After the recent spate of athletes and coaches behaving badly it struck me that I don’t follow sports and I don’t think any of these stories are worth my time. Sports has always seemed silly at best and contrived at worst. What has interested me is how other people behave when it comes to sports, that fascinates me. I draw a bead out of NASCAR criticism voiced not by me, but instead by George Carlin: “Who cares who wins? It’s the same five rednecks that win anyways.” and that applies more to the professional sports teams than the college ones. What for them then? Well, you have abuse, hazing, illicit sex, rape… gosh, it doesn’t matter which alley you look down, there is something nasty everywhere you look. A bit of proof to the pudding is that Michael Vick is still allowed to do anything at all with sports. The man who abused so many dogs was punished and released and went right back to playing. If I was a potential opponent of his, I would walk off the field.

Back to why people love these overpaid oafs it could have something to do with cognitive dissonance. Fans buy sports junk and this surrounding junk then establishes a feedback mechanism: “I can’t believe I wasted all this money on this junk! I must really like them! I love them!”

Although I’m sure it’s not that simple. I still don’t get the fascination. There’s far more good to be done with championing the mind, the only thing championing the body gets you is celebrity, distasteful amounts of money, and a blown out life at the end. With the mind, you can carry that for a lot longer and it brings more happiness in the end, as far as I’m concerned.