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Sadly, physical prowess has replaced intelligence, as the big money maker in America. The big problem with that, is the brain dead, highly paid, sports figures aren't smart enough to stop themselves from getting caught for their petty indiscretions.
Enter the UCLA football team, not exactly a group of brain surgeons, with the latest new scandal. Disgustingly, this scandal is not between a school alumni association and a player over a sports car gift, but over fraud committed against a government agency, with handicapped persons the ultimate victims!
You may find this hard to believe, but I swear that I am not making this up.
Associated Press Writer, Robert Jablon reports, among others, " Fourteen football players -- arguably the healthiest men on the UCLA campus -- received handicapped parking permits by claiming fake injuries, investigators said Friday. The California Department of Motor Vehicles listed a litany of complaints: knee injuries, back injuries, back surgery, a torn ligament, Bell's Palsy, asthma. All of the claims were bogus, said Mike Qualls, spokesman for the city attorney's office ". Jablon went on, " The football players allegedly used the placards to avoid the $132-per-semester fee for parking on campus and to park in the area around the University of California, Los Angeles, where parking problems are chronic ".
The UCLA football head coach, Bob Toledo weighed in with, " I am embarrassed and disappointed for the young men who were involved in this problem. I have spoken to the team as a whole and to the individuals involved, and those individuals will be disciplined by me ". Oh yeah, fat chance of that!
Maureen McCloskey of the Washington-based Paralyzed Veterans of America said, " What were they thinking? This is a moral outrage ". You can't disagree with that!
I had my own personal experience with the same kind of favoritism when I was registering for classes at a large university, to remain nameless, as well as the college athlete in question. I was waiting, for what seemed to be an endless time, in an gigantic line of other registerees ( is that a real word? ) to use a terminal to punch in my choices for classes in the upcoming semester. I finally was next in line for the first empty slot. A person vacated a seat and a monitor near me waved for me to take that, now empty, seat in the vast auditorium of terminals. To my surprise, as I neared the empty desk/registration station, a side door opened up and a not so well known at the time ( but you may recognize the name if I used it ) athlete strolled over and sat down in the empty chair I was about to fill, just ahead of me. Before I had a chance to speak, the monitor was grabbing me, saying, " that is XXXX and he is a starter on the XXXX team ". I felt that this individual should have had to wait in line like I did, but you can't do too much about it, when you are a freshman and nervous about how to handle yourself. Though this happened decades ago, I obviously haven't forgotten the experience, and these criminals from the UCLA football team lying to get their precious handicapped placards, helped to reinforce my memory!
I wonder how many truely handicapped people missed classes or were late, because these cheaters had used up the available blue parking slots?
This problem only brings the whole thing to the forefront. Our society is becoming obsessed with the physical, at the expense of the mental. We have created a whole new class of multi-millionaires, who seemingly have trouble just signing their names, much less making decisions that require an ounce of smarts. Sometime as the free-love of the 60s melted into the decadence of the 70s, sports figures decided that they were more important than educators and scientists, and deserved multi-gazillion dollar contracts. Obviously, the lawyer/agents were also quite happy to get their larger " cut ", as well!
The media was compliant in making sure that the players would get paid these ridiculous salaries, as they paid teams higher and higher premiums for the rights to air their games on television. No to be left out, the sports figures commanded more millions to endorse their " favorite " sports apparel or junk food, in an ever perpetuating and escalating war to see which brainless hunk of muscles could milk society for the money to buy the longest diamond studded gold chains or custom made automobile!
To add insult to injury in the craziness of this sports obsessed world ( Hitler used sports back in the 1930s to help brainwash the German populace ), everything from women's basketball to skateboarding ( huh? ) is now considered a valid sport to be professionalized ( now that is not a real word ) and marketted to the couch potato(e) audience of America!
I bet everything from burgers to tennis shoes, would cost a lot less, if you removed the endorsement premuims paid to these so-called sports figures. Don't they make enough money anyhow? After all, OJ did have enough money to buy his defense!
- Bongo ( Trade your brains in, for brawn? )
