A bold claim, I know. OK, hear me out. I was watching interviews with the stars of the latest national event: The Super Bowl™ These players are getting asked questions that they don't want to answer, don't care to answer or perhaps don't have the tools to answer.
As a society, we place sports at the epicenter of our lives. Even if you don't (I don't), you can't help but be affected by it. The world changes for a game or series of games. People do maddening things. They don't act themselves. They break the law, break property, endanger others and do all sorts of stupid things. Really stupid things. As FANS.
They do this to watch other humans play a sport. Throw a ball around. Run fast and run into each other. Play games. We then pay them millions and millions of dollars to do this. They are treated as…some sort of deity. Humans worth worshipping – and many do worship some of these players. They act in reverence when just the name comes up. Marino for Miamians, Brady for others. So and so on.
Back to the point. This individual who happens to be a physical specimen or “Unit” is now in the spotlight and is asked questions that HAVE NOTHING TO DO with what they're good at. They opine on the national stage as if because their opinion carries some sorta weight.
Level Set
Maybe they have thought out opinions on the topic being discussed. Maybe they've thought through a thesis and can posit an argument. And allow for the world to participate in a dialog or even thought provoking ideas. Or support the status quo. Whatever. But, from what I have seen, and the example that led to the straw that instigated this post: many do not - yet they are forced/pressured my main-stream media to opine. They should say “I just play football.” But they can't. While Sports is in the title. This applies to all of Celebrity-dom. Actors, musicians, content creators now. Yay Tay can make shit happen just by asking her legion. That's insane. She sings country pop.
So, Why No Greatness For Us?
Because ultimately, we undervalue and to a large extent disregard the people that actually know what they're talking about. The ones that have looked at history, trained, educated, or took the time to understand a concept. The folks in this world that have an iota of a given topic, we pretty much ignore. Or listen and then forget or “don't agree with” or “but Joe Rogan said….”
In today's MAGA America, it's even worse. Being in disagreement with Trump puts you in the dog house. The man who has gone bankrupt multiple times (as a business strategy), the guy who admitted to being in debt 900+ MILLION dollars, is the one that thinks Jerome Powell doesn't know what he's doing. His current political and financial status does not indicate a level extreme prowess or intelligence as much as it corroborates the old adage of money makes money or it's who you, not what you know.
In this year of our Lord 2025 - we're fucked. I am not sure how we get better, how we get better, how we get better - but this is not the path. That's easy to see.
What About Teachers & Experts
When we start paying the teachers that set the foundation of humanity what they are worth. When teaching is not a fallback for a set of humanity that couldn't find ANYTHING else to do and decided that 4 years in college for a $40K/year job with summers off was the best they could do, we have issues. I know plenty of teachers that should not be teachers. Full Stop.
We need teachers that do it for the love of teaching. Those that will teach for 40+ years because it's their calling and it's never about a job, compensation, the summers, or the winner in a pros/cons list. These are humans that tutor, many times for free, work late into the night and weekends to grade papers. Those that excited when they see a student progress. The ones that students love, think about and willingly chase down in the mall to say "Hi Mrs. [Insert Lats Name Here]!! The ones that when a football players when a title or award, when they make it big - they call out these teachers that pushed them to be not only great athletes, but great humans.
When a historian/professor/expert says: “we've done this, it didn't work before - what are you going to do different?” The life-long politician doesn't ignore them or question that veracity of history. And the rest of us, raise an eyebrow and follow-up “yes, what are you going to do different?”
Shouldn't Experts be given a modicum of air-time when the topic du jour is the one they've prepared for?
Yet again, what do I know. I barely watch sports.