The Ditka factor
HAWTHORN WOODS — Mike Downey’s column about the public’s interest in the debate over disability compensation for former NFL players (Tribune, June 14) was mostly correct. As he expressed, it is difficult to feel much sympathy for these players given the voluntary and privileged nature of the job, so the amount of media attention given to the subject seems absurd.
However, Downey failed to mention some obvious reasons for the disproportionate coverage, none of which has anything to do with the public’s concern for the financial well-being of the former players.
First and foremost is Mike Ditka, with whom the media is (unfortunately) infatuated. His involvement on behalf of some former players ensured front-page coverage. Second is the sports media’s obsession with player contracts and compensation. If the media believes (incorrectly, I submit) that current player salaries warrant heavy coverage, then it’s understandable that compensation issues involving former players might be covered.
— Jeff Johnston
Infuriated by Downey
MORTON GROVE — Normally I just skip over Mike Downey, but the heartless tone of his Thursday column on former NFL athletes got my attention, and my blood boiling. As a teacher, I am well aware that what we do is probably more meaningful in the long run than what NFL athletes do. Nonetheless, when Downey asks why we should care about the fate of former NFL athletes, I have an easy answer. He said it himself. Because we pay so much for tickets and watch these games religiously every Sunday, we care about the welfare of our sports idols. (Not to mention the fact that human beings are inclined to care about the suffering of other human beings.)
So I wonder how Mike Downey expects us to turn a blind eye when the sport we love is churning up so many young men and spitting them out broken and hobbled for the rest of their (shortened) lives. My main bone of contention with the article is that Downey claims NFL players know full well the pain and suffering they will endure when they hang up their helmets. Not true. Only recently have studies come out detailing the permanent, degenerative effects of playing football on joints, ligaments and, most important, brain function. The recent research on concussions should be a wake-up call for the NFL to improve safety for its players. And when the league that made so much money off these athletes is not willing to foot the bill to take care of its own, it becomes a problem worthy of the press’ (and the fans’) attention.
The NFL would love nothing more than to skip out on the bill it owes its workers, and Downey would be perfectly happy to let them do so.
— William Ferguson
Sox fan’s lament
ELK GROVE VILLAGE — Please give us back our White Sox. I don’t know where they went, or why, but I miss them.
I’ve been a fan for 50 years. I go to six or eight games a year, I watch 50 to 100 on TV, and I get the Tribune every morning at 6 a.m. to read about the White Sox. And in all these years, this has to be the worst.
I don’t expect them to win the World Series every year. I don’t expect them to win a pennant, or the division, or a wild card. But I do expect them to keep our interest, to be entertaining to watch and not be the worst team in baseball.
Unlike that team on the North Side, if you are horrible, we will not come.
— Tim Dineen
Guillen’s a fraud
CHICAGO — Good old Ozzie Guillen early in the week told Joe Crede you have to think of your quality of life after baseball, your family, your overall health, blahzzie, blahzzie, blahzzie. Then when Crede decides to have the very serious back surgery on Tuesday, old Oz rips the poor guy to shreds for waiting till the season started.
The man is nothing but a fraud. Whenever someone tells you how honest he is every time he has a chance, you know what? He probably isn’t.
— Bob Harrigan
Put your money where . . .
NAPERVILLE — So, White Sox fans, when will you start taking your own advice and stop attending home games until management puts a better product on the field? Isn’t that what you fair-weather fans have been advocating for years?
— Tom Berwick
Sox fans’ silence golden
OAK FOREST — I wish the White Sox players no ill, but one good thing about the recent major nosedive: The yaps of White Sox fans have been wonderfully silent about the Cubs.
— David Ehren
What’s up with that?
OAK LAWN — Is it ethical for Teddy Greenstein to act as Mike North’s personal public relations man while he’s supposed to be writing a sports media column? Did North donate a kidney to Greenstein to deserve this kind of blanket coverage or did young Teddy once get a free hot dog from Weiner Boy back in North’s pre-radio days?
— Mike Ross
Smith wrong on LeBron
STOW, Ohio — Here we go again with Sam Smith stating that LeBron James will be leaving Cleveland in three years (Tribune, June 14). Maybe Sam should check with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.
Somehow, I don’t think the guy would put tens of millions of dollars into an arena that would be empty if LeBron left. The Cavs do not have the money problems everyone says they have because they have staggered contracts that are all coming up in the next three years. By the time LeBron could leave, the Cavs will have the room to max him out again. Plus, Sam forgets to consider the hometown factor. If he were playing in any other city in the country, he’d be blasted for his Finals performance. In Cleveland, he is loved.
— John Martin
Turned off Hawks fan
NAPERVILLE — In last week’s “Other Views,” a letter-writer stated that the Tribune neglected the NHL by not sending a reporter to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Wirtz family has neglected Blackhawks fans for years. I used to go to games every week, but if the Wirtzes don’t care, why should I?
— Bob Freed
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