Sports in the "real" world
-- So, the NCAA tournament actually costs businesses $1.4 billion in lost productivity. I wonder if CBS can use that number in its next set of negotiations for tournament rights. But all is not lost, since the talk is supposedly good for morale. That is until a school like Middle Tennessee State blows up your bracket on the first day with an upset of your Final Four team.
I'm curious as to why someone would want to quantify this talk, other than for a silly headline. How much is talk about the Oscars, the war on Iraq or anything not work-related worth to employers in lost productivity? And if you don't do anything but work all day, wouldn't the costs of stress-related illnesses outnumber idle hoops chatter?

-- Salon's King Kaufman has a different look at the anti-war protests (or lack thereof) by professional athletes. It is telling that an anti-war protest from a Division III women's basketball player has made so much noise. I still think a lot of athletes, stars or otherwise, are actually trying to tread lightly on the issue, given the often conservative nature of sports fans.

However, I can definitely see where the self-absorption of athletes actually leads to their reticence. Even here working in sports, the gravity of the situation doesn't always resonate with us. As long as games are getting canceled or additional stress put on our systems, it's business as usual. Although I don't think I'm as self-interested as Simeon Rice, who might've been so caught up in the smack talk that comes from being on Jim Rome's show that he felt that it wasn't national duty that motivated Pat Tillman (a vastly underrated player before all of this) to leave the NFL to join the army.

On the other hand, we are sending out a bunch of mixed messages when it comes to our athletes. We want them to be trailblazers and help advance causes to a mass audience of sports fans who might not get the message from politicans or activists. However, say the wrong thing and you can be ostracized (although it hasn't hurt Charles Barkley). Yet in the case of Toni Smith, a handful of coaches said they would kick her off their teams if she did that for them (which would definitely be within their rights, much like Smith's protest) because it would upset chemistry.

This could be why most of the real progressive thinking or "accepted" outspokenness comes from athletes in individual sports -- think Arthur Ashe, Muhammad Ali, Martina Navratilova -- and not team sports. There's a lot more of a dynamic involved if you speak your mind above and beyond your team -- more people to deal with like teammates, coaches, administration, etc. The quiet backlash from inside can be a lot more damaging that public outcry.