rolling in the money from this clever marketing idea. As I remember, it was also around this time that salaries in sports like basketball basically skyrocketed overnight. Who can forget a guy like Juwan Howard (an average NBA player at best) getting a 7 year deal for 105 million in the mid 1990's!! That deal literally came out of the blue and it set the stage for ridiculous practices that are still going on today. Then, there was the A-Rod deal in baseball for 10 years and something like 250 million plus. This one was from the (See also bankruptcy court) Texas Rangers.
In any case, the money trail changed the game at several different levels. Many players learned to be "entitled" and selfish on the playing fields, so they could individually cash in on these megadeals. Player behavior off the field also reached new lows as all that money, adulation, and power seemed to cloud better judgment and impair the ability of many athletes to make good decisions. Fans grudgingly accepted the fact of paying more to see their teams, and with it came a sense of bitterness and entitlement to often behave badly in the stands. Fans demanded that players always finish first, and if they don't, it is time to fire the coach and get some new players. Rich teams like the Yankees went out and bought championship after championship and people learned to become okay with calling that sports. Players juiced to break records, hit more home runs, run and bike faster, build more muscle mass, recover quicker, etc..... Some coaches got in the act too by encouraging unfair play and cheating. Why, you ask??? Once again, I would have to point to the money.
Now, the sickness has made its way into high school and college sports. I have witnessed signs of this madness and crazy behavior at youth sporting events as well. More recently, I have witnessed this "warped" way of doing business catching fire in the world of major college football. In my local area, I've watched as three head coaches of major college football programs have literally been shown the door at the schools where they coached. All three programs had winning records this past season, all three made it to a post-season bowl game, and two of the three were victorious in their bowl game. The programs I'm speaking about are West Virginia, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Maryland. Maryland finished 9-4 this season, beat East Carolina 51-20 in their bowl game, and had several winning seasons and bowl game appearances under Ralph Friedgen. He was rewarded by being fired. Dave Wannstedt led Pitt to an 8-5 record, a victory in their bowl game vs. Kentucky, and a 10 win season in 2009. Apparently, the Compass Bowl isn't good enough at Pitt, so Wannstedt was shown the door. Maybe, it was the 35-10 late season home loss vs. West Virginia that sealed his fate. Last but not least, I have to mention Bill Stewart at WVU. The Mountaineers have had winning seasons in each of Stewart's seasons since he took over for Rich Rodriguez (see also- fired and collecting millions). WVU did lose their bowl game this year, but they finished a respectable 9-4. His New Year's gift was the opportunity to stay on one more year as he was told to kindly step aside after next season for new offensive coordinator and head coach in waiting Dana Holgersen.
Have these people gone completely mad!!! Where is the logic in all of this? Maybe it's me who is way of base here. Maybe, I am just slow to adjust to these new times. As I sat to ponder to my own thoughts on all of this one day last week, I happened to pick up the sports section of the Pittsburgh paper. On the front page, an article mentioned that Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf had won his arbitration case. The Pirates, coming off a Major League worst 57-105 record, would be forced to give Mr. Ohlendorf a raise. Well, it wasn't just any raise. The raise is equal to 361%. That is none too shabby considering the economic times most of us try and live in. Here is the best part. Ross Ohlendorf went 1-11 last season, and now he will get a raise from $439,000 to $2,020,000. Yes, that's right. 2 MILLION DOLLARS for ONE win. Besides the insanity of this scenario, I decided to apply the principle to people who have jobs outside of the sports world.
Let's take a real estate agent. The agent is presented with the quota of selling 1 property per month for each month of the year. At the end of the year, the agent meets the goal for one month out of the 12 and ends up with a 361% raise---- Not gonna happen
A construction worker is charged with the task of building 12 decks in a year, or one for each month that he works for his company. At the end of the year, 1 deck is still standing, but the other 11 have collapsed to the ground due to faulty construction.----I don't see a 361% raise on his horizon!!
In the end, it appears that we need to redefine what it means to WIN in our society. Winning on the scoreboard is a great goal to have, but not at the expense of everything else that we hold dear as a society. If we fail to change our ways, we will continue to contaminate the ideas of winning. Future generations will never realize that a lot of winning takes place on the journey itself, not just in the order we finish in at our final destination.
Lights Out.
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