Professional sports are a selfish industry

As someone who can never get into sports, unless I know someone in them, I think professional sports, particularly the NFL are a waste of money. 

I understand the need for entertainment and maybe those competing in the Olympics but for some reason I just can’t justify paying someone millions to play a sport. 

Americans spend a lot of money on the Super Bowl alone, on food, tickets, TV services and fan gear. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $14.6 billion during this last Super Bowl. 

Imagine all the other things Americans could be spending $14 billion on. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness could be solved with approximately $20 billion. 

The point is the U.S. has a lot of problems, the poverty level, child hunger, homelessness, the foster system and decreasing food production. One day a year, we are spending more than enough to help with these problems and yet we choose to spend it on big entertainment. 

Professional sports companies make money off Americans with ease, the more controversy, the more money they make. According to Forbes in 2021, the total of all the NFL teams worth was at $107.89 billion.

I understand supporting Olympic, college and student athletes but I can not support a pointless competition. Fans get bragging rights when your team wins and those teams won your millions even if they lose. Players on the winning team will make $120,000 just for winning, according to the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The professional sports industry is based on using people’s competitive nature against them to make money.

We spend plenty on sports teams that probably don’t care about those who are watching, unless they start losing money.

NFL players were also found to be more likely to be arrested for violent crimes then the general population. 

A study done by the Journal of Criminal Justice and found that while arrest rates for the NFL were lower than the national average, violent crimes rates were higher. For this study violent crimes include, sexual assault, aggravated assault, DUI manslaughter, murder, rape, domestic violence, kidnapping and child abuse. 

Maybe it’s just me but I think it is hard to support a group that is more likely to commit violent crimes. 

There are so many things going on in the world and in our country today. There are homeless veterans, high suicide rates in young people and school violence. 

Often the arguments that we face when solving these issues are how much money is solving them worth. 

Well when we as Americans are willing to spend billions on watching a bunch of men in pads tackle each other over a ball but don’t donate that extra dollar to a children’s hospital. 

Maybe its not the industry itself that is selfish, maybe it’s that they are just taking advantage of the people supporting it.