I always think about team sports as proxy wars. It’s a way for people from different cities, regions, or countries to compete against each other, usually without anyone getting killed. Supporters get to cheer their teams, wave their flags, cheer winnings, mourn losses, and then go home to their families.

This afternoon I watched part of an American football game, mostly because one of my nephews supports one of the teams and it was his birthday today. So, I was giving him remote celebratory support. In the process of watching the game, though, I was reminded again how little I understand the game. The basic principles I understand, of course, and I know pretty much how the scoring works, but the finer details escape me.

As I listened to the play-by-play commentary I was impressed by the minutiae that the commentators knew. They talked about tactics, plays, inches, yards, obscure rules, the validity of the officials decisions, even the placement of one player’s feet! It is astounding how much they know and how much they presume that the viewing audience also knows.

Then it occurred to me that if a whole nation can be trained to understand football (or soccer, or hockey, or cricket) via television broadcasts, couldn’t we also become similarly conversant with the details of politics? It could be done in the same engaging way with commentators having fascinating play-by-play conversations, snappy video editing, player profiles, and cheery ads for upcoming showdowns.

Right now, despite having twenty-four hour news channels, most people know as much about what goes on in political shenanigans as I know about American football. However, if I had grown up with football, had an enthusiastic parent who took me to the occasional game and who watched every home team game on TV, and if I learned how to play the game in school, I would almost certainly be a fan. Why can’t we do something like that with politics?

Think about it. Do you know the track records of your local political candidates? Their wins and losses? Do you know what is their best debating strategy? What bills have they put forward, and how many have been passed? Which other politicians do they work well with, and which get in their way?

Once they are in office, do you know how often your representative shows up to committee meetings? To vote in the House? Do they have tactics for reciprocal voting with other politicians? If so, what do you think of the outcomes?

There is so much we don’t know about our elected members of parliament and yet, once we have voted, we mostly let them go about their work without comment beyond major headline events. I want more comments! More play-by-play commentary, to be precise. I want those two TV guys that talked today incessantly about the players and the plays on the field to do the same with my MPs. They could start small with the local players and eventually work their way up to regional teams. I can wait. I just want to know more and have it presented to me as entertainment.

If we can get a generation of young people tuned in to the political contests via engaging media, perhaps they will start to know and share a lot of minor details with each other, share one another’s triumphs and failures, and maybe, just maybe, change the game for the better.