With Super Bowl XLIX coming to a less than agreeable end, the country can now focus its play-by-play brainpower on more important matters.

It seems as though every conversation somehow turns to either sports or the weather. The latter I understand, the implication of temperature exerts a great deal of influence on anyone’s day, but the effect of sports on the American psyche still amazes me.

No doubt, the public can name the two teams that appeared in this year’s Super Bowl – the Seattle Seachickens and New England Patridiots. Wait, that’s not right, is it?

I question whether those same people can name the 16 members of Obama’s Cabinet, the nine Supreme Court justices, or, remarkably, which house holds the majority in Congress.

It is not, however, just the humdrum viewing habits of the consumer that makes sports heinous. There seems to be disgustingly filthy amounts of money associated with signing contracts and advertising endorsements.

In fact, an article by NFL.com examined just how much these superstars make on a yearly average. Spoiler alert, they’re well into the six figures.

In 2014, the top 28 grossing football players – or should I say, celebrities – made more than $12 million apiece. That’s quite a sum of money for people whose main contribution to the United States is getting thumped with a half-ton of force.

With that, I say that football is the American sport; it is the pinnacle of American exceptionalism, unity and pride. It has an association backed by the U.S. public with a sense of freedom, with a nonprofit mantra saying: no matter how many billions of dollars pass through us, we’ll contribute to charities less than 1 percent.

Perhaps football is just another form of entertainment, like a movie, play or TV show. I understand the security and luxury of enjoying something in the comfort of your own home. But what truly baffles me is the incessant need to spew machismo with an extremely expensive jersey that has precisely zero effect on the way a team plays.

In addition to the presence of football for more than half the year, the patience and attention it takes to get through a single game is a feat in itself. If only that dedication and devotion were put toward something useful.

More than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl this year, according to the International Business Times. If one-third of the American public tuned into news shows – instead of being brainwashed by Budweiser horses and cuteness overloads – then the rule of the many and the uninformed proletariat would be essentially eliminated.

Unfortunately, American viewership is not the complete solution nor wholly to blame.

Morning and evening newscasts allocate, on average, less than 10 percent of broadcasts to public policy and governmental happenings, according to the PEW Research Center’s 2013 State of the News Media analysis.

The rest of the broadcast is chalk-full of soft news and lifestyle pieces, along with – yep, you guessed it – sports.

Although the amount of news varies depending on station and affiliation, a decrease in news reporting and an increase in advertisements and commercials is a trend seen for several years – thanks to revenue-based profit machines.

In addition to not providing any civic contribution, sports, unsurprisingly, gum up the media and take time out of an already busy broadcast.

Here is an idea that rings true and brash, let’s cut through the fluff, bulk up on the heavy stuff like government policy and, most importantly, disregard completely unimportant sports reporting.