NEW YEAR LACKS PLAYERS' POINT-OF-VIEW

Unless you have been as oblivious as Ron Artest's conscience, you know that 2005 was marred with tragedy. The Indian Ocean tsunami aftermath, the London suicide bombings and Hurricane Katrina were the year's most prevalent themes.

Although sports suffered no such catastrophe, some of its stars took the fun out of life's largest playing field. And with increasing fragmentation where seemingly every country's telecasters are producing ridiculous reality shows, that's especially not a good thing because there's less and less substance to watch. Sports is needed as a distraction from all the terrible trends accumulating in our television sets.

But the 2005 sports calendar was overwhelmed by the Artests (off-the-court distractions), Terrell Owens (contract disputes) and Rafael Palmeiros (criminal offenses) who laid out a buffet for reporters to consume multiple helpings of heated commentary. For that, you could have easily switched the station to "Judge Judy," "Jerry Springer" or even "Being Bobby Brown" and received the same content.

Well, as the New Year arrived in a Dwyane Wade-like "flash" of disco balls, I realized something had been missing in the final wake of sports' disgraceful tidal wave.

During several game broadcasts in the past holiday week, occasional pre-tapings aired of players wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and New Year. But they also could have personally addressed their own New Year's resolutions, especially in light of all the negativity that surrounded the sports world this past year. It might sound like a subtlety, but it ripples a more important issue.

After most sporting events, journalists provide an outlet to hear or read about players' reactions to their performances in various competitions. But once the holiday hits, reporters from near and far transform into Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day." Over and over again, duplicate articles appear discussing their best and worst moments and what the year in sports meant to them. It's one of the several times in sports, including the Super Bowl and March Madness, where the story is pre-determined and they know exactly what to write.

But journalists seem to lose sight of the authentic sources - the players - who are the ones ultimately competing under the Friday night lights. Players should be given the opportunity to discuss amongst themselves in a roundtable format the games they thought were memorable, the accomplishments they hoped to achieve and the valuable lessons sports taught them. In addition, they should get a chance to recognize their mistakes, suggest how to solve them and give their thoughts on the state of sports heading into 2006.

Journalists can use whichever words they want to make up players' resolutions, but doing so separates both sides even more because athletes don't like to be assumed. Not only would air time or page space give them a chance to speak for themselves, but it would also provide a personal touch to their personalities.