I, as an artist, am obliged to favor the arts in all of their forms.
I am of the oppinion that the 'debate', if you will, is directly linked to the short attention span of the modern man in juncture with 'The Man' (whoever that may be) and his (sucessful, if I may say so) attempts to drug the public with sex, television, and captial sports("In Russia, we had two channenls. One was propoganda and two was a KGB officer telling you to turn back to chanel one") that human beings like to see things get hurt, see them bleed, watch them die. I reffer you to ancient Roman gladiatorial culture, or the Romantic Era French practice of lighthing cats on fire for amusement. Football is just such a brutal sport.
In addition, Football and all major sports have become pervaded by capital gains. This is undeniable. Television programs, merchandise, etc. have blossomed around them, leading to another branch of consumerist sub-culture. As comercialism/consumerism is the effective antithesis of art, it follows that the football culture is malevolant towards art.
I treat this more on a societal basis as it is not a real problem at my school. I go to something of a nancy, intlectual private school (not in the rich sense. Over 40% of us, myself included, are on financial aid for our tuition), and to my knowledge, our sports teams have never even come close to winning a season. Our drama troupe, however, brings in many people each year and takes prevailance over our sports. Our artists have their pieces displayed routeinly in shows, and our jazz band is fabulous. I suppose I should be greatful for that.