Our country spends way too much time and money on collegiate and professional level sports. Athleticism should be praised for its inherent values of health and physical capability rather than the opportunity it gives us to slack through higher level education on a scholarship
or the chance to spend every weekend inhaling fattening foods and chugging the world's worst quality "beer" literally by the liter.
The overwhelming majority of athletic "fans" spend much more of their time directly contradicting the true virtues of athleticism than they do actually engaging in athletic behaviors.
The typical football fan would rather play Madden '09 on Xbox 360 while slugging back Miller Lite, Bud-something, or Coors and slamming down Taco Bell, Wendy’s, or 'generic corporate pizza chain' instead of going for a run or measuring their high jumps.
There are always stereotype breakers, and I acknowledge them. As such I hope that my critics can interpret and acknowledge statistics and patterns.
The greatest insult of all occurs when anyone argues that hosting a new stadium or sports team will 'improve the local economy.’ The overwhelming evidence shows that the exact opposite happens.
Although Anheuser-Busch can substantially strengthen its own coffers, the local economy tends to suffer. People only redirect their leisure dollars from local businesspeople towards the owners of a sports team and its sponsors, not to mention the additional amount of money spent on Gasoline for the thousands of "sports" fans to get to the stadium (where they will cause mass chaos in terms of traffic congestion and parking while simultaneously increasing our annual greenhouse emissions).
Local sports franchises damage our citizen’s diets, health, air-quality, and local businesses. Typical fair at any major sporting event includes deep fried chicken wings, French fries, nachos served with fake cheese, something or other that’s supposed to pass as pizza, all white-flour pretzels, very low quality domestic beer, high-fructose corn syrup soft drinks, and high fructose corn syrup “sports” drinks which are, of course, healthy because athletes drink them.
I don’t even know how much trans fat we’d find in the pizza (also made with HFCS tomato sauce) or in the various fried foods since the nutritional content information isn’t made readily available. The massive amount of exposure given to paying sponsors allows giant corporations the advertising they need to convince millions to make economic decision that are in direct conflict with their own financial and health interests (choosing national banks over credit unions, drinking crappy domestic beer over high quality micro brewed and European style beer, buying ‘patriotic’ American made motor vehicles over higher efficiency, lower emission Japanese designed cars made in American factories owned by American businesspeople who employ American workers, and so forth).
Furthermore, our modern sports culture damages our cultural attitudes. The very idea of gathering by the thousands in one location, paying dozens of dollars each for admission, and doing so to endlessly praise a select group of 22 individuals for being physically ‘better’ than the rest of us even as we pay them hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars per year each so that they can listen to us scream out how much better they are is preposterous!
It feeds the egos of the players, and creates a class distinction between them and the rest of us. It encourages our youth to strive for whatever collegiate and professional sports leagues demand of them to win this coveted royal treatment, and to ignore everything else that may be of true value to them and to our society. These “athletes” also go to extremes to earn the most elite seats amongst the other elite athletes by taking performance enhancing drugs, and by undergoing routine reconstructive surgeries which leave them half crippled or worse by their late 40s.
Sports team loyalties are made of the same stuff as blind patriotism and over-zealous religious allegiances in the face of any corrupt government or spiritual leadership that lies to or misleads its peoples. I’d even go so far as to say that team loyalties function the same way as racist attitudes.
There is no reason for any individual to pledge loyalty to an arbitrary collection of players from all over the country who have ended up in the same city to represent it in a national sports league. These players are traded, bought, and sold by one team to and from another just like commodities. At the collegiate level, players are similarly recruited from high schools all over. Once your favorite player moves or graduates, that person no longer stands for what you believed in.
Once you move yourself, you can either change allegiances to another arbitrary collection of players or be that one person in your new city who aggressively asserts via a bumper-sticker that the team from the last city he or she lived in is only superior X sports team of all! Sports rivalries erupt into destructive behavior and violence much the same way as race rivalries, national rivalries, and religious rivalries. There aren’t many nearly as violent rivalries found in the mathematical, musical, theatrical, or competitive chess worlds. Rival engineering or English departments from different schools wouldn’t ever be caught fighting or shouting drunken threats at a Mathletes convention or at a prose symposium.
With all of this said, after severely cutting back on the attention and dollars invested into collegiate and professional sports nationwide, I would be 100% in favor of sending much MORE money than we do now into public elementary through high schools for athletic education and instruction… specifically to help our youth AVOID the conventional sports culture that deceives and betrays so many millions. We must teach our children the inherent values and benefits of true athleticism and fitness as distinct and separate from the sorts of wasted-life behavior that we see in the majority of professional athletes and sports fans.
