Stop the madness

March has always been a confusing time for me. The only March madness I’ve ever participated in was a couple weeks ago when I celebrated my 21st birthday.

Other than that, I’ve never really understood the appeal.

But then again, I’ve never understood the general obsession our culture has with sports. I think they’re fun, sometimes lead to nice bonding moments and usually make some pretty decent Hollywood screenplays.

But I’ve never understood why we’re so engrossed that we can have a whole month where the entire nation goes mad for college kids playing basketball.

I’ve never understood our bro-centric cultural fixation.

After Kevin Ware’s unfortunate and vomit-inducing leg injury, all of my social media connections were suddenly posting “Pray for Kevin” statuses and tweeting “Get well soon, Kevin” tweets. While that’s a nice moment for humanity, it a) does nothing to actually help Kevin and b) was just plain disconcerting.

Right now there’s a lot going on: one of the most influential politicians we’ve ever seen has just died, gun control debates are still going strong and North Korea isn’t getting any happier.

No offense to Kevin, but his leg is the least of our concerns.

As a theatre and English student, I really have no business meddling in sports for the entertainment value. It’s great an entertainment source can be so far-reaching and uniting for a nation.

But the extreme fandom and general mania we’ve developed is unhealthy.

Probably the oldest and most obvious argument involves the salaries. In 2012, Phil Mickelson made $60,763,488 including endorsements and winnings. The man hits a tiny white ball with a club and tries to get it in a hole. Sure, it’s fascinating, but should he be making that much to do it?

In a list compiled by Sports Illustrated, all 50 of the top-grossing American athletes made more than $15,000,000 in 2012 alone.

The 2011-12 national average starting teacher salary was $35,672.

Medscape, a division of WebMD, found that in 2012 the average salary for a radiologist was $315,000. This was the highest-paying job in the medical field that year.

Now honestly look at those numbers and tell me this is fair.

I know commenters are getting ready to bring up something along the lines that movie stars and Hollywood heroes get paid ridiculous amounts too.

I’m not condoning that, I think we’ve generally screwed up as a society in the wealth distribution area, but you have to admit, at least those people are making you think. At least Hollywood produces work that can actually affect people and lead to cultural shifts and changes.

Sports are nice. It leads to a lot of attractive people on television, but can we just stop being so obsessed?

Can’t we enjoy them here and there, but ultimately focus on something a little more important?

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu