Saturday, September 18, 2004

Is world order dependent on Friday night HS football?

What's with Friday night HS football?! Thursday evening news interviews with coaches, players and fans by highly (overly) compensated communications experts suggest that world order is riding on the outcome of Friday night football games. Must be, because >20% of the local news show is dedicated to the sports anchor rambling on about this team or that rivalry!! WGAF. Listen to any of these interviews and only 10 words are ever used, albeit in different combinations to keep us near idiots on our toes - "execution", "turnover", "defense", "offense", "focus", "fundamentals", "control", "penetration", "contain" and "field position". Isn't there a loser for every winner and hence total neutrality at the end of the day? Add the win/lose columns at the end of the season and doesn't it always equal zero? So what was gained besides blown teenage cartilage, fired up testosterone, and an adult brawl in the stands? Ok, maybe the middle aged, beer bellied coach with the bully complex that played two years of undistinguished Division III college ball, including his redshirt year, never transgressing beyond puberty can keep his physical education job at the local HS. And that the megabuck sports budget can be justified another year to the overburdened taxpayers. You're probably now expecting me to lament on how the sports $ are spent at the expense of slighting the more intellectual outlets like the debate and chess teams. Nope. That's another post.

For a postscript, I suppose it's noteworthy that <10% of the HS players go onto college ball and major in creative class skipping with a faint hope of pro ball and nailing the cheerleader(s). College sports is definitely worthy of another post.

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