As I think back to a famous quote by Jay-Z and Too $hort, "It was all good just a week ago” I can’t help but think about how it’s that time again.
Every year after the championship game is played and a new team is crowned victorious, all the teams get right back down to business by drafting, releasing, trading and renewing players contracts, in a sense, herding them around like cattle.
In the off-season you tend to see it all, including players you would never think would leave a team, well...be gone. What's interesting is fans always talk about team loyalty, but do those same teams have fan/player loyalty? I don't think so. In reality, a professional sport is a business to owners, and entertainment for everyone else.
To go deeper about off-season woes, the speculation about what the San Diego Chargers would do with their star running back Ladainian Tomlinson has been floating around for months.
That dreaded day for Charger fans has come. As of yesterday, the Chargers released LT in order to pave way for their upcoming future. Looking on the bright side, the good thing about releasing him before March is that it allows LT to get an early start on finding a new team.
It also enables the Chargers to avoid having to pay him bonuses and other fees LT would be due to receive should he still be a member of the team come next month. I am sad to see LT go, but I also understand the business of football.
Looking at it from a business standpoint, LT's performance has decreased every year since 2006, and the payout plus bonuses would be enormous for a 30 year old running back, should they have decided to keep him. I definitely understand the sticky situation at hand.
Although he has been a hero and gracious leader in the community on and off the field, like I keep reiterating, pro sports is a business to owners and entertainment for everyone else.
What will definitely be interesting to see is how things play out. I have foreseen two possible outcomes for this new found situation.
One is the Indianapolis Colts were the last team to release their star running back Edgerin James in 2007. The Colts ended up winning the Superbowl that very next year, so that could very well happen to the Chargers.
The second is LT can go to a team that can use him accurately and then he can finally win a championship with that team...wow.
Wouldn't that be something? Either way, I do want to wish LT the best of success as well as to tell football fans all around the world, "Hey loyal team fans, hold your head up high, there is always next season."
*sidenote, I do have to ask, what about those people that migrate often or never really watched professional sports until they saw a certain player live?
People always crack on me for not actually having a Team (besides the Yankees, I don't care who plays for the Yanks...die hard for life) but even then, my loyalty was never to a specific team (cough besides Yankees), my loyalty was to a player that made me enjoy, scratch that.. LOVE the game.
Growing up, if it wasn't for Kevin Garnett in high school or Michael Jordan in the pros, I wouldn't have watched basketball.
If it wasn't for Randy Moss, I definitely wouldn't have watched football at all as an adult.
If it wasn't for...well, wanting to be a broadcaster and move to New York, I wouldn't have watched baseball or become a Yankees fan at all!! Yankees baseball is the epitome of the NYC lifestyle!
When I look back to 1998 and then look forward to two thousand beyond, I realize for me, 1998 was the year I really started watching SPORTS! What a great year...ha...
I also realize I am getting older which means so are my favorite players, whom will eventually retire and then what? I guess I need to start going to more pro games, huh?
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