Anyone Else Tired of the Lockouts?

It seems like every year when a sports season is about to start, we hear about a lockout. Whether it be Football, Hockey, Basketball or Baseball, someone always wants more money. What kind of message are we sending our youth?

The NHL has canceled the first two weeks of the season because the owners and the players can't come to an agreement on how much to pay players. The Players Union still wants to play while the bargaining agreement takes place.

"If the owners truly cared about the game and the fans, they would lift the lockout and allow the season to begin on time while negotiations continue," said Don Fehr, the executive director of the players' union. "A lockout should be the last resort in bargaining, not the strategy of first resort. For nearly 20 years, the owners have elected to lock out the players in an effort to secure massive concessions." Seems to me that the owners and players greed is getting in the way of the real reason most of them got in this business. For the love of the game.

We saw this take place two seasons ago in the NFL. They were able to come to an agreement just in time, but speculators said that the season was ruined because of the delayed practices, and a short preseason. Then this year the Officials wanted more pay, and so they locked out. We all know what happened with that. Games were miss called, teams won that shouldn't have, and the reputation of the NFL in all was ruined.

We have even seen this take place in the MLB 7 times since 1972. The biggest one, most of us remember was back in 1994 when the whole season was canceled. Most of these are because the billionaire owners don't want to pay the athletes that make the game happen.

Lockouts have even happened in the NBA, one of them pretty recently where the season was shortened and the players were playing games just about everyday of the season. Which in return lead to more injuries, less rest, and they relied more on the bench players.

What kind of lessons and influences is this having on our children? We teach them to share, to play fair, and to play for the passion of the game. While the owners and the athletes that our children look up to are doing it for the money. American sports are starting to become some what of a joke with all the lockouts. It is ruining the integrity of the game. I'm at the point that I don't want my kid to grow up to be a professional athlete.