Sports and Politics

Simon Hoying

Blog 5

There are two things that you never bring up when in a conversation with a random stranger. One is the topic of religion, and the second is the heated debate that goes and and hand with it...Politics. The quickest way to lose a friend, and lose speaking terms, is to have a political argument. There is no consensus when it comes to politics. So how do professional sports, that generally are quite political, keep themselves from such a controversy. Sports are super political, mostly because of the people who run them. These multimillion dollar organizations are owned by businessmen. Were talking about the filthy rich kind. The kind that have connections to those in Washington. With this dependance on those who make the bills and legislature that makes their business easier, they will gladly push on their values to others. For example, take the instance when the Pittsburgh steelers won their most recent super bowl. During the celebration the owner of the team personally thanked the then newly elected president Obama for being such an inspiration. This is a moment that was on the field, and directly after the game. This is a case where the usually subtle politics, took a back seat to a blatant endorsement. And politicians know that sports are an easy way to our ears. That’s why so may seem to take interest in it. When Obama was first elected, of all the promises he could make, he promised to reform the college football playoff system. This obvious pandering is done by every politician. Heck, before he was president, George W Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers, and not to mention that now before every super bowl we seem to have a presidential address. So what keeps us from being fed up? It's our loyalty to our team. They know that as much as you despise political pandering, you love your favorite team more. No matter how much you push us, we will still show up and buy the product they put on the field. No matter what other spectacle they may try to push in our faces.