ESPN televised the whole thing. The live audience was huge, plus thousands more watched on big screens in the cities involved. Then there were the home viewers, riveted to their sets. I’m referring to the recent NFL draft, the annual rite of passage for college football players into the National Football League where they will be paid millions of dollars to entertain football fans around the nation.
I couldn’t care less.
What’s wrong with this picture anyway? Most of these players can barely string two complete sentences together but will now be making more money than they’ll know what to do with. They will buy lots of gaudy jewelry. They will drive black Esplanades and white Bentleys. They will live in overpriced mansions. They will decorate their bodies with costly tattoos to broadcast their machismo.
To pay for all this, NFL team owners will gouge fans by charging incredible ticket, concession and souvenir prices. TV networks will pay big bucks for the right to televise the faux gladiatorial action. In some cities, taxpayers will help fund new arenas; in other cities, large corporations will contribute largesse for the right to put their name writ large upon the stadiums.
In a country where millions live below the poverty line and infrastructure crumbles, where funds are being cut for essential services while trillions get overspent on munitions and aid to countries that despise us, I wonder how our priorities got so screwed up. Are sports such as professional football necessary to distract us from thinking too much about what’s happening around us? Are million dollar left tackles the new heroes in an insane society?
Will Peyton Manning’s photograph replace George Washington on the dollar bill?