Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
What HBO’s ‘Ballers’ Has to Teach Us All

What HBO’s ‘Ballers’ Has to Teach Us All

Last updated on: June 22, 2015 at 6:47 pm by Kate O'Hare

What HBO’s ‘Ballers’ Has to Teach Us All 2015-06-22T18:47:40-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This day comes for everyone, but for some, it arrives in the blink of an eye.

On Sunday, June 21, HBO premiered its latest half-hour show (I hesitate to say “comedy,” because while there were humorous bits, it wasn’t played for laughs), called “Ballers.” Described as “Entourage” in the NFL — and sharing the same producer, former wild child and now devout Catholic Mark Wahlberg — “Ballers” stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Spencer Strassmore, who was a star linebacker for the Miami Dolphins.

Now in retirement in Miami, he’s working for a financial management firm that only hired him so that he could “monetize his friendships” with fellow players.

Along the way, Strassmore encounters a current player (John David Washington) whose off-field antics are about to cost him his job — although he doesn’t quite see it. And when he does, he resorts to getting on his knees in prayer (we’ll see how long that lasts). There’s also a former lineman (Omar Benson Miller) with a doctor wife to support him, who finally shakes out of his post-football malaise long enough to get a job as a car salesmen.

The pilot episode opens with the scandalous death of a player who leaves his cheated-on wife and children with nothing to show for his career.

There’s been the expected amount of journalistic hand-wringing about how awful the NFL is on players bodies’ (the crazy buff Johnson plays Strassmore as a man chewing pills for chronic pain), how players get lost in a haze of insane spending, drugs, adultery and promiscuity; and how they wind up tossed on the trash heap, sometimes having blown the millions they were paid.

Hey, it’s all true. It all happens, not all the time, and not to everyone, but it happens. But here’s another truth — to one degree or another, if we live long enough, it happens to all of us. For NFL players, the money is exponentially larger, the wear-and-tear is more dramatic, and the fall is precipitous and comes at a young age. It’s accelerated and intense, but it’s not unique.

We all know the toll that active military service can take on the young and healthy. But police, firefighters, construction workers, taxi drivers, longshoremen, baggage handlers, farmhands, surgeons, mechanics, hairdressers, factory workers, restaurant workers … all these and more can suffer pain, disability (including head trauma) or death connected to accidents at the job, or just the ordinary demands of the job itself.

Even if your job is not physically demanding, it can tax your emotional health and your intellect. And we haven’t even touched on other professional and recreational sports that have equally high or even higher injury rates than pro football, and still pay a lot less (or nothing).

Setting aside athletics, there comes a time for almost all workers — blue collar and white — when the skills they’ve spent a lifetime cultivating are no longer needed, or they’ve been supplanted by younger workers, or their industry has collapsed under them. They find themselves unwanted and unneeded, sometimes with a long stretch left to retirement.

It can happen to singers and actors and writers as well. One moment you’re in vogue, the hottest thing; the next moment, the silence of the unringing phone is deafening.

With very few exceptions, these people don’t earn a fraction what a pro football player is paid, even as a rookie.

Still, players often end up broke. Money is finite, and someday the spigot shuts off. Whether it’s profligate spending, failed investments, greedy family, bad habits, stupidity or the more mundane demands of mortgages, tuition and medical/dental bills, it’s astonishing how fast even the largest pile of cash can dwindle.

That’s true for us all, no matter how big your pile is to start with.

One thing Strassmore tries to do is impress on these young men that buying houses, luxury cars and elephants will leave you busted and begging before you’re 40. And if you didn’t take advantage of the actual college education your scholarship gave you, then your options get sharply limited.

A fair percentage of football players are spoiled and narcissistic (being touted as the next big thing since Pop Warner can turn a boy’s head), have unfortunate friends, off-field violent tendencies, and make poor choices. Some come from terrible backgrounds and rise above them, but some don’t. Some come from privileged backgrounds and are a credit to their upbringing, and some aren’t.

You don’t hear about the family men, the ones putting their money away against the future, the smart ones, like Seahawks cornerback and Stanford grad Richard Sherman, who has said more than once that NFL stands for “Not for Long.”

And then there’s New England Patriots tight end Ron Gronkowski, who reportedly hasn’t spent any of the $16.3M he’s earned for his five years in the NFL, instead living off money from endorsement deals. Here’s a quote from his upcoming autobiography, “It’s Good to Be Gronk”:

To this day, I still haven’t touched one dime of my signing bonus or NFL contract money. I live off my marketing money and haven’t blown it on any big-money expensive cars, expensive jewelry or tattoos and still wear my favorite pair of jeans from high school… I don’t hurt anyone (except Gord with the occasional kick to the groin), I don’t do drugs, I don’t drive drunk, I don’t break the law… I’m a 23-year-old guy just looking to have a fun time.

These are not the guys that “Ballers” will be portraying.

As an aside, there have been complaints that most of the women in “Ballers” are just there as sex objects. Well, hang around professional sports, and you’ll find plenty of nubile young, and even not-so-young, women — amateurs and professionals — who seem eager and willing to be just that for any athlete that looks their way. They exist in “Ballers” because they exist.

Again, no network wants to put on a show about San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers or New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson, strong Christians with healthy marriages to great women, and large families; or Seahawks rookie longsnapper and former Green Beret Nate Boyer, whose persistence and hard work landed him a chance to make the team at the advanced age of 34.

Instead, we’ll see the screw-ups and the fools, and the hangers-on and bloodsuckers that prey on them. But there’s a pathos under it all, a message once whispered into the ears of Roman conquerors, that “All glory is fleeting.”

The tag line of “Ballers” is “Legends don’t retire. They reinvent.”

Legend or not, that’s good advice.

Here’s the trailer — no language or nudity here, but can’t say that for the series:

Image: Courtesy HBO

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page.

Previous Post

June 22, 2015

Brian Williams Said a Lot -- But Not the One Word That Mattered

Next Post

June 24, 2015 Variety's Purpose to Celebrate Faith & Family Programming (Part 1)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz