An estimated 100 billion people have walked this earth. And only a measly 4.5% have ever lived under conditions relatively free. The other 95.5B missed the "draft". These sorry souls were made into sport by monarchs and crusaders—invading nations was their play, and plundering the weak was our human pastime. You would be lucky to die of a plague, than find the end of Genghis Khan’s sword. And if you made the cut, you wouldn’t kick a ball, or throw a pigskin for $80M—you’d be forced the join their army, swing a sickle or wield an excavating tool rest of your productive years.
We know the chances of playing professional sports are slim to none—but contrast this, with the chances of living in freedom. Today, fewer than 12 of Earths 193 countries have a democracy older than fifty years. Are we not therefore better off than the billions who lived before us? To swing a sledgehammer, or throw a bale of hay for real wages—few have been so privileged. So how lucky are we today, to have the opportunity for unpaid extra-curricular amusement? The joy of sports—to swing bats and clubs in our free time with our spare change; to run for pleasure and not from invaders; to scan the sky for a pop-fly, instead of sighting a bombing raid or a nuclear explosion. Throwing passes and assisting teammates, instead of loading mortars into bipods, or bags of potatoes into a railcar. Our ancestors mined for coal, and got black lung disease. Today, we mine cryptocurrency on supercomputers.