What happens on the field is your distraction, entertainment, religion. But reality is everything that happened before and after you got to the stands to watch the game.
If all of football was life, then no one would go hungry, because everything would be just fun and sports. But in reality, football is just entertainment and a distraction.
Sure for kids it can help to promote health, agility, strength, endurance, team-building and many other useful skills and ideas, but those are the fruits of participation. If you are not participating, then you are watching. The more you invest into your viewing, the more you lose from participating in other things.
I am not saying don’t watch a sport, just don’t let it put you into bondage by occupying more of your time and money investment than it should. I always find it funny when a sports fan tells me that they don’t have time for something critical when they have just burned through 12+ hours a week on watching sports.
“But I participate through my watching!”
Huh? You realize that you just gave me an oxymoron? You participating in the activity of watching, and spending money on fandom materials that only have weak intrinsic value attached to them. First sign of an economic collapse and your collectibles are worth the functional value of what they are.
So we are clear, I am not even saying to dismiss all sports. If you are a fan of a team or sport, enjoy. Just keep it in perspective that there is life outside of the game.
In summary, participate in life, make it your participatory sport. Keep observational sports in check, so you don’t lose time that you cannot reclaim to an entertainment factor that you cannot unwatch.
Brian By Experience 