College Football Is Not Essential

[thucythucy]

2. College sports have always seemed strange to me.

People go to college for an education that will either help them in some profession or school them in liberal arts--literature, languages, history, philosophy. "Student athletes" and "college sports" seem to me to be fund raising tools, and little else.

And yes, I know that athletic scholarships enable some people to get a college education who otherwise might not be able to get in at all. Except, from what I've read, these athletes are generally exploited for their skills, their education in other areas neglected, often dropping out with nothing to show for their efforts except the money raised by the supposedly charitable institution.

Football seems to me worst of all. Players risk actual brain damage, life long disability, and early death, all for the distraction and amusement of others.

And now they're being asked to risk being infected during a pandemic, risking their own lives and/or the lives of family members who may be old or immune-compromised.

Is there any other country on earth that has an educational system so skewed for the circuses part of "bread and circuses"?