I’ve always thought of sports as a modern coliseum to distract the populace and give an outlet for emotions, a lot like reality tv. And while most athletes aren’t elite in their pay, i started to dislike sports even more a few years ago when i was reading a player, nba i think, went on strike or something and what he was losing each day in earnings was more than the average yearly salary of most people, possible families. That’s what we choose to put our time and money into. Not education or the growth of society, whatever that even means. We want our sports, even if children and adults are getting injuries but just less severe than before, we want our reality tv even though it’s scripted because we want to believe that the grass is greener somewhere else, and many of the people who sacrifice a lot are paid and supported the least. It’s also a distinction of trying to decide what does the individual matter vs what’s important to society.