What Recession?

As many of you have probably guessed over reading my blogs for the last few years (yes Experience has actually kept me on payroll for YEARS, it's shocking to me as well), I do not like a wide range of things. I don't like NASCAR, don't like the Yankees, and I really don't like March Madness (mostly because I don't attend a college with a shot in you know what at scoring a coveted spot and I don't know how to make a bracket). But, there is one thing that I do love: commercials.

Now, not any old commercial will do, but when I get stuck on a commercial that strikes my fancy, I am obsessed with it and look for it on television more than normal programs. I can do funny commercials, commercials with good jingles (Freecreditreport.com is especially catchy), and romantic commercials are definitely my favorite (tell me you have seen the one where the man and woman are driving in a car on a snowy night and at the stop light he slips a diamond necklace into her hand with "Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg playing in the background. Hands down favorite commercial of all time, it was my former roommate, Ginger (as you may recall from early blogs), and I's definition of true love.

Watch the greatest commercial ever below from a diamond is forever.



But, some commercials do fail to hit my mark of excellence and one recent commercial that really irks me is the Chevy commercial with the "rally caps." The concept of the commercial is regular Americans wearing rally caps to "rally" America out of the recession (with the help of Chevy and their wonderful finance options) similar to how fans at a game would rally a team out of a slump to come back and win the game. The reason this commercial makes my skin crawl is that it's completely hypocritical. While the rest of America struggles with job losses and pay cuts, athletes continue to sign multimillion dollar deals and new stadiums are continually built as if we are living in the glory days instead of a period being compared to the Great Depression. This leads me to the question: if America is in a recession, why is the world of sports ignoring it?


Old Yankee stadium, meet new Yankee stadium. Photo from flickr.com

I decided to put my journalist skills to the test and peruse the internet highway for signs that my thesis was wrong and that athletes are struggling. I found none. Most of the articles that came up were about the New York Yankees and the New York Mets unveiling brand new stadiums this week. What was wrong with the old stadiums you ask? I have no idea. I've been to Yankee stadium, it's massive so it can't possibly be a space issue and the park seemed to be well maintained so I can't imagine the building was in dire disrepair. And, I hate to admit it, but the best part about the old ballpark is the history of the stadium. So, many heartbreaking moments (for a Sox fan), but nevertheless, magical sports moments have happened inside the "House that Ruth" built, so to think that a $1.3 billion dollar glitzy new stadium could replace it seems ludicrous. And then the Mets also needed a stadium? I feel like the Mets and Yankees are like siblings and since the Yankees got a pretty new toy, the Mets wanted one as well. But, don't worry, this one was cheaper only $800 million (eyes roll). And who paid for these stadiums you ask? Call me crazy, but I have a feeling some tax payers' money was involved and as we all know, money is so easy to come by these days (insert a second eye roll).

Besides New York wasting money on new stadiums, I found a few more points of interest in my google search for signs of a sports recession. Remember Chad Ocho Cinco, the Cincinnati Bengals player stupid enough to change his last name to 85? Well, he was also stupid enough to skip off season workouts costing him $250,000. The fact that someone has the ability to give up that kind of money is an insult to every hard working American that is struggling to hold onto a job or find a job at that.


Why so sad Chad? Because you lost $250,000? Photo from flickr.com

But one man did take a pay cut this year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He took a $2 million dollar pay cut this year, which is pretty noble, except that he makes enough money that he probably won’t miss that $2 million that badly. It would probably seem more of a sacrifice if more commissioners and players took a cue from him and did the same.

Back to the athletes, and in particular, C.C Sabathia. He is an amazing pitcher, but is he worth $161 million? Apparently the Yankees think so. Now, plenty of teams shelled out big bucks this year for top players, but I am simply noting this instance because it was one of the biggest off season acquisitions by any team in the MLB. But really, who is worth $161 million? Isn’t there a Yankee’s charity or a way to give that money back to the city that has supported the Yankees for decades instead of showering one man with more money than he can probably even spend in a life time? Now, I’m not really sure how athletes getting pay cuts would get that money back into the economy and into the hands of regular Americans, but I have to think that it would at least lift the moral of everyday Americans if they saw their heroes taking a hit and scaling back their income in honor of the current economic situation. Mia Hamm, one of my least favorite human beings of all time (she stole my man Nomar Garciaparra, I will never forgive her for that), but Mia Hamm even took a pay cut along with 18 other U.S female soccer stars to keep the Women’s United Soccer Association alive. She gave up a portion of her salary for the sake of her sport. Can’t athletes do the same for America?


Photo from flickr.com

So, as far as Chevy is concerned, I’ll put on my rally cap, once sports stars start rallying for America as well. Until then, I will scoff at multi million dollar contracts as I work several jobs trying to support myself through college and onto whatever the future holds in store for me.