Our society praises the physically gifted over everyone else.

Of the top four professional sports in America, NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL, the average salary of a player is around $3 million dollars per year.

In an interview with ESPN’s Outside the Lines, former University of North Carolina basketball player Rashad McCants came forward saying he had had multiple assignments done for him and grades covered up so he could stay eligible for their basketball season. The team had gone on to win the NCAA basketball championship in 2004-05. This is only one instance of a collegiate level athlete having the rules broken so he could go on to help the athletic program.

Since his statements in June of this year, the NCAA is continuing an investigation into North Carolina’s athletic program to see if there are any other violations of this sort.

The University of North Carolina may not be guilty of NCAA violations, but they are guilty of contorting the rules in order to please their fans.

The professional world of sports doesn’t seem to be a whole lot better. While the athletes seem to be doing their jobs and competing at the highest level they can, the fans, on the other hand, can take sports to a whole new level.

In 2013, a Los Angeles Dodger fan was brutally stabbed outside AT&T Park in San Francisco following a Dodger loss to the San Francisco Giants. The two suspects in the investigation were both Giants fans who started a fight with the man after the game. This wasn’t the first fight to occur between fans of these two teams. The NBC Bay Area news team says previous feuds had broken out in 2011 and 2003, both of which claimed the lives of a Giants fan and a Dodgers fan, respectively.

Violence against fans may be a little extreme. Fans embrace athletes who help their team to succeed, no matter what their off-field activities encompass.

Earlier this year Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice brutally hit his wife in an elevator. He was only suspended two games for an assault charge. Since then, more evidence has come to light and Rice has been released by his former team. In the opening week, fans still showed up in support of Rice, wearing his jersey and chanting his name during the game. Despite their actions, fans still chose to win in sports over the character of the athlete.

I’m not saying professional and college sports are a bad thing. We must change the way we view sports as to not place so much importance on a trophy but on the characters and skills that sports can build in a person. Sports can be very important in building a hard work ethic, as well as teaching people how to work together as a team. Both skills can be placed into most careers helping the individual grow as a person.