1. Sports often give us a micro-example of macro human phenomena. We can talk about sports with the same passion with which we would talk about religion or politics, but with a conviviality that those other topics customarily lack (okay, there are some soccer hooligan riots that would suggest otherwise, but you know what I mean). We can learn about the machinations and influences of the modern media age in an arena that is inherently less toxic.
There was an article recently in the The New Yorker titled “Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds”.