Welcome to the Daily Article podcast. Today's Tuesday, January the 9th, 2024. I'm Chris Elkins

with the Denison Forum, narrating today's article written by Dr. Jim Denison. The Michigan Wolverines

defeated the Washington Huskies decisively last night to win this year's NCAA football championship.

The annual title game has become the biggest sporting event outside of the National Football League.

Since 93 of the top 100 television broadcast in 2023 were NFL games, we don't have to wonder

how popular football has become in American culture.

Now that the NFL playoffs are ramping up, even more attention will be drawn to the game.

I was discussing the popularity of spectator sports with my son, Dr. Ryan Denison,

and he noted, the best part of sports is the chance to be irrationally hopeful with little

consequence for doing so.

He's right. Not much that can happen to an athlete during a game is likely to happen to a fan watching the game.

We get to play the game with little risk to ourselves.

If only life worked that way.

Imagine you're in an airplane that just departed from Portland, Oregon. It's dark in the

cabin as the plane's lights have been dimmed for takeoff. 10 to 15 minutes into your ascent,

traveling roughly 440 miles an hour at 1,600 feet, a chunk of your plane blows out. Gasp

of shock fill the airplane as a cell phone, a teddy bear, and a passenger's

shirt are sucked out of the hole. Oxygen masks drop from overhead compartments.

Quote, we literally thought we were going to die, one of the passengers said later.

The Alaska Airline flight carrying 171 passengers and six crew members circles back to Portland where it

lands safely. The Boeing 737 Max 9 involved in Friday's accident was essentially brand new.

After the FAA grounded all such aircraft for inspections, hundreds of flights were canceled.

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