Warning: This blog entry contains a word that NASCAR and FCC officials consider to be grossly offensive to the moral sensibilities of our fragile US citizenry. Read it at the risk of hearing a contrary opinion.
Immediately after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won last week's NASCAR EA Sports 500, a reporter asked the obviously exuberant winner about the significance of his victory just moments earlier, he began by saying “It don't mean *** right now. Daddy's won here ten times.“. He and the reporter then carried went on with an otherwise innocuous interview. Not wanting to miss a chance to make a big deal out of something every day, the press immediately pounced on the opportunity. Every major sports newscast that night gave significant air time to Junior's untimely slip of the tongue. The basic theme being, how will NASCAR punish him?
Tuesday the idiots running NASCAR ruled as expected. For the dastardly act of saying “***“ to an audience of NASCAR fans, Junior would be fined $10,000 ...AND... he'd also be docked 25 points from his season point total! Are you kidding me?! You're going to penalize someone for off-track actions, by taking away something they earned on the track? Oh, did I mention that by winning the last race, Junior took over the lead in the points standings for the championship?! Well so much for that accomplishment...
So let me make sure I understand this right... Using NASCAR's new point system, winning a race earns 180 points. Taking second earns 175. Third earns 170, and so on, dropping 5 points for each position further down the leader board. Therefore, the reward for achieving the difficult accomplishment of winning an extremely dangerous, ultra high speed, four-plus hour race/endurance test against 42 other drivers earns you a whopping 180 points. ...Unless... Unless you happen to cuss when television sticks a live microphone in your adrenaline-pumped face less than a minute after you take the checkered flag. For committing such a heinous act, we'll still call you the winner, but you will be awarded points equivalent to finishing in fifth place (155 points). Now I realize NASCAR will take issue with my characterization, because from their standpoint, they left the race results in tact and docked points from his season total. Big deal. The reality is that he earned enough points to take the season point lead with his victory last weekend, yet because he said something off-color after the race was over, he drops to a full 12 points behind Kurt Busch, the new leader in the season point standings.
Now I can understand NASCAR feeling as though they had no choice but to assess the penalty exactly as their new rule states. After all, I'm a big fan of consistency, but the original intent for this penalty was poorly conceived and certainly not intended to impact things as much as it did this week (at least I hope it wasn't). Therefore, why did they go through with it?
I've been struggling to come up with an appropriate metaphor in some other sport (team or individual) to better illustrate the insanity of their logic, but I honestly can't think of one. It's too insane. In a sports context, it makes no sense to me at all. But that's when it hit me... it's not about what's right or wrong. It's about money.
Ever since the world caught a glimpse of Janet Jackson's right ***, the world has gone wacko. The FCC has been coming down hard on broadcasters who corrupt our society with nudity or bad words -- no matter their context. NASCAR made the rule to avoid potential fines. That's it, plain and simple. It's not about them trying to do what's right for society or our kids. If it was they wouldn't risk sticking a live microphone in the face of an emotional drive. After all, they do that because it gets them higher ratings (i.e. more money). And it's certainly not about preserving a fair and honest competition on the track, or they would have made an adjustment to the penalty so it wouldn't impact the championship race as much as it has.
For NASCAR, it's all about the money, plain and simple. I hate that.