Soccer v. baseball v. football v. basketball

Here in the USA, the NFL and NBA are the most popular sports. I don't watch either with any regularity but do watch college football and basketball. I never was interested in pro basketball but I used to watch pro football growing up, when teams weren't saturated with arrogant jerks. (And those that existed kept more or less to themselves). I've always like pro baseball better than any other pro sport. Interestingly enough, I've never followed college baseball but do like minor league baseball. Which makes a point: I think pro football and basketball should run their own minor leagues, like baseball does, and that colleges should stop being subsidized by them. You end up with such extreme cases as Nike, a corporation, calling the shots at the University of Oregon, a shameful state of affairs that almost no one gets upset about.

I am a recent fan of soccer but I like it, certainly  more than the NFL and NBA. I'll be watching the World Cup final today, rooting for the Netherlands.

I should say that track and horse racing are also sports I enjoy more than the NFL and NBA. I grew up on horse racing and became a track fan in Track Central, Eugene, as a grad student. I also used to follow international chess but not since Bobby Fischer left the game.

I think professional sports, by and large, have become a major cultural disease. They reinforce greed and arrogance. They have compromised universities across the land. I would like to see all, I repeat all, athletic scholarships rendered null and void, and let university athletics return to the intramural model. Let the pro's run their own minor leagues.

It's obscene that a basketball player earns more than a first grade teacher, that entertainment is valued more than the minds of children. Blah blah blah etc etc etc.