Tuning into a professional sporting event in the twenty-first century, a person might spot at least one of the following: a coach arguing with an official, a player arguing with an official, a brawl between players, or a player being ejected from the game. This type of behavior perfectly demonstrates the problems with professional sports today. They are not even sports anymore. They are just jobs. Real sports cannot exist without something called sportsmanship. This seems to be a lost art in today's world of professional sports.
In the early years of our country, sports were merely a way to have fun and pass the time. Now, to many people, it is a career path. This is no surprise, seeing how player salaries have skyrocketed over the past few decades in the major sports such as basketball, football, baseball, and hockey. Every professional athlete has an agent. It is no longer about who has the best team, or the best fans, but who is offering the most money. Some of these players go out there and play hard, but it is only to increase their value in the market. Most of these athletes have no love or respect for their sport anymore. Knowing this, it is no surprise the world of professional sports is currently such a mess.
It also does not help that, at an early age, most children are exposed to a lot of "un-sportsman-like conduct" while playing sports. The sad part of this is, it is usually not from the children themselves, but from the parents. Just a few years ago, two adults got into a fight at their sons" little league hockey game and one ended up dead. About a year ago, in the Little League World Series, the Harlem coach illegally started a sixteen-year-old child at pitcher to gain an unfair advantage in an event meant for twelve-year-olds. Many reports can be seen on the news of parents running onto the field and attacking the referee, or umpire. The list goes on. With such behavior, what is to become of sports when these young children, exposed to this despicable conduct, take over?.