By Dale Glading
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Growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s and 1970s, I played every sport imaginable. Wiffleball in the backyard, baseball at the local park, and tennis with my friends Bob and John. I also organized and played in tackle football games with our crosstown rivals, and coordinated softball and basketball marathons to raise money for the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.
Next came Little League and Babe Ruth League baseball as well as Junior High and High School soccer. Throughout these formative years, my heroes were Mel Stottlemyre, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, and Roy White… basically, anyone who wore Yankee pinstripes.
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When it came time for college, I enrolled at St. John’s University in New York because it was the only school at the time that offered an undergraduate program in Athletic Administration. When I transfered from St. John’s University to Temple University to be closer to home (and the girl I was dating), I had to switch my major to Community Recreation. I graduated from Temple with a Bachelor of Science degree and Summa Cum Laude honors in 1981, and then earned another 15 graduate credits in Recreation Management.
For 11 years, I served as the Director of Recreation at a Continuing Care Retirement Community before leaving that position to launch America’s first – and now largest – athletic prison ministry. I have been involved in prison ministry, using sports to share the gospel, for the past 33 years.
I have also coached baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball… taught tennis… played competitive softball for 30-plus years… continue to play basketball twice a week against men 40 years younger than me… and golf every chance I get.
I say all this to drive home one very important point – I love sports! Which is why I don’t make the following statement lightly: I am done with virtually every professional sport and the posing, pampered, and pretentious prima donnas that play them.
It was hard to swallow when these overgrown adolescents began earning (tens of) millions to play a kid’s game. It was even worse when they started caring more about individual statistics than their team’s won-loss record. And it was a real turn-off when player after player bade humility goodbye in favor of mugging for the camera.
Sadly, practicing fundamentals gave way to rehearsing carefully choreographed celebrations and dance routines. It made a person ask, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?”
But, for me, the final straw was the politicization of sports. Most Americans watch sports in person or tune into a game on TV to escape the monotony and pressures of daily life. However, what once served as a healthy escape and a mindless distraction is now more filled with political commentary than Fox News or MSNBC.
I’ve never liked having self-appointed moralists lecture me on proper social behavior and it sure doesn’t sit well with me now when multi-millionaire athletes try to force their progressive, anti-American sentiments on me.
So, go ahead and take a knee when the American flag is unfurled and our National Anthem is being played. I won’t be there to watch… or buy a ticket… or purchase a jersey. And feel free to refuse to take the court over the social justice issue du jour, because I will be boycotting, too.
Boycotting your games… boycotting your league… and boycotting your sport.
Now excuse me, but I’m late for a tee time with my buddies.
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Dale Glading is an ordained minister and former N.J. Republican candidate for Congress.
