As many of the more astute bloggers on foxsports.com have noted, things have been pretty slow in the world of sports in the last couple of weeks. The NFL is in mini camp mode (meaning the first torn ACL of the new season is just around the corner), with the draft having come and gone with only one or two surprises (Most NFL bloggers are now debating and predicting the outcome of divisions). The NBA playoffs are beginning to get into full swing with many close games and drama along the way (Most NBA bloggers have written enough pieces about this, so my 2cents would not add anything at the moment, i'll keep what i have up my sleeve for now). The MLB is beginning to take shape and Albert Pujols is on record breaking pace, ahhh the irony if he were to break Barry Bonds record in this of all seasons (I don't know enough about baseball to blog about it extensively, and Barry bores me to tears these days). The NHL, i'm not interested in but i'll take your word for it if its been exciting over the last few weeks (I will never blog about the NHL, thats my promise to you guys). In soccer, all the major domestic league honors have been sorted out and now every country in the world except the USA awaits the FIFA world cup beginning June 10th in Germany (I may be tempted to blog about the world cup in the effort to convert some of you over to soccer for just a month of your lives). And all this inactivity at a time when we need material for the NGS II competition?

So, what can I blog about? Well, while accompanying the wifey and her sister through the busy streets of central london on saturday morning, counting down the hours until the FA Cup final started, i stumbled into NikeTown on Oxford street, who were debuting a new interactive wall with software loaded of a particular athlete, and motion sensors that could detect people moving along it and react to each individual customer, hi-tech stuff indeed. Now, being NikeTown (albeit in London) can anyone guess which athlete was being "witnessed"? That's right, the King had come to town, and standing 15feet over the central walkway, LeBron's many adverts played out to sensory overloaded shoppers, somehow willing them to spend their hard-earned (well, in some cases) money on various items of LBJ23, and indeed other, merchandise. Even Mrs. Boy, who has as much interest in sports as Sir Elton John has in women, was mesmorised as "Virtual Lebron" bounded from one side of the store to the other before unleashing an assortment of dunks on a digitally enhanced basket. The result of all this? we spent £80 (~140 USD) on things we didn't need and very well may never wear or use. The power of advertising i guess....

So then it hit me, was there a definitive point in time where the world of Sports began to merge with popular culture, and indeed consume it, and if so when was that time? Joe D marrying Marilyn? The birth of the Superbowl halftime show? The exorbitant TV pay-per view revenues generated by sports fans in need of a fix? Or the constant TV ratings successes of many sports? 

But would it have been conceivable that more people would spend there Saturday afternoon's shopping for sports merchandise than DVD's and CDs? Or that a 21yr-old black kid from Ohio would have a more expensive, elaborate and extensive marketing campaign than a Tom Cruise film? While promoting nothing but himself and a pair of kicks? With athletes becoming ever more prominent while the bond between sports and celebrity gets ever tighter, and sports revenues continuing to increase almost exponentially, there has never been a better time to want a slice of the sports money pie, regardless of how thick that slice may be.

There are always going to be athletes who are likeable and possess marketable commodities, which elevates them from athlete to super earning power celebrity status....

Tiger Woods, hasn't built his fortune (equivalent to the GNP of a small country) just by winning golf  tournaments, but has forged business relationships and lucrative marketing opportunities based on his remarkable sporting talent, his trademark appearance and mannerisms, and dare i say it, his mixed race background which ultimately provides him with universal appeal. Woods deals include such diverse companies as Nike, Buick, EA Sports, and American Express. And when Woods has already reportedly earned over $17million in private appearances alone its obvious that Tiger has transcended his sport, celebrity and is indeed the ubiquitous celebrity of our generation. Woods endorsements alone total over $70million a year.

 
Possibly the only athlete to come close to Tiger in terms of Univeral appeal,   Michael Jordan, continues to pull in close to 40mil a year still making him the highest earner in the world of basketball. While this is predominantly due to his business ties with Nike and the ever popular "Jordan" series of apparel and sneakers, for which he will be for ever immortalised, many forget the true legacy he's left on the game of basketball. Before Jordan few people outside of America cared about the NBA. Through his tremendous abilities, and his business partners savvy, Jordan was heavily promoted in all countries and you only have to travel to different countries of the world to see Jordan's influence on modern day culture.

Peyton Manning, who's contract with the Colts is only matched by the size of his forehead, pulled in over 40mill in both 2004 and 2005, thanks in a large part to his commercial activities. I don't know about you, but in my opinion Manning doesn't seem to be a valuable commercial commodity, but he's good at what he does (lots of yards, lots of touchdowns, guaranteed to choke in the playoffs) and if he sells products, companies will use him just like any other puppet.

David Beckham of Real Madrid is a good football player, who just so happened to marry a "####e Girl" (remember them?), during the height of her "career", and subsequently the "Posh and Becks" media conglomerate was born. The result is Beckham is now a huge global star, particularly in the lucrative markets of Asia, and has a bigger shoe deal than all of his Adidas stable mates including french star Zinidine Zidane and Houston Rocket's Tracy McGrady. Beckham is the typical "Sports celebrity", a solid but unspectacular sporting talent with pretty boy good looks. Combine the two together and he is marketing dynamite. Beckhams no.23 (worn in tribute to Michael Jordan) Real Madrid jersey is the biggest selling sports jersey in the world and Beckham has an exclusive deal with Real Madrid giving him a larger cut of profits than is usually awarded to athletes, all of this is in addition to his $13million annual salary. Beckham is the highest earning soccer player on the planet, and ranks 7th in overall athlete earnings in 2005.

Maria Sharapova, 6-foot-2, eyes of blue and a bad #### forehand to go with those killer legs. Sharapova could be Bond girl when she hangs up the racket. For the moment, she is eating up endorsement opportunites to the tune of 14.5million in 2005 while still managing to play high class tennis. And, of course if you happen to be as genetically and more importantly phenotypically gifted as Anna Kournikova, you can use sports (and your looks) to springboard yourself to be a household name, and once you've bagged all the endorsement deals you can handle and a pop-star boyfriend, you can jack in the sports which to tell the truth you were never really that good at anyway, for a less strenuous life on Miami beach. Must be tough retiring at 22... I do miss Anna at Wimbledon every June though, even if it was only for an hour or so.

Aside from the ever increasing marketability of such athletes, the ever increasing media is also responsible for Sports seemingly ruling the world. I know i'm preaching to the choir here, but the internet makes the world of sports ever more accessible, and makes the division between athletes and celebrities all the more hard to distinguish (see Leinhart, Matt). It seems like we both know and care more than ever about our favorite athlete's and the players on our teams more so than our wives and girlfriends care about the latest gossip on Brad and Angelina. The internet allows us to get to know them, whether its through Player bio's, personal websites or the rumormills on websites such as this one. Of course dedicated television such as the ESPN network, NBA TV, and the NFL network make sports news stories instantaneous and seemingly more important than they actually are, which ultimately provides more airtime for the athlete.