As the poor get poorer and the gap widens between a shrinking better of cohort and their less well of cadre, the rates of obesity grows. As the less well off, fill bellies with cheaper carbohydrates/comfort food! XXX So even where some spot is compulsory? The only one growing is spectator sport and betting on outcomes. XXX As for participation rates, they go down as the hours folk need to put in at work, increase. And where we now lead the developed world! XXX And let's not include the wasted productive time spent in the (planned) daily commute. XXX Alan B.

I like your new "compressed" style Al. And the divisional exes (X) assist the comprehension process of the reader.
About time should I say!

I have always had a different tilt on sports and the mindlessness that is so strongly attached to it.
I have always maintained, from school age, that sports is a fools folly.
Sports by every definition was and always will be the domain of children. But for the sheer arrogance and determination not to be swayed from such a 'fun' activity, we have seen sports hijacked into the 'grown ups' arena.
Now there are several levels of wrong about this. Firstly sports should NEVER have been turned into a business. Secondly it should not be part of the curriculum of teaching institutions. The children are there to learn everything but sports. They can jump and play out of school hours. It's no wonder we have some of the dumbest people on the planet. Then there is the 'oldies' who think they are still kids, playing 'professionally'. Wrong! This must all stop. These guys are dinosaurs, trying to do things their bodies are not supposed to do. Is everyone stupid or am I the only one who takes note of the continual and on-going 'injuries' in ALL codes. Here's a news flash you morons, 'Your all too fu#*ing old. Stop it. You were not meant to run around like a blithering idiot, thinking your ten years old. So get rid of sports all together and give it back to the kids for them to partake at home, not at school. Finally, the blame for all this goes to everyone of you, because none of you have the stones or the will to stop sports, because it would mean you would have to deal with the things that you have avoided for so long in your day-to-day lives in preference to 'sports', which just happens to take NO effort at all.
And as if that isn't bad enough, you morons go out of your way to watch it, follow it, talk/argue over it, as if it is some kind of cult or religion. Sick, the lot of you!

Sport....that activity that has grown up people obsessing about who is going to win....another drug placebo....the Romans and the Colosseum weren't wrong after all....Lions v Christians....coming to your town soon......psychologists available at the gate to help you cope with your sense of loss