One must not place the blame for all of our social woes on any one thing, such as professional sports. It is true that they have played a major role in the deterioration of our once disproportionately large but now nearly extinct midle class, but the blame must be shared. I see the proliferation of monotheism as the primary reason that our culture is in decline. A historical parallel would be the acceptance of Christianity (perhaps not so coincidentally hand-in-hand with the rise in popularity of gladiatorial games) having led to the fall of Rome and later the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, in turn leading to what we now call the "dark ages."
When ancient humans saw goddesses and gods in every aspect of nature and were reluctant to move stones or cut trees out of deference to a diversity of deities, they are known to have treated one another with greater respect than is common today. It was only when the "old gods" were abandoned that empires fell. It is also important to bear in mind that the Puritan pilgrims who settled amerika did not come here seeking religious freedom; quite the contrary. The Puritans fled the newly granted religious freedom of England to settle a land in which theirs would be the only religion! Histories greatest atrocities share the single trait that they have all been done "for God and country." It was such tinymindedness that led to the near total genocide of north amerika's indigenous "heathens."
Certain north amerika aborigines thought of themselves as sacred (if not divine) beings and avoided behavior that would dishonor their status as what western culture would call "gods." In Sumer, Ur, Babel - indeed, Greece, Rome and the vast expanses of European forests and mountains inhabited by Celts and Picts before the advent of theocracies such as Israel and post-Cesarian (Papal) Rome - goddesses and gods were commonly believed to disguise themselves as blind, crippled or impoverished human beings. Even kings treated such persons with greater respect than any but the most saintly members of contemporary society do. The misguided belief that there can be but one (male gender, humanoid) divine being in a universe of such wondrous diversity as we know exists is the greatest of conceits - and far too convenient an excuse for people not to respect the divinity of all life. An external god whose prime directive would seem to be one of noninterference is also too convenient a scapegoat for persons who cannot (or will not) accept responsibility for their own actions.
It is not necessary for everyone to believe themselves gods. It is enough to believe that all things are sacred. Even monotheists are capable of grasping such a simple concept. Many vegetarians are far along this road already, believing the lives of animals to be too sacred to be consumed. Yet they have no reservations about eating our equally sacred vegetable brethren while they are still alive. To assume that pigs, chickens, cows and other mammals are more sentient than are ears of corn or peas in a pod (or rocks), simply because they are more like we humans in their form, is nothing more than speciesism. One person cannot mandate dietary taboos for another, but I must say that if one decides not to eat sacred things, then one should be prepared (upon the realization that all things are sacred) to go totally without eating. As an alternative to what has been called "breathairianism" (the belief that one can be sustained merely by the breathing of air), each person should eat whatever foods (s)he likes, within reason, and revere them all as divine.
Because monotheistic ideologies dominate modern society, and western culture in particular, the very teaching of such concepts as anthropomorphic pantheism and polytheistic animism have been repressed, with those of us who revere the forces of nature having historically been ostracized and persecuted as heretics, witches and sorcerers. I do not propose that the "old religion" be taught as dogma, but believe that the human condition would improve dramatically if school children of today were at least made aware of the concepts that ancient societies held sacred.
When the first amerikan Congress drafted the Bill of Rights they determined that there was nothing more important than the freedom to worship whichever gods one chooses. The freedom of the press was included in the First Amendment so that any amerika n's beliefs could be freely expressed; the freedom to criticize the government openly was merely icing on the cake. No religion, and no legislative body, can ever be a panacea for any society's inherent ills and pitfalls; nor can education. It will not altogether eliminate hunger, disease and prejudice; but it will most certainly do more to achieve these goals than will the eradication of the freedoms our ancestors fought and died for. Before we willingly surrender those rights or abandon principles held sacred by our ancestors, the People of the United Snakes should look very carefully at the alternative of teaching future generations how to cherish and protect those rights and concepts, and how to exercise them in a responsible manner. One might go so far as to say that we should be more concerned with expanding our civil liberties than with restricting or revoking them.