Most people who know me also know that I have always been a huge sports fan.  Call it a character flaw (I do) or whatever, I have spent an inordinate amount of time and money following pro and college sports.  It took turning 60 and being diagnosed with a lethal disease to force me to take stock of things and assess what has offered value to my life and what has been a colossal waste of time and expense.

It would be silly of me to deny that I have derived much enjoyment from this pursuit.  I’m sure I have attended more live sports events than anyone I know.  I simultaneously held season tickets for pro football and basketball and major league baseball for many, many years.  I organized and ran fantasy sports leagues on paper, long before anyone ever heard of the internet.  I expect I have attended sports contests in more cities than anyone I know.

Yet much has occurred in recent years to dim my enthusiasm for following sports.  All-sports TV and radio networks like ESPN, which so excited me when they arrived on the scene, have now proven to be the catalyst for ever-escalating costs and revenues and the corruption that accompanies this.  Spectator sports have ceased to be an event enjoyed by families, replaced by corporate entertainment write-offs in which live fans are now just TV programming extras.  College sports has abandoned its role as the more healthy alternative to the wretched excess of pro sports, and is now its equal in corruption and corporate greed.  This is most clearly evidenced by the sports equivalent of corporate raiding, as regional conferences are swallowed up to create four or five mega-conferences.  It’s all just TV programming anyway, so no one seems to have a problem with Rutgers in the Big Ten.

And please don’t get me started on what Bud Selig has done to MLB.  Darth Selig’s latest atrocity is the diminishment of the World Series, as MLB moves ever toward abolishment of the NL and AL in favor of endless NBA-style playoffs.  Also, the current Chicago Cubs ownership is the most cynical and dishonest I have ever witnessed.

While it’s hard to imagine me completely abandoning enjoyment of spectator sports, at least one of them looms as a likely candidate for removal in favor of a more healthy diet.  Football has always been my third-favorite sport, behind baseball and basketball, and there is enough that is repulsive about pro and college football to make me feel better about myself if I dumped it entirely.

There was a great PBS Frontline doc last night about the NFL’s 20-year war against the scientific community and its efforts to inform the American public about the real and frightening dangers of playing football at ANY level.  This war has rivaled those of big tobacco or big oil against the scientific community in their ruthless campaigns to mislead and misinform the American public about real health hazards.  I don’t see how it’s possible for anyone with school-age children to watch this show and ever let their kids play football again.

League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis | FRONTLINE | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/

As if sentencing your children to a life of brain damage isn’t enough to convince anyone, this article in The Atlantic presents a very convincing argument about how our obsession with high school sports – especially football – is contributing to the generation of low-performing morons we’re creating.  But you’d rather have your Friday night lights, wouldn’t you?  Then just make sure your kids’ schools start offering Chinese language courses.

The Case Against High School Sports - Amanda Ripley - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/

College football is corrupt and rotten to the core.  We all know that already, so I guess this recent five-part series in Sports Illustrated about the truly rotten Oklahoma State football program and its slimeball benefactor T. Boone Pickens won’t interest anyone.

Sports Illustrated's five-part series on Oklahoma State football - College Football - SI.com

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130910/osu-introduction/

Finally, here’s a fun piece (also from The Atlantic) about how the one-percenters who own NFL teams completely rip off the American public.  This organization made over $4 billion last year and paid zero taxes.

How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers - Gregg Easterbrook - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/

I don’t expect any of you (or even one of you) to read thru all this stuff.  But even a quick browse thru one of these stories may cause you to question your allegiance to or interest in this “sport.”  I can even recap the highlights of what football offers the American public.

1.       It is a brutal, dangerous activity that presents the threat of long-term health hazards to a large percentage of anyone who engages in it at any level.

2.       The inordinate amount of time, money, and other resources spent on it is turning our high schools into moron factories.

3.       Big-time college football ceased resembling anything near an amateur sport ages ago.

4.       The one-percenters who own the NFL rip all of us off and laugh while they do it.

Sound like something you want to continue to support?  If it doesn’t make you feel like a chump, enjoy!  The decision is pretty easy for me.  I can’t see how removing something as toxic as football from my life will cause me any great distress.