Your anecdotes aside, sports is all about building character. Sure there are cheaters in sports (and in life in general), but by and large young people learn so many good life lessons from sports: honesty, teamwork, perserverance, leadership, respect, responsibility. It promotes fitness, develops friendships and relationships. It also reveals character, like someone who can accept defeat with grace or someone who is a sore loser.

For the record I am a casual fan of three sports: Golf, Football and combat sports. I played football briefly in school, I trained in martial arts for a number of years and I've played golf my entire life.

And seriously, if you want to talk about glorified violence, talk about movies and TV FFS.