Two sports-related thoughts.

First of all, sports fans are so incredibly fickle. The classic case is the one of the back-up quarterback. If a football team is struggling, the back-up quarterback is likely the most popular guy on the team in the eyes of fans. Everybody wants to see the new guy, the guy with so much potential, the guy that could fix everything, the guy that "has to be better” than what we've got now.

How quickly does everyone go from being so excited about the new guy that’s going to come in and quickly, dramatically turn the team’s fortune’s around to saying the guy's the biggest bum around when he comes in and doesn't produce wins. But when reality sets in, when the team keeps losing because winning isn’t going to happen overnight, the same fans that were abuzz with anticipation, that were cheering, that were dreaming of the glory this man would lead them to, those same fans are booing him, calling for his job.

For those who know and/or care, Joey Harrington is who I am talking about.

I was listening to a sports talk radio show today and they posed a question to their audience that went something like this: if a baseball player that you liked was found to use steroids (which is illegal) would you continue being a fan of that player? Someone e-mailed in and said essentially that this decision (to use illegal drugs) is something that has to be made by the player, it’s something that he has to deal with, it wouldn’t really affect me as a fan of theirs. The host summed this view up by saying that some players probably view it that way, that they’re responsible to only themselves and maybe their team and if they can justify it, if they don’t get caught, then it’s probably ok.

That reminds me of evolution. Take away an ultimate authority and what are people left accountable to? Their own, utterly confused, ethics.