Sports is one of our most important means of tribal connection. If you want to be in the midst of a unified screaming mob, if you want to BELONG with your fellow tribesmen–in a spirit not entirely different from dancing around the fire–attending live sports events, or watching them with friends, is the closest many of us come.
This makes sports non-trivial socially, in many ways.
It’s easy to look on modern America and see superficiality. I myself have done it many times, and most likely in the past week. At the same time, a more astute eye can see hundreds of millions of souls trying to solve the problems of life in the best ways they can.
And an intelligent person would and should learn from them what they have figured out that WORKS. Sports works, in many ways. It is not quite a church, but not quite not a church, particularly when you compare it to arena churches.
I think for many of us, there is even a sort of mythos. There are the greats like Gayle Sayers and Johnny Unitas. There is the on-going disbelief some of us have sustained for some two decades that Tom Brady can be that fucking good.
There are many hidden patterns in the world, and many of the most interesting ones are found behind seemingly banal doors.