You may not remember Erik as the Tostido Bandito, where he shilled for corn chips, but this humble beginning evidently suited his talent for corn, which paid off handsomely when he landed the co-starring role as Frank Poncherello in the long running TV series, CHiPs. As one of two dedicated, hard working and hard playing motorcycle officers in the wonderland of Southern California, Estrada garnered fame and fortune in this role. Flashing that sparkling smile and unrelenting attitude, Ponch chased bad guys and badder girls through most of six seasons, and then over and over and over again as the show ran in syndication.
I watched the show. I didn't care if you could see the ramps they used to toss cars into the air for those staged freeway accidents. I laughed when I was supposed to, and a few times when I probably wasn't. It was not a show to be taken seriously. I enjoyed the attempt at character development, as Ponch and Jon, in what we nicknamed “Cops are people too”, took their toys out to play on their days off in sunny, wonderful So Cal. They were likeable guys. It was fantasy, and it could have gone on much longer.
I could tell that Erik took himself a bit too seriously. He wasn't that good an actor. Actually, he was kinda lousy, but I'll bet no one could have told him that. After that show closed, he kept to the craft, with little visible success. Same smile. Same attitude. Same lack of talent.
Bit parts. Some commercials. Personal appearances and grand marshal for a few parades. Erik has been popping up ever since, looking chubby and just a bit desperate. At three in the morning, you'd find him selling swampland in an infomercial. Just the other day he smiled on a Toyota commercial. “I'm buying a car!” Big smile. I wonder if he has tried the ultimate desperation move, to get on Dancing With The Stars, only to get beat out by Bristol Palin or some other, uh, talent. But ya know, gotta make a buck.
During CHiPs, Erik was on top of the world. He was famous and he was making a small fortune. And I'll bet if you asked him now, he would admit that he should had ridden that horse for as long as possible, and kept on endorsing those big checks. But no, he had to kill that gilded goose. Cause he thought he deserved more.
Erik walked off the show after demanding more money. He was replaced by Bruce Jenner, who was imitating a living person. It wasn't the same. That did it for me. I moved on to other shows. Erik eventually came back to the show, but then Jon (Larry Wilcox) left, cause he had trouble with Erik elbowing him aside so he could smile on every shot. It was an ugly divorce and it killed the show.
Erik had everything he had ever wanted, and he messed it up cause he thought he was entitled to more. And life has been a pathetic scramble for him ever since.
I have been searching inside myself for a suggestion of sympathy for those exploited and abused athletes who have been disciplined for breaking the rules designed to keep some of the corruption out of college athletics.
One guy from USC had to return his Heisman Trophy simply because somebody let him use that big shiny SUV to cruise for girls while he was on campus, and his parents got a nice new house and flew to all the away games to watch him strut his stuff, for free or something that looked a lot like payoff for choosing to play for that school, or throw some games or whatever.
And those five guys at Ohio State who got caught selling memorabilia for cash, in violation of a set of rules designed to stop the bribes and incentives that highly motivated alumni and bookies would love to pass out to those exceptional athletes who will give their all for THE ohio state university.
The rules are very clear, and every athlete gets the lecture, so they know and understand those rules. They chose not to obey them, and they got caught, and they will pay a price. Which is how things were intended.
Now, the apologists don't much like this, and they would suggest that these young men are entitled to some compensation for playing football at these universities. That's cause the universities make some serious money onacounta these athletes and those football programs. And just because these young men come from disadvantage, they deserve some compensation even more. So of course they should be excused from breaking the rules.
I'm going to make the leap here, that if these athletes come from disadvantage, then all the rest of the students at these universities come from advantage. That's how it works, right?
So I guess I came from advantage. I was a pretty typical college student once, who came from advantage and all, cause I had two parents and they insisted that I work hard at my studies and go to college to improve my lot in life, and who sacrificed to help me do just that. Advantage is a good thing, and I recommend it to you.
I was so advantaged that I managed to get enough good grades in high school that I qualified for a scholarship that paid my tuition for four years at the state university. This was a while ago, when a dollar was almost a dollar, and that scholarship netted me the princely sum of $178.00 a semester for the first four years of my college education. I didn't do near that well in athletics, so nobody wanted me to play football in college. Those disadvantaged students did their hard work, and they got to college with an athletic scholarship, via their bodies. Good for them.
Now, I did have some hard working self-sacrificing parents, and they helped out a lot on the other expenses that college exacts. But I also worked every summer and then during my out of class hours while at school. I worked the dishwashing room when I lived in the dorm, and then later, while the athletes were sweating in the weight room, I cleaned rat cages and cat boxes for the biochem department.
Coming from advantage, I lived pretty high off the hog. I lived in that drafty apartment in the ancient building that leaned a bit to the left, and I could afford the better cans of spaghetti, and all the hot dogs I wanted. Velveeta cheese rounded out my bounteous larder. And when the money didn't last as long as the month, there were always those soda bottles I could turn in for the two cent bounty, so another meal was funded. A can of Chef boy Ardi was only 29 cents in those days.
These disadvantaged athletes of course have their own dorm, and they eat steak at their own table, but otherwise I had it way easier than them. Thanks to advantage. So yeah, I agree that they should get some compensation for playing football.
I went on line and checked, and low and behold, at USC the annual cost for an undergrad student to attend runs about $53,000. THE ohio state university is real cheap, cause it only costs about $33,000 a year. So these athletes are offered a free education that costs the advantaged students these many thousands of dollars, just so they would play football at these schools. And I am so proud of the disadvantaged students who actually take advantage of this to get their degrees.
Many of these disadvantaged athletes are not very successful students, so the school provides counselors and private tutors to make certain they progress toward their degree. Many of the advantaged students miss out on this, but that may be because they have less value to the university so it doesn't try very hard to keep them around, and if they lose their eligibility, they go home. Yet despite this opportunity, many of these elite athletes fail to complete their education. They don't much care about this if they land that pro contract, for it will be worth millions. They expect to land that contract, cause they are entitled.
The ones who don't make the cut likely disappear back from whence they came. Everybody has to turn a buck, and they likely will flounder through the rest of their lives without the advantage of an education. Ya know, the one they didn't bother to pursue even when it was provided to them for free.
And for those apologists who suggest that those cheating athletes who got caught taking bribes and selling stuff in violation of reasonable rules, because they felt entitled, and because they are denied any compensation for their football skills, cause of course that expensive education is meaningless to them, well...oh never mind.
I valued my education, and these guys who may make millions for being entertainers do not. But they feel entitled to cheat, for a few extra bucks. And I'm still looking for that sympathy.
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