Are youth sports the devil's playground?

On Easter, we drove by our local park and like usual, there were a bunch of soccer players. Tim and I looked at each other and agreed that soccer is the devil's game.

This led to a later conversation about youth sports in general and the craziness that has sprung up around it, specifically. We agreed that things are very different today from when we were kids. Tim says he had one practice and one game a week, and never on Sundays. There were no traveling teams or insane parents. No career-ending injuries at age 10. No one talked about going pro or paying for college. Sports was for fun and exercise.

We started discussing the situation in which a child is very talented and a parent feels compelled to help them travel down that road as far as possible. What to do then? What if a child is not being pushed, but genuinely loves the sport? Is a college scholarship or professional career worth the family chaos and lack of ability to be in church together each week? Should the entire family make repeated sacrifices in their time and resources to cater to a child's hobby?

I came down as an emphatic, No.

It's not worth it.

The time parents invest in their child's sports activities could pay for college if spent in a part-time job instead. If you want your child to have college paid for, and you have hours and hours each week you are willing to cart them around to practices and games, work at McDonalds on nights and weekends. ($7.00 an hour/10 hours a week [2 practices and a game]/ 15 years from age 3 - 18 = $54,600. [That's a very simple estimate without factoring in interest or raises.])

But what about the other possibility? What if the extremely unlikely happens and your child could really go pro?

Well I read this the other day, "A recent Sports Illustrated story revealed that by the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are suffering financial duress, and within five years of retirement, 60 percent of former NBA players are broke. Divorce rates among pro athlete are as high as 80 percent."

So for me, that answered the question. Even if your child has the potential to turn sports into a professional career, is it worth it then? If his odds are extremely high he'll end up bankrupt and divorced, is it worth it?

I don't see how.