Great Sports Commentary

Bill Livingston's NFL on Television: Commercial failure (The Plain Dealers 1/16/10) is perhaps the best sports commentary I have read in a long time.

One of the best lines in Livingston's commentary concerns the popularity of pro football on TV, Its appeal is, in large part its violence. There is a voracious appetite for vicarious violence in this country. How true. Livingston does not go this far but the next thing we will witness is an intoxicated, frenzied crowd giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as a 300 lb beast crushes the quarterback - not unlike the Romans and their gladiators.. One could also muse as to whether or not our fascination with a violent sport is the reason behind wars which seem to never end, mayhem on the streets, capital punishment and our insistence on the unfettered right to bear arms.

Livingston has much to say about commercials - Programs devoted to the best commercials from here and other countries crop up year around, like dandelions in the spring. The punch line - People love material things and the commercials about them.

An appetite for vicarious violence and a love for material things. Does that describe the mainstream American?