I wouldn’t characterize Olympic athletes as fucked up people. The dedication and perserverance it takes to get where they are speaks volumes about their character. Same with any person who rises to the upper levels of their field of choice: actors, muscians, painters, and ‘important’ fields too. There are fucked up people in all walks of life. One could easily say nerds tend to be socially disfunctional and thus more inclined to aberrant behavior, but I wouldn’t make a generalization like that, as you guys have about athletes.

There is no causation in reality, everything is probabilistic. After all, what could be more anomalistic than a nerd rapist?

Firemen are predominantly male. Are they toxic and dangerous? NASA scientists are predominantly male. Chess clubs are predominantly male. Your generalizations are obviously a far overreach.

And of course sports don’t really matter. As I pointed out to ER, neither do movies, TV shows, music, art, dance, mountain climbing, sailing, parties, or anything else that makes life enjoyable or fun for people. I can’t speak to whatever happened in your life that embittered you to sports and athletes, but you should take it with a grain of salt and perspective.

I have never seen a group that was predominantly male that was anything but toxic and dangerous… especially to women.

Sports does not build character, it just teaches kids to care about bullshit that simply doesn’t matter.

Building Character? Let’s just agree to disagree on that one.

When I was in high school we used to go downtown and get free tickets to join the studio audience of “Championship Wrestling from Florida” (with Gordon Solie!) for their taping sessions. Yeah, it was ridiculous, but at least it was honest.

For the record I am a casual fan of three sports: Golf, Football and combat sports. I played football briefly in school, I trained in martial arts for a number of years and I’ve played golf my entire life.

And seriously, if you want to talk about glorified violence, talk about movies and TV FFS.

My brother was telling me how much he had enjoyed a recent film set in the Gran Prix world. An incident in the film has a member of one racing team visiting the pit of his rival and dropping a lug nut on the ground while the pit crew is conducting a tire change. After the car gets back on the track, someone finds the lug nut on the ground and panics, thinking maybe his car is out there on the track with a compromised wheel. The car is flagged in for an emergency pit stop, thereby crippling that team’s chances for a victory.

My brother thought this was “cool”. I thought it was ruthless and criminal. Where’s the so-called “sportsmanship” that sportsmen are always whining about to promote the benefits of competition. I thought that the entire philosophy of sport was centered on the contest, not the victory. Although the lug nut ploy didn’t actually threaten anyone’s life, it showed that “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

I once saw a man publicly insult and humiliate his wife at a post-race award ceremony because she had supposedly bungled a sail change that cost him a victory in a race. The prize was an engraved pickle tray trophy. That is the attitude I associate with sports, not all those ghetto kids that are allegedly steered away from a life of street crime.

I don’t hate sports, its the attitude and mentality they appeal to that I despise.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a game every now and then, or even following a team. I occasionally enjoy watching football and baseball, and you all are aware I love European-style motor sports and blue-water sailing. I enjoyed playing on corporate softball teams before I retired. I often watch sailing and road racing events when they are televised. But these are sports I have personally participated and competed in. I am not a voyeur. And if they were available 24/7 like other sports are I would quickly lose interest.

The American obsession with sports reminds me too much of English soccer hooliganism and Roman chariot racing. There is definitely an air of bread-and-circuses (and aggression) to it I find distasteful, if not dangerous. And I certainly don’t care much for the sordid, seedy “business” side of the sports world, the coaches, promoters, owners, journalists, advertisers and other parasites that feed off the frenzy. Its a distraction, it provides an alternative to other, more productive, forms of tribal membership (like good citizenship).

No, I don’t find an interest in sports to be “evil” and I certainly don’t believe they should be banned. They are not a cause, but a symptom of something ugly and nasty in human nature. And I’m not accusing anyone of being twisted because they follow a team or enjoy a game. Like I said, there’s a difference between enjoying the Playboy Centerfold and staying up all night cruising the porn sites.

And I get really pissed when they cancel the national news and replace it with golf.

It’s ALL bread and circuses.

Everything can be a distraction, bruh. But imagine a world were there were no distractions at all from the endless political scorched earth? Sports serve a purpose in society: entertainment for sure, but also channelling young male aggression in positive ways. There are 100s of millions of stories of young men who turned their lives around because of athletics. Besides, most people can have their entertainment and still be aware of the bullshit going on around them. But the disttraction is therapeutic.