In My Opinion - Professional Sports

The other day, I was doing work in the cafeteria. It was around lunch time, and a middle-aged woman sat down in front of the television nearest to me. She changed the channel to a soap opera, which I endured for an hour, before her lunch was over and she went back to work. A few moments later, a man sat down nearby, and I waited until the woman left before I stood up to change the channel. Unable to find Fox News after about three minutes of searching, I settled for CNN another news channel. No sooner had I sat down than another man walked over, changed the channel to ESPN, and sat down with the first man. Enraptured, they stared at the cathode ray tubes while I packed up my stuff and passed three other televisions, two of which were broadcasting ESPN, on my way out of the cafeteria.

Professional sports are both a horrid waste of time and an ingenious distraction. Ignorant people who can't be bothered with important issues, such as politics, become caught up in a world of which they will never be a part. They wear the jerseys of their favorite athletes (which I never understood -- why are you wearing that jersey if it's not your name and you're not related?), they get angry when "their" teams lose. But, when people are so involved in something as inconsequential as sports, people of that mindset are obviously not as wholeheartedly involved in other affairs of the world (which is a good thing). Professional sports irk me. And yet, when I see the people who are so devoted to them, typically it makes me happy inside that these usually aren't the people forming the world's policies.