Comments (17)
The Romans had the same sorts of problems with their gladitorial games and chariot races. Professional spectator sports will be (at least a part of) the death of us all.
That being said, I'm really surprised to see a posting like this on this site. Most of the "mens' interest" magazines (Maxim, FHM, Stuff) devote space to sports coverage, and the editorial tone in those mags seems to make it seem almost mandatory for guys to watch that garbage, like you don't have balls if you don't watch it.
Hear Hear! I agree, modern sports just have too many problems.
@mikewb1971@xanga - That's exactly why I submitted this post the instant ManCouch launched. I've been working extremely hard to become a main contributor to the Xanga community, and I care about enhancing its public reputation.
I did my best to send ManCouch off in the right direction from the very start, challenging stereotypes and cliches about "guyness." After all the name of the site is pretty blatantly sexist as it is, and could use a good name change.
Better change "Momaroo" into "Gender-Equal Parentaroo" or something while we're at it! XD
idk, I really like the thought that you put into this but i have to respectfully disagree.
yes, sports is a big part of our culture but it also helps out the community as well. Most of the pro athletes, or at least the teams, are associated with some sort of charity. These people did not all grow up as privileged kids. They're also around to help make a difference. yes, they're payed millions of dollars. But watch the news and see who is getting attention locally. could be one of the pro sports athletes giving toys away or at a kitchen serving the homeless.
My old college even had most of their athletes do many hours of community service. Plus, most of those kids, if it wasn't for sports they might not be at the college that they are at. Getting that scholarship is giving them a chance at a good education and to hopefully make a difference. Not all of those kids will go off to make it big in the pros.
Also, competition is a big part of who we are. Whether we play against each other on the courts or greens or even watching the sport on tv at home or in a bar. We pride ourselves with our home teams. It is not a wasted effort. do you know many of the sports athletes from around learn about the game? They watch film of other games and learn from that. Isn't it interesting that we're basically doing the same thing by watching games ourselves. So when we make it onto the courts ourselves, we could even try and emulate our heroes.
Oh, and hosting a stadium does well to the economy. It does it even better when you can host something like the Superbowl or even the Allstar Game for the NBA.This gives a chance, like small business owners, to make more money with having thousands of people fly in to their city to watch some of the biggest athletes on the planet. And i'm betting quite a bit of them will also be spending money which will help boost our economy.
I will agree that with sports people tend to consume quite a bit of amounts of fattening food. But there are still some who will do the exercise needed to burn off that food. Also, have you ever looked at what Michael Phelps eats for a daily meal? It is ridiculous and astonishing. the boy needs to feed himself so much because of the calories he burns in a workout.
Anyways, I don't think you should rule out conventional sports as bad for people. It really makes a good difference in peoples lives. Some aren't able to make that dream to the big leagues so they live vicariously through home team athletes. There's still love for that game that they were able to grow up with. And I whole heartedly agree that we should teach more children to get up off their butts and go outside to have fun. This generation of kids are more video game and tv people than we have been in the past, not the kind of kids who would go watch sports on tv. I would think that just watching sports might help the kids want to get out and do the same like Kobe Bryant or Lebron James, LaDanian Tomlinson or Brett Favre. Most of the kids are growing up now are overweight. it's time they became more active. not looking good for our future...and sorry about the randomness of my comment. just went with it.
@Ry_Ry@xanga & @Alex_Horschack@xanga
I can completely agree or at least understand your (Alex_Horschack) point of view throughout all of this. But I can also understand Ry_Ry's point as well.
I think it's all in the way you look at it. Everything has it's pros and cons, yeah? Everything is evil in some way... and good in another.
Good entry, Alex_Horschack, and good comment, Ry_Ry.
I totally agree with this entry. But then I've never been a fan of any pro or college sports. I just don't get it, I don't get what fascinates guys about it. Watching millionaires run around on a field/court throwing a ball at each other like it's some big event even though it repeats itself every year.
I'd rather play the sports.
I also don't like how the local news spends so much time on it every day, whereas they only cover say new technology news for about a minute tops.
Or because of the fact that I'm a guy, other guys just assume I saw the game last night and have an opinion about X player or X trade to X team. I'd rather focus my time of stuff that really makes a difference in this world.
@roxics@xanga -- Add to the fact that those teams are able to afford the multi-millions for player salaries by pushing the stadium construction costs to you (and me, and everyone else who couldn't care less about the game) in the form of taxes, what's not to like?
