/lit/ - Literature

Organized sports are a waste of time. Football, American or otherwise, is one of the most decadent aspects of our civilization. More decadent than TV and video games. Sports are pure consumerism.

I once believed they're just one past time among many others. And, they encourage physical fitness and discipline.
Ah, but most sports fans I know, as I now realize, are perennially unhealthy, addicted to fast food, booze, and cigarettes. It amounts to watching TV, making one no more athletic than watching Fistful of Dollars makes you a crack shooter. Not that playing them is always better, for the long term. My cousin has permanent brain damage and memory loss from playing high school football.
The problem is not necessarily with sports themselves, but the diminishing returns on prioritizing them as a major cultural enterprise. Someone who watches too many movies or plays too many video games is, at least, getting exposed to varieties of experiences. No matter how frivolous and foolish, they absorb some culture. But watching a franchised sports game (as opposed to say, the Olympics) is the same repetitive thing for hundreds of hours. And it's not cheap.
They're also a substantial expense to the educational system. You hear, "they bring money." This is actually bullshit. Some universities, a little more than a third with sports, get substantial revenue gains, but according to the NCAA, the majority will run sports programs at a net loss. High school sports are a total loss. Not to mention the harm it does to education by introducing thousands of unqualified students on the basis of sports scholarships. I knew some of these guys in college. A few were articulate and intelligent, but others had the raw intellect of a brick. They change the standards for these people (niggers).

Society turns these dummies into heroes. Professional football players think they're seriously important people.