The Sports Page as a Liberal Whipping Post

Well, not even the sports page is safe nowdays. Between scandals, charges of crime and really bad trades, we now have to suffer Bush bashing amongst our daily box scores. Volkh Conspiracy points us to an SI.com op-ed piece on football's popularity that starts thinking thus:

"So apart from the obvious, that we violent Americans just plain like smashmouth. . ."

And concludes with this beaut:

"Finally, maybe these times are most in tune with football. At a time when the United States is arrogant, unilateral and insular, baseball can have all its Latins and Asians, and basketball can have all its Croats and Lithuanians, but football is still ours, 100% pure 'Mercan. It's ironic. Although George W. Bush is of baseball, he operates with none of the patient rhythms of the sport but simply charges ahead. He is perhaps the most un-baseball president since the unrepentant Teddy Roosevelt, who declared: 'In life, as in a football game ... hit the line hard.' Bring it on. "

What? We like football because we're violent xeno-phobes looking for war played out in miniture every Sunday? Give me a break.