Have you ever wondered why people care so much about football? According to CNN Money, the NFL brings in about 12 billion dollars annually. Why do people spend so much money on NFL apparel, tickets, and television just to watch twenty two men try to move a ball from one side of a field to the other? The answer to this is in part explainable by sociology.
Early twentieth century sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that as societies become more and more complex, people no longer have as much in common with each other. Back in the day when you were a farmer along with most of the other families around you, it was easy to get along with others in your community. People want to feel that sense of belonging and unity with others, but when people’s occupations are so diverse like in most of today’s cities, it is hard to find this same sense of community (what Durkheim would call social solidarity). And this is where sports teams come in.
Sports teams offer people in today’s society something to unite behind and something that they can have in common with the people around them regardless of what they do for a living or what they believe about politics. In this way, people satisfy part of their need to be in community with others and feel a part of the larger collective. That is in part why sports have become so big over the past hundred years or so as the United States has become more and more diverse and industrialized. 
This concept is puzzling for me myself. I love football, and watch my team religiously, yet I find myself extremely frustrated that players are paid so much more than soldiers, teachers, police, and other important professionals. I am appalled that players get away with serious criminal offenses and are still allowed to play. Yet none of this stops me from supporting football. I agree that there is a certain uniting aspect to sports. You can meet someone new and have nothing to say to them, until they mention a sports team. Sports are universal enough to spark hour long conversations between total strangers with nothing else in common.
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