Sport Fans
Last evening I was getting ready to watch “60 Minutes” followed by “Amazing Race” on CBS. During the football season CBS broadcast on Sundays football games. Not sure if they follow a single or multiple games during the broadcast. I have never watched the actual show.
Yesterday I changed channels to the local CBS station just before 06:00 PM EDT. “60 Minutes” was scheduled to start at that time but given what I have observed in the past, I was expecting as usual some delay. CBS was showing a game between The New England Patriots and the Tennessee Titans. The Patriots won the game 59 – 0. I do not care for watching football games. As a matter of fact I do not care for watching sports at all. I have a hard time watching people play a game and getting paid millions of Dollars for something that should just be done for entertainment and health. During my life I have done that and had a good time.
The game went on and on and on. Finally as soon as it finished CBS decided to switch to the game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills. In that match The Bills defeated the Jets by 16 – 13 in overtime. This game was also as boring as they come.
When the games were done, CBS broadcasted “60 Minutes” (no Andy Rooney) and then “Amazing Race”. “60 Minutes” interesting as usual. “Amazing Race” entertaining as expected.
Getting back to the football games, if CBS is willing to delay other shows and cancel one of them (whatever followed Three Rivers) it is obvious that they do it for economic reasons. More people (fans) must watch football than the program that was canceled last evening.
A few weeks ago I was watching the local news and they mentioned that the Metrodome in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul was packed with fans watching the Twins (local professional baseball team). Apparently the Twins won that particular game. After that they were flying to New York City for the next set of games. The newscaster mentioned that for the next local game seats were priced between $45 to $500 US Dollars (not Monopoly money). What is wrong with Naive Americans? Our economy is in shambles and the future for the US is extremely dim. Yet we are willing to pay up to $500 per seat to watch a game of baseball.
Who are the fans cheering for? It appears they cheer the players and the team. The players who make millions of dollars a season and they are willing to change teams as soon as their contracts expire going to play for the team that offers the most money. Given this fact, do you honestly believe that any player cares about their team or fans? They only are in it for the money. That is OK is you are a player, but were does it leave the fans? I would say in need of some psychiatric evaluation.
In the past couple weeks it has been in the news that the contusions incurred by most football players eventually lead to different mental illness being the most common dementia. Again, as a Naive American fan, are we routing to see how people injure themselves for our amusement and pleasure? Please take a few moments and get acquainted with the events at the Coliseum in Rome about 2,000 years ago. Are we in the same boat today? Are sports events, specially football, an indicator of where our society and country is going? I can bet that if we could travel back in time and ask any fan that attended the events in Rome 2,000 years ago about the decline of the Roman Empire, they would at least have laugh at us (probably would throw us into the arena to be slaughter). Are we in the SAME boat and we do not realize it?
