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The Nation's Pulse
The Cult of (Watching) Sports
Is our sports-watching obsession killing us?
(Page 2 of 2)
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to curtail sports participation, including work and family obligations. But though they stop playing sports, many men continue to spend lots of time watching and following them.
Everyone knows the effect inactivity has our health. Numerous studies have found a link between TV watching and poor health.
Studies routinely find that most Americans get less than the minimum recommended level of physical activity, about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a day. In fact, according to the CDC, only about one-third (35 percent) of American adults engage in regular physical activity. About the same share, 33 percent, do no activity at all.
Our inactivity helps explain why two-thirds of American adults are classified as at least overweight, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
And why there’s been a “dramatic increase” in overweight and obesity rates over the last two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010 “no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%,” according to the CDC.
Inactivity is associated with a host of other maladies, including heart disease, diabetes, depression and hypertension. Every year in the U.S. at least 250,000 deaths are attributed to a lack of physical activity.
So is our love of sports killing us? Let’s just say that when millions of Americans are spending most of their weekends watching sports and filling out their fantasy football lineups, there’s a lot less time for exercise.
Health is not the only casualty. We chuckle at women whose sports-crazed husbands have made them “sports widows.” But a clinical psychologist from the University of Alabama recently warned that football fanaticism qualifies as an addiction that can have profound effects on our relationships.
Other psychologists have discussed how sports have become a substitute to organized religion.
And our sports obsessions can distract us from more serious matters.
As former Minnesota Vikings running back Robert Smith has written, “If people would spend as much time investigating and looking at our government or some of the decisions that are made in this country as they do memorizing stats of players, then we’d have a better understanding of the world and would be capable of making better decisions.”
I’m no sports hater. Growing up, I spent countless hours every day watching, playing and following sports. I played high school sports and was a scholarship athlete in college. I put in thousands of hours in Tecmo Bowl and Madden Football. I’m a proud two-time winner of the fantasy football league I used to play in.
Now in my 30s, I continue to play sports several times a week, and I still enjoy taking in a good game. But the degree to which watching sports dominate the lives of many American men is, in a word, pathetic.
Sports have much to offer. They can promote teamwork, sportsmanship and good health and instill discipline and humility. But most of these benefits are derived not from watching, betting on, or fantasizing about sports. They come from actually playing them.
About the Author
Daniel Allott is a writer in Washington, D.C.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (67) | Leave a comment
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Robert Pinkerton| 12.14.11 @ 6:43AM
When I was a child, I learned to swear and curse specifically from watching my Dad watching football or baseball. Too, in his disgust with our city's teams' performance, he re-named our baseball team "the Idiots," and our football team (the Browns) "the Bums," referring to the winos who inhabited Prostect Avenue in days gone by. Cleveland acquired a basketball team before Dad died; this team he re-named "the Cadavers."
From all of this, I concluded (though I did not have the words to verbalie this until I was nearly forty) that that kind of overinvestment of emotion was malinvestment in particular of poor distribution of emotional resources.
ExPFCWintergreen| 12.14.11 @ 8:37AM
SO what you are telling us is that you turned out to be a weenie
Le Cracquere| 12.14.11 @ 2:18PM
If so, God send us more weenies.
(And God grant this doesn't end up getting quoted sans context!)
Paul McGrath| 12.14.11 @ 4:25PM
Funniest comment of the day, ex-PFC. (And I know where you came up with the name.)
Kevin| 12.14.11 @ 7:27AM
Then there are people who just enjoy the distraction. I watch a couple of games each Sunday and most of Monday Night Football as well. I couldn't give a hoot about college football, or basketball for that matter. Each summer I watch my home team Diamondbacks play more than a few times but don't follow the standings unless they're doing well at the end of the season. I play tennis a couple days a week and watch it on TV also now and then. Not everyone who enjoys watching a sporting event is so obsessed as your article infers.
donserge| 12.14.11 @ 7:56AM
My perspective is a little different. I watch less sports on TV precisely because TV has ruined sports via its domination. It dictates when time-outs are to be called, which teams get air time, the time games are played, the length of the game, incessant replays, "challenges"...the list goes on.
