Overtime Central

So here are a few things that really show how most sport has ceased to have any value except commercial today:

• in an escalation of the past two plus years, CTV and TSN are ramping up their Olympic rhetoric and Believe campaign with local affiliates now in the fray.  Even more disgusting is the Buy Own the Podium campaign.  Wasn’t the Olympic movement based on amateur athletic achievement, not who could buy the most medals?  More on the Olympic sellout perhaps in a later post.
• the effort of Pepsi to push their stupid, contrived Canada chant at the World Junior Hockey Championships in a run up to the Olympics.  What is wrong with Go Canada Go?  Their contest was flawed in its entirety since Canada already had chants, much like those of the other countries mentioned.  Pure marketing for web page views and to sell some more Pepsi.  Drowning out natural chants of Go Canada Go is wrong.  It is time people quit falling for gimmicks to create chants for companies and getting their name in the HHOF.  Thankfully their attempt for this to go viral via youtube, facebook, twitter, etc. so it can be spontaneous at the Olympics doesn’t appear to be working.
• overpaid hockey players who want to go out and live the high life, but don’t want to pay the bill, whether it is a few thousand dollar bar tab or a few bucks for a cab.
• reading books about the old days when athletes got paid a good wage, had some fun times, but played for the love of the game and a desire to win.  Despite the lip service today’s professional athletes pay to that if asked, I would guess the majority wouldn’t be playing if salaries were a fraction of what they are.  This will eventually hurt the million dollar salary leagues as fan loyalty to the home team requires some people you want to cheer for.

There are more, but I’ve forgotten them already.