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 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 2004-5. 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.

Personally, I love college sports. The first week of football all the way to March Madness is my favorite time of year. But I also believe the system is flawed.

In college, a four-star athlete with struggling grades can earn a full ride scholarship as a backup, while an ordinary college student with better grades may not be able to earn even a partial scholarship. Many of these same athletes will go on to make thousands or even millions of dollars in their respective sports. The ordinary college student will make much less while paying off accrued loans.

The professional world of sports hasn’t helped our society’s views. The average MLB salary is $3.2 million and the NBA is even higher, with $5.15 million.

The overall goal of professional sports is to prove dominance over the other team. The athletes are simply 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 2003 and 2011, both of which claimed the lives of a Giants fan and a Dodgers fan respectively.

There are many other instances of violence in sports, going all the way back to the Coliseum when Romans would pit two men against each other and watch them fight to the death. One man would emerge victoriously with the full support of the audience behind him, not caring about the life he just took in order to gain recognition. It was barbaric.

Some may say we’ve evolved since then. We no longer praise the man who would do such a thing. I argue differently. 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.

There have been similar situations with former Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick and his participation in dog fights. There have been numerous alleged rape cases in professional sports. The first two that come to mind involve Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Despite their actions, fans still chose to win in sports over the character of the athlete. Is this not the same barbaric attitude that the Romans had in the coliseum?

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.