The Fairness of Sport

My Green Bay Packers were eliminated from the playoffs today. 51-46 in overtime down in Phoenix to the Arizona Cardinals. There are many reasons to gun for home field advantage, but one of them shouldn't be to get calls from the refs. I don't feel that the refs dominated tonight's game, but I believe the Pack would have won on a neutral field or at Lambeau.

Hey, but there it is. Great season. Aaron Rodgers is working out beautifully in the post-Favre era. Many bright spots in our young lineup. We'll get 'em next year!

But here's the deal. I'm finding sports in general less palatable these days, and it has much to do with fairness. I'm getting this gnawing feeling that sport is filled with unwritten rules, winks & nods, hidden agendas. I'm not necessarily a conspiracy theorist, believing that umpiring is really done from the commissioner's office. But more and more it just kinda stinks, like Walter Matthau's rotting fish in the back seat of Jack Lemmon's car.

The coverage of Tim Donaghy's book (disgraced NBA ref caught betting and cheating on games) had plenty of dirt in it that's way too easy to believe. I realize that having the Bucks as my state NBA team lends itself to disillusionment from the start, but the whole league feels like smoke and mirrors to me. Ticky-tack fouls, flopping, traveling, leniency for the stars...I just don't see much pure sport in it. College is better...

Baseball...OK, I'm in the same boat with the Brewers. But the issue here is the have's and the have-not's. When the Yankees and their ilk can cherry pick the CC Sabathia's of the world, why should I encourage my son to emotionally invest? Is it really fair that the Brewers have to try to catch lightning in a bottle while the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers are flying a kite in an electrical storm?

So the NFL has the world by the tail, and now there's talk of going into an uncapped year!!! Change the revenue sharing formulas that have brought parity to the NFL and you'll kill the golden goose...and lose a big Canucky fan.

And golf is about as fair as it gets...seems pretty hard to cheat with 400 spectators 8 feet from your ball and 57 cameras zooming in on every stroke. Fair enough, but then there's this whole Tiger playboy thing. I don't mean to pile on, but there's definitely an eau d'sardine around golf for me as well.

Maybe hockey has it right: everyone back off and let them beat the tar out of each other for a while. The one who bleeds the most loses. Fair and square. No goofy BCS rankings. No makeup calls. Just mono a mono.

But then that's not really sport. That's actually more like war, or crime at least. And that's kinda what we're avoiding by going with the sports thing.

Am I just a jilted fan sounding off? A little bit. But I'm also calling for fairness however we can get it in sports. And I'm reminding the powers that be that I'm a fan...and I can tune out any time I want to.