Herb| 12.14.11 @ 8:20AM
Political & military campaigns and their outcomes affect our lives, each and every one. Football victories affect no one - no, wait, they often result in riots and ended friendships.
Better to go out in the yard and throw the football around for a half hour, or "toss the pill" if you're a baseball fan, than be glued to the TV for hours on end. Now, I'm not unaware that Super Bowl parties are social events, but c'mon, folks! It's a dangerous world and we as citizens have bigger fish to fry. For example, I cheer for whichever team is opposing the Taliban & al-Qaeda.
(might as well stir the pot) Old saying: "There has never been an enemy soldier killed by a football, baseball, soccer ball, basketball, tennis ball, or golf ball; this has always been the work of a trained rifleman."
Though I would really like to know how those first down lines magically appear on the football field.
albert constantine jr.| 12.14.11 @ 4:39PM
While I don't dispute the value of marksmanship training, there is a reason our hand grenades are base ball shaped, instead of the potato masher variety that so many of our adversaries have favored. For more than a hundred years, many of our youths have been trained since early childhood to hurl such a projectile accurately and for distance, inflicting many a casualty on our enemies (along with a few underhanded fraggings of friendly leaders).Those nations that primarily play soccer can make no such claim to great throwing arms.
TrueBlue| 12.14.11 @ 6:45PM
Used to require a whole room of computers to get those lines up there, now I think they're down to 5-6 per game, I'd have to go looking to get the exact number so don't qoute me on that. It's kind of impressive the amount of hardware that goes into putting those up on our screens live without covering up the players while they're running or standing over them though.
jothepro| 12.14.11 @ 8:35AM
I am surprised that a former Ohio Buckeye (Robert Smith) can think on that level..
scotchieguy| 12.14.11 @ 9:41PM
Do you know him? He is a genius. When he played for the Vikes, he talked about becoming a doctor. His hobby is astronomy. Possibly the smartest athlete I have ever heard speak. Also, very humble and funny. They don't make many like him, and he used his brain re his career--he retired at his peak, before he trashed his body and his brain. He left a lot of money on the table. Very cool guy.
ExPFCWintergreen| 12.14.11 @ 8:36AM
What a load of garbage. This is a screed one would expect to see in one of the self righteous Vanity Fair magazines. The writer has obviously never had children.
Jacob R| 12.14.11 @ 8:51AM
Little too close to home?
Franco| 12.14.11 @ 9:29AM
Nope. I have children myself, and I think that much of the blame lies on the TV itself rather than than the games watched on it . I distrust TV when it come to my children. We have two TV's at home--one in the basement and one in our bedroom (not a great idea itself, but at least it allows us to exert our authority over it). And the the TV in the basement has to compete with all my other toys (exercise bike, electric guitar, my awesome library, and the washer and dryer). You can be just as addicted to History Channel reruns about the Third Reich as football. If one is bored and aimless enough you'll watch ANYTHING--any crap at all just to drown out your own pathetic thoughts.
Red Bubba| 12.14.11 @ 8:57AM
Rome had gladiators and chariot races. We have football and Nascar. Rome had Ceasar and an ever less relevant legislature....
Prester John| 12.14.11 @ 12:24PM
Exactly.
Anthony| 12.14.11 @ 1:52PM
Ah the good ole days, when senators carried swords and knifes and used them on each other.
It's one way of getting term limits.
I'd watch C-Span a whole lot more.
albert constantine jr.| 12.14.11 @ 4:43PM
I'd even consider a donation to the local PBS station if they showed Barney Frank getting the Julius Caesar treatment, lisping "Et tu, Bwute".
Matthew Quigley| 12.14.11 @ 9:01AM
I lived for a time in a state with the most obnoxious and revolting sports obsession: Nebraska. The fans of the UNL "Cornhuskers" are as near to a religious cult as it gets. The Omaha radio station which carried their games would have a twelve hour pregame show, and then a six hour post game show. On the local TV news shows, actual news waited for the first half of the broadcast to be finished, which was nothing but game highlights and self-congratulatory commentary (the use of "us" and "we" by the sportscasters and fanjerks begged the question, "What position do you play?")...to the point of it making someone sick.
I managed to leave that lunatic asylum and move back to New Mexico. The fans of the UNM "Lobos" are less rabid (cultic? religiously unstable?), and that actually makes sports a bit more tolerable here. Believe me, rabid fans are one thing, but when a team is treated with religious fanaticism (and I do mean that...I knew people who built little shrines to UNL football in their houses, who lit candles to the team, and did everything short of actually starting a church dedicated to the "Cornhuskers"...although the black occasions I was compelled to listen to those pregame shows reminded me of a long-winded preacher sermonizing about how all good in the world emanated from Tom Osborne), THAT'S a bit much. Being a fan is one thing...being insane and obsessed with a team is something else entirely. When three sections of a newspaper are devoted to a team, THAT'S an unhealthy obsession...and that's what I saw back in Nebraska.
Stormy| 12.14.11 @ 9:02AM
Do not worry. Michelle Obama will save us with her Move It, or something.
Ashley Davis| 12.14.11 @ 9:26AM
Pure mindless drivel......Most americans oerweight? yeah, if you accept the ridiculous BMI scales...Emmit Smith in his PRIME would be considered overweight & borderline OBESE according to the BMI.......personally i work out 5 to 6 times a week; and I sit my happy a$$ right in front of my gigantic HDTV on Sunday with NO apologies......I'm 42, and I have children-both grown and very young (3 yrs old) & I manage to spend plenty of quality time with them. Point is, there are worse things and better things (surely a matter of opinion) one could do than watch sports, but jeez......religion? you get persecuted & looked down upon by society if it happens to be the wrong one.....BTW, my relationship with my fiancee' is, in her words, "a dream come true"
JohnD| 12.14.11 @ 9:31AM
I grew up in the 1960s in Baltimore where the Colts reigned supreme. My father was a season ticket holder, and on a few rare occaisions I got to go with him to Memorial Stadium to see Johnny Unitas play, and partake in the atmosphere of "the World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum" on 33rd Street. As I got older I shared my father's obsession with the Colts, as did my brother, and it was something that helped to bond all of us. The Colts successes brought a sense of civic pride to our lowly seaport and industrial city that was lost in the shadows of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. They made being from Baltimore mean something to us.
I now watch the Ravens with my 10 year old and manage to get tickets to at least two or three games a year. We have a great time, and attending a game is an all-day event. It is something we share now, and we both have a lot of fun. He is well-versed in Baltimore's football history going back to the AAFC Colts of the 1940s and he refuses to call that Indiana team by any name but "Indianapolis."
In short, I feel that supporting a sports team is not a waste of time, if you appreciate the civic pride and intergenerational family bonding aspects of it.
Red Bubba| 12.14.11 @ 10:08AM
Civic pride? Baltimore? It might feel good to have sports as a distraction.
JohnD| 12.14.11 @ 10:48AM
It is people like you who give us Baltimoreans our defensive pride. Baltimore is a wonderful city, with good people. It has its problems, but it is a nice place. Great football team.
You should come visit. You might be surprised.
DonM| 12.14.11 @ 11:36AM
Visit? Maybe, but live there? Never. It's in Maryland.
Seek| 12.14.11 @ 11:44AM
And what's wrong with Maryland?
JohnD| 12.14.11 @ 1:45PM
High taxes, democrat-labor one party rule. If you can get past that the rest is great.
Seek| 12.14.11 @ 3:38PM
And how is that the fault of the Baltimore Ravens?
albert constantine jr.| 12.14.11 @ 4:56PM
Good crab cakes, bad violent crime rate in Baltimore. Good people on the Eastern Shore, too many parasitical government functionaries in PG and Montgomery Counties. Martin O'Malley-good musician, bad politician. I could go on and on, but at least I tried to balance some of the bad with the good.
