Me and Sports

I like to imagine I can know everything. Well, of course I can't, and I do know that—at least in some of my more rational moments. There are a few things that I don't really want to know about, like sports, or pop culture, or anything having to do with the military.

Let's talk about me and sports. As one of my friends once put it, I'm your old-fashioned faggot who doesn't know anything about sports. I even pride myself on that. And what's up with all this identification with your local sports team? Here in Chicago, if you're a South Sider you're—I don't quite get how this magically comes about—a White Sox fan, and if you're a North Sider you're a Cubs fan.

In Chicago, we have one sports team called the Cubs and one called the Bears. I asked whether Cubs grow up to be Bears.

I wondered whether the opposite of pro football was anti football.

I asked whether water polo is played by riding on sea horses.

Seriously, why do professional athletes (and, for that matter, others who entertain us—movie stars, rappers, etc.) have to earn obscene amounts of money—while teachers and even scientists make a fraction of that? Only CEOs of big companies earn salaries of that magnitude. I think I read somewhere that gladiators in ancient Rome made a very good living—so I guess we, just like the ancient Romans, place a very high value our "bread and circuses."

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein