Where have professional sports gone?

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat Mike Jenkins

Whatever happened to the days when athletes played sports for the love of the game? The Jim Brown's, Bobby Hull's, Mickey Mantle's and the Bob Cousy's of yesterday are nowhere to be found in today's games. In today's games, we are stuck with people like Keith Tkachuk and Andre Wadsworth.

These two athletes are exactly what is wrong with sports today. Tkachuk, a forward for the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, is planning to hold out the entire season if his contract is not re-worked.

This is not withstanding the fact that he has two years remaining on his current contract which pays him close to $3 million a year. Tkachuk wants to be one of the highest paid players in the league. He is seeking at least $8 million per year, money that the Coyotes do not have to pay him. He is the captain of the Coyotes and has been their leading scorer the past two years. He also is a two-time 50 goal scorer.

But, the one thing that Tkachuk has never done is the most important. He has never led his team to victory in the Stanley Cup Finals. Oh, but remember when he led the team to the Western Conference finals? Nope, never happened. But he did lead them to the second round a few years back, right ? Wrong. Keith Tkachuk has never led his team out of the first round of the playoffs and therefore doesn't deserve what players such as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman get paid.

Holdout rookie defensive end Andre Wadsworth, of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, has never played a down of professional football in his life, yet he is demanding to be paid at least a $10 million signing bonus along with a $4 million to $6 million per year contract. Wadsworth, the third player selected in this year's draft, was asking for an $8 million signing bonus at first, but has upped his price due to the inability to get a contract completed. Now he is seeking to be paid as much or more as the top two picks in the draft, quarterbacks Ryan Leaf of the San Diego Chargers and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts.

These two quarterbacks are players that have the ball in their hand every play and have a huge amount of responsibility in the outcome. Andre rushes the passer and stops the run. Andre does not deserve the contract that he is seeking, and I hope the he and management settle on somewhere in between before the season begins.

Getting to my main point, which is that these guys are absolutely killing their teams. Whatever happened to playing for the love of the game, or playing as a team? Sports today is growing more and more into a greedy crockpot full of players just trying to get theirs. It's time to get off your high horses and get into camp before all the players on your team and fans around the league lose respect for you. But you don't have to worry about getting into camp for this fan, because you've already lost it.

Mike Jenkins is a sophomore majoring in journalism.