Bob K.| 12.14.11 @ 9:38AM
Mr. Allott only briefly mentions betting which is the biggest reason that sports like Football and Basketball are so popular on TV.
Since Mr. Allott is a Senior Writer at "American Values" maybe his next article could be one on how Gambling on Collegiate Sports contributes to (or damages) our American Values?
John Navratil| 12.14.11 @ 9:58AM
John Navratil,
Football - that's the prolate spheroid, isn't it?
Radioman777| 12.14.11 @ 10:00AM
If people want to watch sports, so what? What business is it of Mr. Allot's? He sounds like a self-righteous twit. I play basketball, compete in martial arts, and do competitive rifle, pistol and archery, but not everyone is willing to put in the time to become skilled at a sport. For kids who like to play sports, they can learn a lot by watching (good observation, Yogi) the pros and collegiate players, then crib moves for themselves.
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 10:18AM
Only to the extent that he commented on it did he make it his business.
I don't think the article called for government involvement.
lighten up.
Radioman777| 12.14.11 @ 3:56PM
He remains a sanctimonious twit.
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 10:10AM
...It will only get worse due to ever-cheaper, larger HD video displays. The regular price for an "outdated" 32" HD screen -which is considered small these days - goes for an astonishing $250 bucks.
Most people can't afford to live a real life anymore but CAN afford to buy a relatively large HD television and basic cable package for their daily distractions, a.k.a., Bread and Circuses.
Here, the sports industry has them right where they want them. The lemming sports fan purchases the "cheap razor", the sports industrialists provides the "expensive razor blade", i.e., the pricey array of ala-carte cable sports packages to fill every sports lemmings' need.
Do you think it's a coincidence that in recent years practically EVERY major sporting event has moved from network programming to cable?...that EVERY major professional league now has it's own network?...that many large colleges are doing the same?
Take a look at the new NFL television contract. An increase of 50% from the previous one. Who will eventually absorb the higher cost?
It's all about pay-per-view because the sports industry knows the lemmings desire to fill some void in their lives is unquenchable, no matter the cost.
For me, I'm basically over it. Partially due to age and partially due to the fact that I cannot relate one iota to the thuggish behavior that poisons much of what's on sports programming. Case in point, the Xavier/Cincinnati from last weekend.
...and oh, also, because if I see one more guy in his 30's wearing a sports jersey I fear I might do something nasty to my newly-acquired LCD television.
Buck Ofama| 12.14.11 @ 10:41AM
>Take a look at the new NFL television contract. An increase of 50% from the previous one. Who will eventually absorb the higher cost?
Taxpayers will. Ovomit has already marked sports salaries as too big to fail.
emilio lizardo, PhD| 12.14.11 @ 10:14AM
What this sanctimonious screed fails to mention is sports is the last bastion of meritocracy- at the elite and pro levels, athletes are selected based on intelligence and ability- no set asides for minorities (i.e. women, whites, asians in the NBA or NFL, or blacks in NHL, or the physically handicapped) so that the pro teams "mirror the ethnic composition of the community" It's all about performance and for the most part pro sports is a quality product and great, if expensive, entertainment, marvelous athletes in action. I have the luxury of health, a work environment and a place of residence that allows me to get outside and be a year round endurance athlete. Only a bluenose and a prig would sneer at those whose busy lives dont permit the same, and would seek to castigate those who enjoy sports spectatorship
Bob K.| 12.14.11 @ 10:57AM
Pro Sports is also subsidized by tax payer funded stadiums paid in part by tax payers who live many miles away from these stadiums.
And the people who have invested in these teams also have given to them the benefits of a friendly tax structure which allows them to "depreciate" for tax purposes the temporary "leases" they have on these meritorious athletes.
