Show me the money

J's World, by Jeremiah Bartz

When a goal, a basket or touchdown is scored you expect to hear the roar of the crowd and a Queen song playing in the stadium or gym.

Instead of hearing "Another One Bites the Dust", "We Are the Champions" or the cheering fans, all that is here now is the sound of the cash register.

When a goal, basket or touchdown is scored a massive "cha-ching" resonates throughout the stadiums. The eyes of professional athletes, coaches and owners alike glaze over with dollar signs.

Like everything else in the world, athletics is controlled by the almighty dollar. Teams and players are prostituting themselves in order to keep moving the decimal point in their bottom dollar further right.

Home runs, touchdowns and jump shots are now worth millions. Some professional athletes are now worth more than a handful of small countries.

So who is to blame? The owners or the athletes?

It is like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Do you blame the guy who demands the cash or the fool that is paying the salaries?

I have always been somewhat bitter about the exorbitant salaries of professional athletes. Why should they make so much, while I am doomed to make so little?

Then I thought, if I was in their position, I would have one thing to say.

Show me the money!

Yes, I would be jumping around like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire.

Show me the money!

If you are willing to pay me hundreds of millions of dollars for hitting a ball or hitting someone, then fork it out!

Show me the money!

If you are 18 years old with probably about 100 bucks in your bank account, are you really going to say,"No, but thank you for your $10 million offer, but I am going to pass up on my dream of playing in the pro ranks to go back to college."

I think not.

Now, don't go and say that I think that players should just automatically skip college. That is not the truth. I think that college is extremly important, not only in the maturation of a person, but the maturation of their skills in their sport.

But, if a player passes up that opportunity at the big contract and goes back to college, they are a knee injury away from selling used cars.

Like everything else in life, it is a gamble that you have to take.

You can always go back to college.

I was in a similar situation myself; granted I was not courted by the Chicago Bears or anything. (Although I think I could have made quite the professional long snapper.)

During my tenure at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, I had the opportunity to become the sports information director of the athletics department. This was not a bad honor for a 22-year old journalism student.

The only problem was that the job would require me to take some time off from school.

Even though my annual salary was equal to what Michael Jordan gets during one minute of play, I had to take the opportunity.

Sometimes you just have to take the money.

As long as the owners are willing to pay players these obscene amounts, then the problem will continue. Players know that the owners will eventually fold and pay them the bucks, and if they don't someone else will.

It is not like the owners are hurting either.

Between ticket sales, merchandising and corporate sponsors, who are willing to pay billions to have their name on a stadium, the average owner does not have to worry about bankruptcy anytime soon.

The responsibility now falls upon the leagues. They need to alter the salary structure and put the demon to rest before the problem consumes to the product.

In the meantime, next time A-Rod signs for 50 billion dollars, I will blame the owners.

Plus I would rather see A-Rod get the billions for playing baseball rather than Tom Cruise getting paid millions for making another crappy movie.

Jeremiah Bartz (sports@frontiersman.com) is the sports editor for the Frontiersman and will probably get fired if he walks into managing editor Frank Ameduri's office screaming "Show me the money!"