Football-worship and religion are two things I don't get. I've already explained why I am not religious. But football worship... ok, here goes.
I don't hate or even dislike football - the game. In fact, I enjoy (or enjoyed) playing it when I was younger. It's great fun and a good workout, too.
No, what I hate is the veneration of college and pro football - and the deification of the players, coaches and everything associated with the spectacle. To put a finer point on it - I hate the passive, erastz achievement-by-association; the emotional investment people make in "their" team; the use of turns of phrase such as "we won!" when in fact "we" didn't do a blessed thing other than gape at a TV screen for several hours and "my team" is nothing more or less than a group of highly paid entertainers who have no more allegiance to Pittsburgh or Dallas than the actors in the Brady Bunch had to their stage set in California.
I loathe the way our society elevates a man who throws a ball (or catches one) or who runs fast to a status (and wealth) that would embarrass Caligula. Athletic excellence is laudatory but it's fundamentally animalistic. A bear is strong; a Cheetah can run fast. But only a human being can conceive a suspension bridge or split an atom. Yet that sort of achievement is hardly even taken notice of by the masses of this country. They know who's leading the NFC east. But ask them about the second law of thermodynamics or about the Bill of Rights, or ask them almost any question that would have been regarded as elementary by the educated classes of the 19th or 18th centuries - and you draw a blank stare 9 our of 10 times. And it's not that these are stupid people; they're just willfully ignorant and indifferent to substance. Spectacle, noise... "excitement" and the crowd. This is what they live for.
I also sneer with contempt at the sad juxtaposition, so typical of the rabid football fan, of worship of athleticism by a person who is almost invariably sedentary and overweight (if not morbidly obese). They gape for hours at men who are doing something - and cheer them for it - but never do anything themselves. I would bet that at least 60 percent of the people attending any pro or college football game are 20 pounds or more overweight and in terrible physical shape.
I could go on and on but I feel spent... so I will stop here. Feel free to add your comments to mine!
It's miserable watching the Chicago Bears. Every week they get their mugs pounded to submission. However it's a very intense game football is and it's like the Roman Empire when the gladiators fought in the ring against animals and each other. Gosh it depends if your rooting for a winner or a loser. However I get pretty bored watching it,it was very intense playing back in the day.
I guess part of it is I'm old enough to remember a more proportionate time. Athletes were paid well, but not tens of millions of dollars per year. Most weren't obvious thugs. Those that were were shunned - not worshipped even more. People paid attention to real news. Colleges were still (mostly) about academics. Etc.Originally Posted by Adam
Today, the parallel between football and ancient Roman spectacles is most apt. The purpose is the same - distract the masses, keep their minds off the important things. Vent their emotions in a harmless way. Encourage mass behavior. Etc.
It's fitting that football (and pro athletics generally) is the be all end all of modern American life. And of the degenerate, vicious and stupid Red Giant stage empire that is modern America.
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