Football

Football today is far more popular than it has ever been. Players today are bigger, stronger and faster than players in 1981. An NFL team from 1981 wouldn.t dare think of being on the field with a team from today. The league makes far more money now than before with the average team now worth $1 billion according to Forbes Magazine and every team in the league is profitable. Players make a lot more money today than back then, thanks to Gene Upshaw and the Players Union. I remember talking to old football players who told me that they earned so little money from football that they would have to take off season jobs to make ends meet. Today the average player is a millionaire. Back in the 1970.s you didn.t know if a game would sellout, today almost every NFL game is a sellout (except in Jacksonville and Oakland.) The league is more competitive now than before. Back then it was the same teams every year, teams like the Steelers, Cowboys, Raiders, 49ers and Redskins. Now, everyone, no matter how big or small, has a chance to win it all. Arizona almost won it all and they haven.t been good since the 1940.s.

Baseball

In the past baseball was more competitive than it is now. Teams like the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates had a chance to win the World Series. Now baseball has a few teams that have a chance and many teams that don.t. You know KC and Pittsburgh aren.t anywhere near winning the world series. This is one sport where a team from 1981 could compete with a team from today because it is more of a skills game than a physical one. You wouldn.t dream of this in the NBA or NFL.

The pace of baseball games seems to be too slow by today.s standards, but maybe that.s because we move faster now than in 1981. Baseball should shorten times between pitches, shorten breaks between innings, and reduce all those silly conferences at the pitcher.s mound, or players who have to spit and scratch themselves all the time. When you call timeout in other sports you only get 1 minute.

Basketball

In the 1970.s there were two basketball leagues: the NBA and ABA. The ABA folded and 4 teams from that league joined the NBA. Basketball was a 2nd tier sport and was so unpopular that the NBA finals were on tape delay. In the .70.s nine different teams won an NBA championship. Since then eight teams have won and every team that has won a championship, except for the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers, has won multiple championships. In 1981 Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came into the league and revitalized it. Before Magic Johnson came into the league, basketball was about lumbering big men, today the league is about dynamic guards who can shoot 3 pointers and big men who can dunk. Also players today are bigger, taller, stronger and faster than player back then.

Boxing

In 1981 you saw the ending of the Mohammad Ali Era and the beginning of Larry Holmes Era. Today you don.t know and don.t care who the heavyweight champion is. It.s a bunch of Russians whom you have never heard of. Everyone is a championship because there are so many belts. Also back then boxing had Sugar Ray Leonard, now you have the end of de La Hoya and the beginning of Manny Pacquiao. Where are the great American Boxers? I can.t think of one who can win the heavyweight champoiship. Maybe the rest of the world has caught up and we have fallen behind, or maybe American fans don.t see boxing the way they did in 1981, with so many other sports to choose from like MMA.

Olympics

In 1980 the US boycotted the Olympics in Moscow because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Had the US not done that, there is no telling how many gold medals Carl Lewis would have won. People talk about how great Michael Phelps is, I think Carl Lewis was even greater even with his diminished opportunities. In Track & field an athlete is only allowed to compete in four evens. Apparently in swimming you can compete in everything. The good thing about today is that the Olympics aren.t boycotted for silly reasons anymore and the participation by the rest of the world is so much greater now. Small countries like Jamaica had their best Olympics ever.

Politics

In 1981 we had a government that was in the way of economic growth with high taxes and regulations. Ronald Reagan won in a landslide with a mandate to fix everything. Now we want a government that will save us from ourselves. We made history with Barak Obama. The difference is that the solutions to the problems in 1981 were known, and Carter failed to implement them. Today you are starting to see the true weakness of democracy. It is when the people are no longer want a government that acts in the state.s best interest, but rather who can give me the most from the national treasury no matter what the cost.

Are we better off now than we were 28 years ago?