I Don't Get It

I'm going to be him: I'm going to be that guy. I don't care. I think it has to be said.

Have we become such party animals that so mundane a trifle as a sports draft is literally tying our streets in knots? The NFL, the National Football League to you who don't know (and I have been surprised by the number of folks who don't know and, thankfully, don't care; there is hope for the world), is holding its player draft in Detroit this week. And the city is teeming with visitors and all sorts of temporary construction is happening and streets are being closed...so teams can choose who can play for them?

To begin with, and I mean this quite seriously, why a draft of players? Why can't they select who they want to have a catch with? Isn't it some form of involuntary servitude to say that if you want to play with us you have to play with who we (those in power) say you have to play for? I'm willing to argue that there's a real moral wrong at work here.

Then there's all the stuff and nonsense surrounding the thing. I get it, to a point, anyway, when sportsball is happening, a Super Bowl or what not. But we're not even talking about an actual game or event here. We're talking about, at best, an eenie, meenie, minee, moe: who picks who first and so on. It's inane, and I mean that quite seriously too, to force all this hullaballoo on a community for such ultimately meaningless drivel. 

When bread and circuses have devolved to this point, friends, I have to honestly wonder whether our national priorities are anywhere near right. Yet judging by the recent history of these United States, perhaps this is a symptom of a greater disease.