OPINION:
Michael McKenna is spot-on in “The business of college football and academic moral rot” (Web, Dec. 4). Mr. McKenna criticizes college football coaches who leave their positions in the middle of a season for higher-paying coaching positions at other schools. He calls college football big business and writes: “University administrators and alumni routinely raise fantastic sums for athletic programs and pay coaches millions of dollars while raising tuition and other costs. That indicates a certain level of intellectual and moral rot.”
Allow me to take this concept a little further. The sport of football itself is an example of moral rot. It is violent and aggressive, the object being for the defense to tackle and knock someone down during every play. Mr. McKenna writes that football is fun to watch. How much fun is it to watch injured players being carried from the field on a stretcher? Let’s also look at boxing. Children are taught by parents and teachers not to get into fist fights. Yet fans pay money to watch boxers pound each other in the ring. That’s moral rot.
Finally, though professional baseball is not in itself violent, players chew tobacco and spit it out all over the dugout and field, leaving their rotting garbage for someone else to pick up. What kind of example is this for our youngsters?
Wake up, Americans! Spend your time and money on more worthwhile pursuits.
DIANE ISABELLE REINKE
Silver Spring, Md.
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