Lorena heard a conversation between a group of middle aged women talking about their kids college choices on her train ride home last Saturday. It seems one of their priorities was for the kids to go to universities with really good football teams. The entire sports culture in America these days seems a little bit crazy. One of my biggest regrets about my high school and college days is how much my studies suffered because I spent so much time focused on sports. I think the problem is that like any other area that, in moderation, can be great, but as a vocation, even at the highest levels, is a waste of time. It is not like art or music with things created that take on lives of their own long after the artist or musician is gone. Sports is irrelevant the minute the game ends.
The sad part is so many kids get caught up in what really amounts to very small time, worthless endeavors. I am talking about the kid that plays college basketball, football, track wrestling or baseball whether the school is big or small. The commitment is so great it is not possible to get a good education while doing it. Of course there are exceptions–I work with a Stanford football player who is a great engineer, but most kids do their stint as a player then spend the rest of their lives mourning for their glory years, doing a job they hate because they got a weak education and pushing their own kids into the same hamster wheel existence. Worse, for all the talk about sports building character, there is little to no evidence of that character anywhere but when young kids are involved and even that fails much of the time. Again, there are exceptions, but you see displays of exceptional character so rarely in college and professional sports these days that people make a big deal out of it when it happens.
Betty Blonde #471 – 04/30/2010
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