Le Cracquere| 12.14.11 @ 2:16PM
I don't believe you brought up college sports. Shall we talk a bit about the pure "meritocracy" supposedly at work there, vis-à-vis admissions, grading, and discipline?
emilio lizardo, PhD| 12.14.11 @ 3:11PM
what you are talking about is off the field stuff. There are certainly problems, and in revenue sports, the concept of the student athlete is largely a joke. But there are comparable problems with the recruitment of the non-meritorious to the non-athlete student ranks as well. It's called reverse discrimination- ask kids of asian descent how they list their ethnicity on their Ivy League application- and affirmative action. What I refer to is the finished product as entertainment value in sport. No affirmative action for short fat guys or pencil-necks, only the best play at the highest level on Saturday and Sunday. That is refreshing and I like to watch it.
Bob K.| 12.14.11 @ 9:32PM
There is no difference. Subsidies also apply in tax payer funded state run colleges and universities. And the same financial problems that apply to Pro sports apply to state run colleges.
None of them make enough money off their programs to fund the number of "meritorious" athletes who are there for an education or the stadiums and arenas necessary for the events.
Bob K.| 12.15.11 @ 1:04AM
In a truly free society all Football and Basketball, Pro and College both, would be shown only on Pay TV.
Even the Romans paid to go to the coliseum to see the circuses!
Old Soldier| 12.14.11 @ 10:19AM
Thanks for the article Nanna Allott. I promise to go to the gym if you let me watch some football on Sunday.
Douche-bag.
Idaho Ike| 12.14.11 @ 5:22PM
I don't know, Old S., but people who use vocabulary like yours are usually men who repress the l.t.d.n.s.i.n.
If you can't have a civil discussion and prefer invective -- and for what it's worth, your insultee sounds like a fellow who can outrun, outbat, outjump, outswim, outpushup (with one arm) you without even making an effort -- I suggest you go to your local AA and play pick-up sticks as a way of controlling the shakes.
It'll fix your head at least while you're there.
Buck Ofama| 12.14.11 @ 10:38AM
Watching sports is nearly as boring as my 2-mile daily walk.
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 10:44AM
Business idea: Televise your walks. I bet there's a niche market for this.
Lemmings will watch anything.
After all, people watch other people bowl and curl.
jan| 3.25.12 @ 4:16PM
Watching a bunch of millionaires trowing a ball around, great.
Gary| 12.14.11 @ 11:29AM
I think you are exaggerating the sports mania bit. I suspect many more Americans obsess over reality TV, video games, movies, and TV in general. I like college and pro football but don't watch every game. I do follow religiously my teams, LSU and the Saints who I followed on radio when they weren't on TV. After football season I generally don't watch any sports, so half of my year is sports free. There are many who overdo it I guess as in any interest or hobby, but most are like me. It IS fun, though to get excited about the home team. You can get mad, happy, sad, whatever and not really have much invested in it as you do in life's problems. It is an escape, pure and simple, a way to act silly, rib your friends, argue about unimportant things, etc. At age 65 I've experienced grief, loss, in my life and football is a respite from those sad things for a little while, so ease up.
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 12:35PM
You watch your beloved LSU Tigers and NO Saints over the network for free...generally.
The question is will you religiously follow them when you have to pay for that privilege? Trust me, it's coming sooner than you think.
Brian Mc| 12.14.11 @ 2:29PM
After viewing the contents of the first package for thirty bucks I told the satellite rep at Lowe's, "Tell you what, you can have 75% of the first package since there isn't a single channel included in the whole thing that I will watch, and give me the 25% additional channels you are offering in the second package at twice the money for the thirty dollar price."
"I don't have the power to do that."
"Get back to me when you do."
I will never pay money again for HSN, BET, CMT, and seven Spanish channels...."OH, you wanna watch football...wellllll."
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 4:50PM
Well, that's their version of "al a carte" programming.
Just like Hungry-Man knows you'll pay for that apple dessert knowing damn well it will not be eaten in order to get to the salisbury steak and mashed potatoes.
