The part I don't get about high school, college and professional sports isn't that people enjoy watching it. Or learning about it.
It's not to my taste, but that's ok. To each their own. Live and let live.
I totally get rooting for a team that's got someone on it whom you know.
The first part that really annoys me is all the men I know who clearly feel like "more of a real man" when their team wins a game.
I find that to be totally pathetic. If their sense of self worth is tied to how well one group of strangers carries a piece of dead pig across a field versus another group of strangers, that's truly sad. And yet I've known a lot of over-aged boy children who are exactly like that. Same mentality that causes folks to drive grossly big pickup trucks they don't need so they'll be thought to be manly.
If you enjoy sports and you're not like that, then there's no need to take it personal.
If you are like that, well, if the shoe fits, you're the one who bought it and put it on.
The second part that annoys me is that our government caters to this infantilism by subsidizing sports stadiums for millions and millions of dollars. We "can't afford" to pay teachers but we can "afford" a $33,000,000 to $40,000,000 baseball stadium. That's right, our community will be spending upwards of $40,000,000 so we can watch men play with their balls in public. It's ludicrous. The highest paid government officials in most states are football or basketball coaches. That's ludicrous. Was looking at tuition and fees cost for a local state university a couple of weeks ago. Students will be paying $740 per year for athletic fees. That's ludicrous. It's bad enough college costs are so high, but to force students to subsidize football and basketball teams -- whose culture is often the very antithesis of what an academic culture should be -- with that kind of money is horrible.
We should switch to intra-mural sports that are inexpensive and use the savings to drive down college costs. Or let those who want to major in sports pay the extra fees.
You asked, I answered.