sports (im primarily talking about professional sports here) is an extremely interesting inyin
if you look at it closely, analyze what it is, objectively, it is clearly nothing, pure hevel, nothing at all. im not going to do such analysis here, but it is very easy.
and yet
people live for it,
it can be the focus of their entire lives.
and for others it can be extremely important or at least hold all their attention and interest for a long time.
many billions of dollars are spent on it.
yet it is pure meaninglessness
it is, in my opinion, the ultimate mashul for the Yetzer Horah.
i dont mean to say sports is “evil”
i mean its mode of action is (actually more than a mashul) a clear glimpse into the workings of the Yetzer HaRah. gives us a much better understanding of how earlier generations worshipped Avodah Zarah. it seems incomprehensible and ridiculous to us, but we are doing something very similar (at least in its mechanism and ridiculousness)