I love reading Hemlock. However, I dislike the way he always ridicules people who like to watch sport. Entitled to opinions and all that. Anyway, I was going to write something, when I remembered this from Who Ate All The Bratwurst:

What is it about 22 highly evolved monkeys, who we’ve never met, hoofing a sphere around a bordered piece of grass that we love so much? Why does this sport have massive appeal to so many countries, cultures and people? What is it about the game? The simplicity? The drama? The joy of the goal? Often those who are not into football complain that a game where there can be little or no score must be boring. I completely disagree; it is the difficulty of scoring that contributes to the appeal of the beautiful game. A thing of rarity is valuable.

Football is an opportunity for us to unite toward a common purpose in a way that doesn’t happen elsewhere in society. We no longer hunt in packs, we barely live in communities, and we may not know our neighbours. But get us next to a field cheering on our monkeys with thousands of others and something happens. We feel something, some belonging, some purpose, a focus for our beings.

And yet at the end of the day it is meaningless; no one dies, no one is hurt and there are no socio-economic ramifications. No matter what other dramas we have in our lives they can be forgotten and we can lose ourselves amongst our kin in pursuit of the perfect goal.