Super? Bowl

            Just imagine for a moment that all the emotion, energy, mental memory space, money, and ad time that America puts into sports as a whole was directed somewhere else.  Somewhere, I don't know, constructive maybe.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think sports are bad in and of themselves.  Sports have a wide array of positive effects.  It's just that they are all felt only by those who actually participate in them.  Sportsmanship, physical fitness, teamwork, leadership, self-esteem(to a point), and a good work ethic are all positive things that can be gained by participating in sports.  What, however, is the point in the spectator side of spectator sports?  Rivalries, silly emotional investment, the pride that comes from watching someone do well (even if you actually had nothing to do with it)?  The only real positive aspects of watching sports is in what ever basic entertainment value they hold.  Everyone needs a release after all, but the human fascination with sports often goes much farther than that.  I mean, if its a choice between a good movie and watching grown men run around with a ball, I know what I'm going to choose.  I'm sure some anthropologist somewhere would say that it all has to do with leftover hunting instincts or the remains of a more primal past that has carried on into our more civilized age.  But I don't buy it.  You can actually still hunt nowadays, and actually participating in sports would seem like a much more sensible release valve for such pent-up aggression.  So I say once again, just imagine if all the educational advantages that are given to certain young people just because they run fast or can throw a ball were given to the bright young students who show the most potential to actually use to the utmost the gift of knowledge they are given.  How many positive educational programs could be established if given the amount of money spent on competitive sports programs.  It seems to me that this, if anything, shows the primitive nature of sport fanaticism: the educated elite, the venerable academic bodies of universities who look at a potential student and say,"Him run faast, him goood!"  Surely, however, one should give such academics the benefit of the doubt.  They must have a better reason than that.  Right? 
Tell me what you think
That's all.  God Bless