Who Knows?| 12.14.11 @ 12:29PM
We live in a society dominated by innumeracy and economic illiteracy. Here are two current event examples—
The author cites statistics that one of the most watched TV shows, an NFL football game, garnered some 20 million eyeballs. And I recall seeing polls that show that around 7 million watched a recent GOP debate, and that was the most yet.
Well, since there are 300 million Americans, that means 280 million did NOT see that game, and 293 million missed the debate. Put these “statistics” in your pipe, and smoke them.
As one who’s spent serious time for over fifty years as a TV spectator of all sports, observing the entire track of my sports watching “career” as I approach the age of 70 is bringing quite a lot of clarity. First off, as we near the college football bowl season, which has heretofore been heartily enjoyed by yours truly, it was quite the shock to find out that almost all the bowls are on ESPN. Yikes!
And here I live, nearly a year after canceling cable and making do with an antenna! For only a slick second did I consider ordering cable so I could see all those bowls. I refuse to be a part of the paying crowd---it was okay to be a free rider when games were broadcast off cable, because I could always flip off the ads, or turn down the sound. No way am I EVER going to send some of my hard earned money into the wallet of, say, Michael Vick---name your thug.
They should pay me to learn some life lessons! Ha ha.
On a more general level, humans have to take into account what they ALREADY know, and have LIVED---namely, they go through---successfully, or not---at least three stages of life. From birth until around 7, it’s all about mastering the PHYSICAL. Until about 14, the sexual-emotional dimension is encountered. And, then it’s all about getting it on in the mental realm, until circa 21. (Now, in the West, that’s about the limit. But, there are four higher stages humans SHOULD go through.)
Sports is just the PHYSICAL stage of life. Yes, I know, it takes brains to play at a high level like a Peyton Manning. However, at the basic core, it’s all about the PHYSICAL. Remember the football truism---it’s all about blocking and tackling.
So, those of us who indulge in spectator sports are continuing our “link” to our first seven years of life, essentially---talk about being nostalgic!
littleroundtop| 12.14.11 @ 1:58PM
The genie is long out of this bottle. America has been sports-obsessed for decades. In every WWII move I watched growing up, US soldiers distinguished friend from foe with references to pro sports, usually baseball. Professional sports is a multi-billion dollar industry dependent on ad dollars that are in turn dependent on TV viewership. God Bless America!
Maddox| 12.14.11 @ 3:32PM
I love football, especially college football and I make NO apology for that. It is possible to watch sports and be active in life, one must make the choice to do so. Blaming American obsession with sports for laziness is absurd.
Many so-called intellectuals are snobby about sports because they can never hope to participate. The strategy and team work involved in football takes a certain degree of intelligence. One may not excel in academia but one cannot be an imbecile to play at a high level.
My marriage is better because of our shared enjoyment of both college and pro football, as well as some interest in most other sports.
*By the way, Roll Tide! Roll!
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 4:35PM
6 game suspensions for that thuggish outbreak during the Xavier/Cincinnati game has permanently turned me off from basketball - Save another Butler Final Four appearance. College and pro football are not far behind.
It has nothing to do with intellectual snobbishness or lack of physical prowess. Just ask Robert Smith.
People are just sick and tired of the product on the field and players' general attitude toward what was once considered a privilege to participate in.
As far as intelligence required to play football just watch any pro game and see for yourself the number of players who apparently can't grasp the basic fundamentals and rules; especially on special teams.
Maddox| 12.14.11 @ 6:09PM
I agree with your disdain for thuggish behavior. It is against the rules, just as the actions you mention in pro games. The offenders choose to break the rules, just as thugs in everyday life choose to commit crimes. There are penalties in place to punish both. I will not let the actions of those who are in the minority ruin the game for me anymore than you will choose to stop participating in society because there are white collar or violent criminals that you might or might not encounter. Liberals would like to punish everyone by prohibiting positive activities because of the actions or ignorance of a few. I say punish the offenders, and severely.
Cicero| 12.14.11 @ 3:36PM
The sports mania doesn't bother me one bit. For us old guys that used to play the games, and still have the scars to show for it, it is a way to relive the (imagined)glory days. Sports is part of growing up. The young learn to compete with and against their opposites. Good training for the competitive world of business. You learn to win and lose (gracefully) if it is done right.
