Wealth & Money Quote by Will McDonough

Money is the silent rulebook nobody votes on, and McDonough is calling it out like a veteran beat writer who’s seen too many games decided in boardrooms. “In general” is doing tactical work here: he’s not arguing for some naive, moneyless Eden. He’s saying that once cash becomes the dominant logic, sport stops being a contest and starts behaving like an industry that merely stages contests.

The intent reads less like moral scolding and more like diagnosis. Money “hurts” because it distorts incentives at every layer: owners chase franchise valuations over championships; leagues design rules for TV windows and ad inventory; athletes get turned into assets whose bodies are managed like depreciating equipment. Even fandom gets financialized: ticket prices become a sorting mechanism, turning “home-field advantage” into a premium experience for whoever can afford the seat.

The subtext is that sport’s power comes from its illusion of fairness. You can accept luck, weather, even bad calls, because the premise is that both sides are playing the same game. Money breaks that premise while pretending it’s just “business.” Competitive balance gets bent by payrolls and facilities; college athletics becomes a revenue machine with “amateurism” as branding; headlines shift from tactics and grit to contracts, cap gymnastics, and leverage.

McDonough’s context matters: as a prominent American sports columnist, he wrote through the acceleration of modern sports commerce - free agency battles, booming TV rights, stadium deals, and the rise of sports talk as a constant market narrative. The line lands because it’s blunt, unsentimental, and aimed at the one opponent sports can’t outplay.