[guelo]

I totally agree with Chomsky. It is indoctrination. I always found the routine military displays especially troubling. The American version of the communist dictator's military parade.

And then there's the weird government/corporate partnership on stadiums. And the protected monopoly status.

[disbelief]

I think you're equating all sports with American Football. Which, granted, is more or less what the original article did as well. I totally agree about the military displays, the nationalism and religious overtones that get mixed in with Football in the US. But that's one sport. There are many others, and aside from probably Nascar, none of them come close to Football in those terms.

[dragonwriter]

> I think you're equating all sports with American Football.

The article is titled as about "professional sports", the social effect it discusses is about socially-popular professional sports in general, and in discussing them the specific example used throughout is American football.

It should not be surprised that the discussion of the articles thesis centers, then, around the same things as the article itself. "Sport" in some vague, general sense is not really the subject.

> I totally agree about the military displays, the nationalism and religious overtones that get mixed in with Football in the US. But that's one sport. There are many others, and aside from probably Nascar, none of them come close to Football in those terms.

Major League Baseball's pretty similar to Football in those regards.