Every year, over 100 million people across the United States tune in to watch the yearly Super Bowl.This number grows every year by a few million. It is broadcasted nationwide on every sports channel for around four hours.The half time show also serves as an attraction for the thousands that attend the event at the stadium.The Super bowl serves as a cornerstone for American sports.The commercials always make the country laugh and cause for an entertaining time between commercial breaks.The amount of money spent on these commercials and the half time show amount to about 5 million for every 30 second commercial and half time shows spend roughly 10 million every year. These prices may vary, but do have an upwards trend.With all the money and attention that is associated with the Super Bowl, many would think it was something actually important to our nation, but it simply is not.
Compare this to something that is actually important to our country; our elections.Compared to the amount of people who watch the Super bowl, the amount of the public that actually vote has gone down over the decades and continues to be on the decline.With the conclusion of this year’s election, we have roughly 120 million who vote. Our voter participation is down to 58% and shows no sign of stopping. We as a country have been so focused on everything that is quite frankly not important in the slightest that we cannot even see the important issues pressing us today even when they threaten us with unemployment and national security. Football players are worshipped like demigods while politicians are seen as corrupt individuals, which is surprising because I personally cannot see the difference between the two when you look at monetary value. Now really think about that for a minute. The people who run our government, dictate policy and determine our country’s financial standing are paid less if not about the same as those who simply play a sport. Now I know there are many factors leading to sports players’ salaries like contracts and sponsorships, but that still does not account for the fact that a baseball player gets paid more than a member of the legislative branch of our government.I have known people who can name every player on a sports team, every teammate’s batting average and which players are hurt or injured, yet when asked about who our government officials are, they’re dumbfounded. This becomes a question of American culture and how flawed it is in its priorities.We have prioritized meaningless things and tossed out the meaningful things. As a concerned citizen, I find it both alarming and detrimental to American culture that we have grown so fond of the things that do not give us meaning, such as the internet, sports, and anything on social media, yet we have slowly deviated from the things that are most important to our daily lives.
If sports were an election, we would actually be a productive society.
