On May 9, 2015, I graduated from Marshall University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management and Marketing. In many respects, I regret that decision. To get to the nitty gritty of why that is, I have to go back to 2010. When I was 17 years old, my only concern was getting out of the small town that I had grown up in. When I started at Marshall in the Fall of 2010, I was a History major. A short two weeks in, I switched to Education of Social Studies. At one point in my life I wanted to be a teacher, passing on my knowledge to the younger generation and making the world a better place. Then low and behold, my Sophomore year, I switched to Sports Management and Marketing.
I loved what I was studying and I finished my coursework in a reasonable amount of time and I finished. I felt proud of what I had accomplished and it was surreal. Five years ago, I would not have thought that would have been possible.
But once I let it sink in, some part of me just felt empty. I took the time to think about it and I was filled with a lot of regret. What I experienced, what I'm kind of living with now is the realization that I bought a lie that gets propagated quite a bit between school counselors, career counselors, and even Presidential candidates. The lie being that you aren't worth anything to society without a college degree. So I did everything I had to do to have something and I went into an area I love.
After looking at what the sports industry has (or hasn't done), I have difficulty reconciling how to be a part of it. For me this becomes most notable with the NFL's "A Crucial Catch" (breast cancer awareness) and "Salute to Service" (military appreciation) in October and November, respectively. With the NFL's breast cancer awareness initiative, people don't realize how much of a scam it is. Of all of the money they make from the sales of the jerseys, the hats, the gear, all of it, only 5% goes to actually finding a cure. Basically, it is just an ad campaign to get you to buy pink gear and you (and NFL execs) can feel good about themselves when they go to sleep.
The NFL's "Salute to Service" campaign is not much better. Professional football in general has an arguably inappropriate comparison to the military, just one of a few facets where this campaign in unethical. The "Salute to Service" campaign is to show appreciation to Armed Forces of the United States. This is done through the sale of camouflage gear (which is only limited to the camo of one branch). The ultimate amount that is often donated to the military through the sales of this gear is relatively small in comparison to overall revenue. (For the purposes of this article, the NFL was used because their campaigns are more high profile)
I have also been shown that you can be a scumbag like Stan Kroenke and be absolutely rewarded for it. You can be rewarded for trying to extort cities for money, even though you have it yourself. Between him and his wife Ann Walton (of the Waltons that founded Walmart) have a high enough private worth to build an NFL stadium several times over. So the Los Angeles Rams get a shiny new stadium despite having done NOTHING to earn it. And the Raiders and Chargers were given money for stadiums despite having no plan at all. They have taught me that you can be rewarded for failure just as long as revenue outweighs expenses.
Back when I was younger, there was a time in my life that I wanted to use my job for the purpose of helping people. But I had a price and it was named to me. Now I do not regret GETTING a college degree, I do not regret any part of my experience, and I don't regret the people I have met. I firmly believe that I, at least in part, have grown as a person. And I have tried to think about the degree to which my degree could help humanity, but I fear by the time I can get to the point where I can remotely make a difference is when the establishment will be so unwilling to give up the power that they have. If I have learned anything it is that people do not give up their power willingly. I am okay with having to pay student loans back, but what has already and what will continue to keep me up at night, is this idea that I am an awful person, purely by virtue of my degree. I can't sleep at night knowing the sports industry, at all levels, gets into all of these unethical practices and by virtue of my course of study, I have given my silent consent to have these practices done.
