Let the Man Earn it First!!!

Now let's get one thing straight before I jump into the topic of athlete paychecks...I don't begrudge athletes for getting paid and getting paid handsomely. You will never hear me say "he's not worth that kinda money," because none of them are...ARod ain't worth $25 million a year just as the output of the 12th man on the Clippers doesn't correspond correctly with his pay stub. But hey, they have more skill and talent than I'll ever have so more power to them.

One monetary mockery that does drive me insane, however, is when we pay our hopeful hero's boat loads of cash before they've even slipped on a uniform. Future phenom Stephen Strasburg was drafted number one overall by the pathetic Washington Nationals the other day. The San Diego State product, who's paraded around by none other than super agent Scott Boras, is expected to obliterate Mark Prior's record $10.5 million 2001 deal. Now, unless Obama has a bailout package for DC's Duds, there's no way in the name of Joe Biden that the right-hander will get the $50 million that some in the media have claimed. He will though, like Matthew Stafford, JaMarcus Russell, Alex Smith and others (mostly in baseball and football), get the cash before they've ever made a splash.

Without sounding like one of those old farts who begins each sentence with "back in my day," I really believe this pay before you play phenom is yet another example of the world of entitlement we have created. Kids grow up believing they will always make the varsity squad, that every exam has a retake and that Harvard and Yale won't be the same without them. We build children up like the new Yankee Stadium and when it's finally time for them to meet The Real World, their views are obstructed and their sense of reality, like the homeruns, are loooong gone!

Major League Baseball needs to input a rookie wage scale (similar to the NBA) to combat these ludicrous contracts. Let's see if a prospect's curveball is major league-ready before the first Corvette is in his driveway. Let's stop telling athletes and kids how great they are before they've proven it on the big stage.

For the record, I hope Stephen Strasburg lives up to the hype, our nation's capital deserves a winning ball club. But let's put an end to the coddling of athletes, the helicopter parents who won't let their kids go to the bathroom alone, the varsity basketball teams that don't make cuts...The Wussification of America!

Gym class in this country used to be about playing dodgeball and the objective was a simple one...locate the overweight, slow, dorky kids and peg the shit out of them. Why??? Because it makes sense! Now the only thing kids dodge in gym class is a sense of reality.

Some people in life make it, others don't and still other's take the road less traveled. Let's allow children to learn these lessons early so we don't have another Stephen Strasburg, or Scott Boras for that matter, in 10 years!