If football were canceled, would America go insane?

College football is a frenzy of student fans and local supporters, who in some cases extend to a whole state (e.g., Alabama).
The players are heavily recruited, and most of them hardly qualify as ‘student-athletes.’ They’re at the school to play football and they hope to enter the NFL, where the money is.
The players make extraordinary amounts of $$ for the colleges, but none for themselves (excluding under the table cash and gifts).
The illusion is: the players are part of the college or university.
They’re not. They’re budding professionals who, because of the rules, aren’t paid salaries or bonuses.
But the fans think of them as ‘their own.’
‘The players on my team are mine. They’re my school.’
No. Not really.
But no one cares. Through a combination of idol worship and ‘school spirit,’ the illusion holds.
And holding that symbol in the mind is everything.
A loss on a Saturday afternoon is like a rebuke from a priest who supposedly holds the keys to the gates of heaven.

This post was published at Jon Rappoport on September 28, 2017.