Critical Sports Theory

 Human beings as commodities; discuss. 

Okay, I an see you're a little put off by the subject matter. The notion of owning another person seems antithetical to all we hold dear, or all the we have said that we hold dear since the Civil War here in these United States. We'll just skip on past that whole institutionalized slavery thing and the Great Compromise of 1787 in which it was determined for representation in congress and taxation that those humans being kept as property would be assigned a value of three fifths of those that owned them. 

That was hundreds of years ago. The good guys won the Civil War and we don't have to worry about that scourge anymore. 

Except professional sports. 

This past week, Denver Broncos sent star linebacker and Super Bowl Fifty MVP Von Miller to Los Angeles. To play football for the Rams. For their trouble, the Denver Broncos will be compensated with a second and a third round draft pick. Never mind that this is "good business" for all concerned. Von Miller will still get paid, and those draft picks will hopefully be part of what we have been assured will be a start of rebuilding the franchise. 

A sports franchise worth nearly four billion dollars. The nine million dollars the Denver Broncos will be paying on what is left of the contract they hold with Von Miller seems like a lot, but then again, no. It is a sliver of a pie that ends up going to the folks in this equation we call "owners."

I saw you flinch. Or maybe that was just leftover flinch from me. I have made a practice in my life of being a fan of professional sports. The idea of connecting yourself to the exploits to a group of individuals playing a game in a town nearby the place you grew up is arcane at best. Once you start to examine the business end of spectator sports, you start to wonder exactly how this All American pastime could be any more All American. Did I mention that there is not a single African-American owner of a National Football League franchise? 

Like I said, as American as apple pie. Wouldn't it be interesting if the workers were able to control the means of production - of touchdowns.