Unpopular Opinion
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I have long thought that there’s way too much emphasis placed on pro sports in society, but there are a few aspects to this. First, I agree that it inflames division and tribalism. I’ve had people act angry and want to start fights with me because they saw my license plate and grumbled something about football, or I was wearing a hat for some sports team I wasn’t even aware of and people were upset about it. The amount of attention and money spent on basically watching adult adults play little kid games is absurd. Incredible amounts of money are spent on stadiums and salaries.
Still there are positive aspects. The competitive and high profile nature does propel people to exceptional feats of athleticism. The same goes for Olympic sports. Olympic stadiums are a bit of an excess, but there are benefits to international relations that come from the Olympic games. A question I have is as far as the Olympic it goes, what sports are not competitive? Even solo sports are done as a competition.
But generally, my perspective is that if people are interested in sports, they should play them themselves. I don’t know why it would be so exciting to go watch someone else play basketball or something. You should just play basketball if you like it so much.
While I agree playing is superior and I don't watch any sports wher I don't personally know the players/competitors, there are plenty of people who are not able to play themselves because of age, injury, complete lack of ability, and they still want to be a part of the experience. Watching kids play is fun, as long as the competition is friendly.
I was commenting on pro sports and somewhat college athletics. Kids sports are cool imo except for how overly engaged and competitive the parents get about it.
Sure, not everyone can play sports themselves. If they tried it more though, they'd be more likely to be able to. I'd bet the majority of sports fans are not unable to engage in athletic activity. I do realize that watching sports is also different than playing sports. That's what I'm being critical of though.