Supersucks

Regardless of whether or not you love sports, I would suggest you take five minutes out of your day to read Kevin Jackson's article from earlier this morning on ESPN.com. To briefly summarize the situation, Jackson is writing about the impending departure of his life-long favorite sports franchise from his home town, Seattle, Washington, to another city and state (most likely Oklahoma City). Jackson doesn't fully explain the details of the move, as this is an ongoing issue that he and other ESPN.com writers have often covered over the past few years, but the article stems from the issue that his Seattle SuperSonics, an NBA franchise, is looking to relocate away from Seattle and leave behind hundreds of thousands of fans in a city that has hosted them for over forty years (inception was 1967). The issue was spawned when a proposal to build a new arena for the Sonics, which only cost $500 million dollars, never materialized and billionaire Howard Shultz (Starbucks guy) decided to sell the team to an Oklahoma City businessman in 2006, who is now eagerly awaiting the end of the Sonics current Seattle-located lease at Key Arena in 2010.

This issue touches home with me primarily because a similar situation happened in my birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio, over a decade ago (1995) when beloved Cleveland Browns were moved by owner Art Modell to Baltimore, Maryland, despite the Browns being the oldest franchise in the National Football League. This was a very painful experience for an 11 year-old that loved everything involving his favorite sports team, and since that move, despite the city of Cleveland starting an expansion team several years later, sports have meant more to me than just fun and games. I feel like Jackson's article is a good example of why sports are more meaningful than simply entertainment.

So next time someone at your job or someone you know makes a claim like "why does congress waste its time investigating steroids in baseball?", or "Why can't that senator do something about crime rates in urban area rather than making inquiries to the NFL?" (both comments from my coworker who could care less about sports, but thankfully is actually worried about crime rates in urban areas), just remember that congress is not only investigating a multi-billion dollar financial institution, they are also investigating organizations that help instill community and family values for hundreds or millions of people worldwide that have should have a responsibility to its customers and a responsibility to its supporters (tax payers, ticket buyers, kids that spend their allowance on posters of their favorite athletes) to run their business with integrity. That way kids' memories are filled with images of good beating evil, and not the other way around.