If this doesn't deserve a Golden Fishhook Award, what does?
@mikewb1971@xanga - so you're gonna tell me something like having the Superbowl does not help attract tourism to the city? people traveling from all over to watch their favorite teams play in the "biggest game" of their lives? It was such a boost in economy for Glendale this past year. It was also one of the most widely watched programs every year. If not for the game then at least for the new commercials that are shown. People pay millions to have their commercials be shown then. And now next year Phoenix is also hosting the NBA Allstar Game. Another highly anticipated event for fans to see most of the great players from the NBA get together in one city to play.
You do bring up a good point though, sometimes a sports franchise does not work in every city. Unfortunately it is all about location. do you really get a lot of allstar college athletes going to nmsu or unm? It looks like a great campus but the schools aren't known for being a powerhouse in sports. Yet it's still a great place for someone to get a good quality education which is also a reward for being good at what you do. kinda like if you get straight A's or are some physics/math genius, you would get a scholarship to help you attend the university.
@Ry_Ry@xanga - Those 'big' games attract something else... the human trafficking slave trade. My hometown Tampa is hosting the superbowl this year, and I'm upset because it will bring hookers, drugs, the crimes associated with them, and traffic accidents.
Sports culture at the collegiate level is a distraction from the reason why we're really there, except for those who are honest enough that they just want to get by to get their piece of paper after taking the easiest classes imaginable to keep their 4.0 while maintaining a golf scholarship.
@Ry_Ry@xanga - Not to mention that the local economy doesn't benefit much at all. It only redirects the money that would have been spent on other, more wholesome entertainment all over the city.
It doesn't help your city's business, but it certainly helps Anheusser-Busch and the Miller Brewing Company alright.
@mikewb1971@xanga - Ahahaha. We sound the same!
@roxics@xanga - This attitude is so important to spread to the rest of the world... Let's call it sport-apathy evangelicalism.
@Ry_Ry@xanga - I think that 'sports' culture is as much a contributor to obesity as any other cause.
Those small businesses you mentioned could do well to enhance and grow their businesses by taking advantage of creative thought in order to attract more customers and to keep them returning. So what if one big game in one particular year allows them to sell thousands of extra chicken wings? That gives them more of a false-hope that their business will keep doing well after the travelers have all left town. Most of those people aren't ever going to give the host city a second thought because they came, watched their game, drank the same stuff they always drink, and ate the same foods they always eat just in a different joint that still looks like all of the others.
I like that post, very interesting thoughts!
I liked the general direction of this article, but at the end it just seemed like an end all be all bitter polemic against sports culture.
Local high school athletic games are actually an extremely important part of high school revenue. It's right up there with the school lunch system. The cost of tickets and foods add up. Easily dwarfed by tax funding, but revenue is revenue.
Also, intellectual pursuits are not as clean as one may think. Scholastic Scrimmage, basically a quiz tournament I'm a part of at my school that goes nation wide, is actually a hilariously bitter affair. They may not get drunk and try to kill each other (which only happens in drunk bars that get in fights over the number of legs in a stool and between particularly angry players, but I digress), but there is a lot of bad blood that goes down.
Again, there is the good and the bad of everything. The good of sports and its culture is that it has introduced me to innumerable friends and has affected my personality for the better. At an individual basis it can really make a difference. The negative is very real, and was outlined well in this article.
"Local high school athletic games are actually an extremely important part of high school revenue."
You couldnt be more wrong if you tried. Not a single high school sport brings in as much revenue as is spent on the sport. Hooray the football team raised $10,000 this year!!!! Too bad it costs $20,000 to pay for the field, field maintenance, refs, coaches, uniforms, bus drivers, buses, etc.
Now don't get me wrong high school sports are important. They teach leadership, the ability to set personal goals and strive for them, the ability to work with team mates for a common goal, over-all fitness, and a myriad of other benefits. Very important things people need to learn that will benefit them through out their lives.
Professional/college sports is a total crock. The extra revenue they bring in? Society would be far better off if each one of those 110,000 football fans bettered themselves for just a couple hours instead of spending all that money to mindlessly consume shit they dont need and watch players they dont know play against other players they dont know in a game that is ultimately insignificant.
Just imagine if every sunday instead of consuming copious amount of alcohol and grease watching a bunch of arbitrary players compete you spent that time learning a hobby, getting a couple hours of work around the house done, reading a book, or god forbid participating in some kind of sport or physical activity for yourself? You, and the world, would be far better off.