A Day When Sports Seem Irrelevant

Today is the type of day where our obsession with sports can seem trivial to say the least. 

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, and first African American president in our nation’s history. 

It was indeed a joyous day that gave many people hope that things in America might finally be changing for the better. 

However, during Obama’s acceptance speech he in no way tried to hide the fact that we are in a dire situation and it will take a great deal of work to dig ourselves out of it. 

This historic day along with a minor examination of the issues facing our country today can make sports seem almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. 

Why spend even a moment worrying about the progress of Tiger Woods’ physical therapy when many Americans don’t have any health coverage and when the United States and South Africa are the only two countries in the developed world that do not offer their citizens health care. 

Why spend even a moment worrying about the New York Yankees absurd off-season spending spree when close to three million American’s have lost their jobs over the past year. 

Why spend time worrying about NFL salary caps and athlete’s contracts when the average American worker’s salary has increased by an average of 1.8% per year over the past decade while inflation has been increasing at a significantly faster rate, thus indicating that we, as a country, have actually been getting poorer each year for the past decade. 

Why spend time arguing about whether or not MLB needs a salary cap when here in America we have one of the largest discrepancies of wealth between the rich and poor of any nation in the fully developed world.

Why spend time worrying about the BCS vs. a playoff format instead of worrying about how our college costs are spiraling completely out of control to the point where a financial adviser estimates that it will cost more than $110,000 to send a child born today to a private college 18 years from now. 

Why spend even a second worrying about the Pittsburgh Steeler’s injury report when there are American’s dying everyday overseas in the two wars that we are still involved in, and right here in America where we have an extremely high murder rate compared to other developed nations.

A day like today is one of the most historic days in the history of our country, and a day that makes you step back for just a moment and think that maybe there are some other issues worth learning about and following more than sports.