Greed and the Death of Professional Sports Essay -- Argumentative Pers

Greed and the Death of Professional Sports         Show me the m angiotensin-converting enzymey, screamed Rod.  Cmon Jerry, show me themoney  We vividly remember this famous line from the hit movie, JerryMaguire.  The parsimonious football player, Rod Tidwell, screams theseunforgettable lines trying to convince his agent that he will not settlefor any less than a top sawbuck salary as the flashy Arizona Cardinal widereceiver.  This scene exemplifies what has happened to master key sportsin recent years.  The focus of professional sports has evolved from one ofteam formulate and camaraderie to one of avarice and greed.  The specificproblems in recent years that have stemmed off this overwhelming greedinclude exorbitant salaries, lockouts (or work stoppages) in professionalsports, and the growing disparity among team payrolls.         Most recognize these issues as major problems however, others overlook the greed and see validity in the financial aspect of todayssports world.  They lay out that professional sports are thriving and shouldnot be modified.  They also contend that sometimes lockouts are unavoidableand are often the only way to work out problems.  The opposition reasonsthat professional teams with huge payrolls deserve all the money becausethey worked hard to get where they are.  They argue that most players workhard to become keen athletes and therefore they deserve enormous salaries.They also plead that lockouts are healthy for professional sports becausethey help each sport continually evolve and adapt to pertly problems it faces. While the opposition does not notice the gr... ...roblems though, or they will lose everything. Works Cited Abert, Daniel.  Pact Ends NHL Lockout. Monthly Labor Review 118 (1995)76. Baseball Owners Approve impermanent Revenue Sharing. Available Onlinewww.espnet.sportzone.com/editors/mlb/features /0321meeting.html Bergman, Ray.  My Baseball Dream. Baseball Parks 1 (1996) 1. Dortch, Shannon.  The Future of Baseball. American Demographics 18 (1996)25-30. Jerry Maguire. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr. Tri-Star Pictures, 1996. Licter, Richard. Magical Season. Milwaukee Journal discoverer 12 Oct. 1998,1. McGraw, Dan. Baseball Celebrates, Fans Yawn. US News. 2 Nov.  1998, 1. NFL on CBS. Writ. Tom Weinert. Perf. Al Michaels, Henry Tevers, and Brian Green. CBS, New York. 26 Nov. 1998.