The only investment you can count on: Pro sports

Jeremy is Berning: Quarter-Life Crisis

In less than a month I'll celebrate my 22nd birthday on the streets of Boston, probably all-too-literally, with some friends. I don't know what Matt Forte will be up to next week when he turns 22, but I'm fairly sure that it'll be cooler than heading to the Brookline Applebee's with two guy friends who will each eat their own appetizer sampler.

Jeremy is Berning: Goals That Really Count

I can't tell you that I solved their problems. I don't think that I changed their lives. I'm not even sure that they'd remember me now. I'm positive that I didn't cure AIDS. I'll tell you what though: for an hour every week those kids forgot about their lives. They forgot about the smell of the power plant, of the trash, of the mud. They forgot about walking home in big groups with heads bowed in an effort to draw as little attention as possible. They forgot about their mother, their father, their cousin, who had died of AIDS.

Jeremy is Berning

The only investment you can count on: Pro sports

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Jeremy Bernfeld

Columnist

January 23, 2009

Say what you want about sports, but they'll come through for you when you need them the most.

You can say it's just a game and you can shake your head at the die-hards in the facepaint and the full costume and without a shirt.

You can disapprove of the billion-dollar stadiums and the tax-breaks and the miserly owners. You can even hate fantasy drafts, playoff beards and rally-caps. You just don't get it.

The world may be sliding precariously toward the next great depression but you wouldn't know it if you looked on the turf/field/ice/court, and I say that's not entirely a bad thing.

When Joe the Plumber and his buddy, Average Pete, sink wearily into their easy chairs after a hard day's work looking for jobs thanks to stupid moves made by greedy executives far from Main(e) Street, they have a choice: flip on CNN to check if their retirement savings are worth nothing or next-to-nothing, or turn on ESPN to see Kobe and Lebron battle mano e mano for honor, dignity, and respect.

Sure, Kobe, Lebron and athletes like them are some of the richest stars on the planet, but sometimes they have more in common with Joe and Pete (and Sally and Sue) than they do with others in their tax bracket.

Last Sunday's AFC Championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens wasn't just about Joe Flacco and Hines Ward, it was about redemption for two cities that have fallen on hard times and whose prospects look worse than those felt by Willis McGahee after the game.

While the headlines on the front page have only been getting worse, those on the sports pages have surpassed all expectation. When it's hardest to find something positive, and when we need it most, the world of sports always comes through in the clutch.

Many would say that April 15 is the most important day in April. Tax day this year is certain to bring more layoffs, foreclosures and heartache. April 5, however, will only bring hope, dreams and re-birth. Just when we need it, ten days before tax day, the baseball season starts.

Sure, sports aren't perfect. They're filled with millionaire malcontents without perspective, lawbreakers without morals, and leaders without fidelity. But so is your local church; at least sports are fun.

Take February's Super Bowl. What does the world need more right now than redemption for a broken-down ex-factory town like Pittsburgh, thanks to their Steelers? How about evidence that teamwork can overcome great odds? How about proof that faith and hard work can go a long way toward success? How about the long written-off and perpetual doormat Arizona Cardinals winning a Super Bowl? Bottom line: the world of sports has stepped up to the plate.

Pundits the world over are lamenting the Fall of Detroit. While the politicians slap car executives on the wrist, to the detriment of only our friends Joe and Pete, the sportswriters have been focused on the Lamentable Lions who have just completed the NFL's first 0-16 season. But the difference is that the Lions will get better.

Sports have always been significant, and they probably always will be. While President Obama's inauguration may be the most important event to happen this century, Jackie Robinson's first game on the diamond was one of the most seminal events in the last.

For many, President Obama's election symbolized change for an organization headed in the wrong direction. For many, Obama represents the fruition of a decades-long dream.

Obama brought many people across the country, across racial lines, and across class divisions, together for a common purpose.

No offense to the new president, but don't sports do that every weekend?

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