Pseudo Titans

I truly don’t understand the American obsession with football. I enjoy watching a game every once in a while. Yet, I’m always left with the kind of empty feeling that can only come from an empty sport. Football players are pseudo titans, lauded for their ability to demonstrate physical prowess under false pretenses. After all, there is no allegiance in professional sports. A New York Giant today will become a Washington Redskin tomorrow if there’s enough green whispering sweet nothings into his ear. As far as I can tell, team rivalry is a media fabrication geared to coax the basest, primal urges men seem to need to, well, feel manly. It’s interesting that the media utilize the same technical and narrative techniques to rouse testosterone levels that day-time soaps and “chick’s” reality shows use to tug at estrogen strings. Is that what we've become, nothing more than Pavlovian dogs who salivate when the bell’s rung?

Modern day professional sports are just a depressing reminder that human nature knows no ethical value in the face of money, power, and animalistic urge. Sportsmen used to fight for a cause, for their home team, for their mates and families. Teams used to be teams. The current economic system has created a hoard of individuals who want the best for themselves, not their team. Perhaps we are being more true to Darwin today than we ever were. This surely is a new take on survival of the fittest or, in this case, survival of the richest.