I like to watch sports for the competition, not preachy politics. Life in America is already too polarized politically. It's a shame broadcast sports can't be at least one place for common ground.
I don't know. There's a "sportsmanship" mythos out there, but I'm not sure it's the dominant one.
I see a lot more of the love-my-team-hate-your-team culture in sports that looks a lot like modern "my team" politics. I'm just struggling with the implication of that. Do we encourage rabid sports fandom to give a relatively harmless space for the tribal impulse? Or does it just train people to support their parties and politicians the same way they support their favorite jerseyed heroes?