What is really troubling are the commercials where the people treat their pets like children. The one where the voice over talks about the guy's best friend, and it turns out to be a wimpy dog, is sad. Maybe he didn't play sports when he was growing up, or doesn't watch sports now.
The Big E| 12.14.11 @ 4:58PM
Curious, this article being on AS the same day as another dubbed, "Tebowmania."
The Big E| 12.14.11 @ 5:12PM
OK, that should have been "Tebowphobia."
albert constantine jr.| 12.14.11 @ 5:03PM
I'm not sure that viewing sports and sports fanaticism are part and parcel of the same phenomenon. I care very little about college or professional football, but I try to watch or listen to at least part of all 162 Phillies games each year. I believe Rush Limbaugh has spoken about how he believes that sports fandom is a safe emotional investment for many people, and I think he may be on to something. As far as those who watch any and all sports excessively, as far as obsessions go, there are worse ones. Anyone know anyone addicted to blogging or the internet?
Bob Grant| 12.14.11 @ 5:15PM
Hey, blogging is a contact sport and a valuable use of time.
The track from saq| 12.14.11 @ 6:17PM
I run every day.It works that way like a drug.
I find watching sports or trying to care about the somewhat undesirable people that play it difficult.
Civic pride aside there is something sinful about
spectator games and I find Mr Allott to be correct
in the flag he raised.
scotchieguy| 12.14.11 @ 9:56PM
I LOVE the NFL. But it has become too time-consuming to follow...until now. There is no greater invention than Hi-def+Tivo. This is incredible. I can watch the Vikes at 1:00 instead of noon since I tivo'd it. Skip every commercial, and all of the BS from the experts in the booth. If I want to see a fav. play over and over, or a cheerleader shot over and over, it is there at my command. I used to play my guitar while I watched, constantly hitting 'mute' during the ads, now I can watch in peace. I can watch a game in less than two hours in hi-def. As to the games "live?" You couldn't pay me to spend $20 parking, a parking lot on the hwy, $8 beer, crowded bathrooms, unruly, obnoxious fans, etc. The NFL has never been better!! Hi DEF is the greatest invention since the advent of fire.
Paul McGrath| 12.14.11 @ 10:25PM
It's not very complicated, Daniel:
1. Most American men during the course of their lives played sports. They therefore have an affinity for sports, and as many have suggested here, they enjoy watching sports in part to relive a certain happy if not glorious part of their past.
2. Many men have wives or girlfriends who love them.
3. People enjoy getting together and spending time with each other.
4. Sunday is a good day to spend time with friends because most working Americans have the day off on Sunday.
5. Most NFL games are played on Sunday.
6. Voila! Men and women get together to watch football and socialize on Sunday.
It is not a bad thing.
Christ.
POST American| 12.16.11 @ 12:48AM
"Do men understand? --literature?
--politics? ---genuine music? ---history?
---political involvement? ---religion?
---culture? your very family,
one by one, over the decades, have been
taken from you?"
----Putting aside those who actually
PLAY sports----
Sports n' porn, porn n' sports ---and
RED China techno-wapum, now comprise
the sum total of the degraded male.
Spectator sports one and all.
---RECTUM worship in absolutely
every sense of the word.
Boomerbabe| 12.16.11 @ 1:46AM
I'm a 51 year old woman, married 31 years, and I have become an avid NFL watcher only this year. You know why? Because it is better for my blood pressure than the constant political news I've been torturing myself with all these years prior! My family is so much happier since I started cheering for football teams and players! I have 4 kinds of arthritis, so I can't get out and play football, run sprints, or sometimes even walk around the backyard, but getting my mind off our terrible President, economy, and weak-kneed Republican politicians is good for my health. Why can't we be left alone by all these holier-than-thou people?
jan| 3.25.12 @ 4:13PM
OPIUM FOR THE MASSES