Our sports fan society

Last night was the culmination of March Madness(TM) with the NCAA division I men's basketball championship game between the Florida Gators and the UCLA Bruins. While I know most of America wasn't glued to the television set watching this match, this event made me wonder about the priorities of our society. Take the average American and ask him or her to name several sports stars. I'll bet most people, Excluding the most reclusive members of our society, will be able to name quite a few - Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'neil, Kobe Bryant, Alan Iverson, OJ Simpson, Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds, etc. Now ask these same people to name any American who's won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
What - drawing a blank? I live in Texas, the land of football. The large metropolitan area where I live is home to at least 5 Nobel Prize winners - 3 in medicine, 1 in chemistry, 1 in physics. None of these people are probably known to most residents in the area. If any of these Nobel laureates visited an elementary school, would they be greeted with cheers and high fives, or just polite, forced applause? Is there a single street named after these Nobel prize winners, or any hope of a street named after them when they die? Not likely, but I'm sure Dirk Nowitzki or Troy Aikman would have no problems getting a street named in their honor in the future.
Why is this? Why do we value the clutch game winning play of a sports star over the scientific discovery in the lab? Why does our society seem to turn a blind eye towards science until we need it in the form of medical care or a scientific invention?
I marvel to think what kind of a world we would have if it was the sports stars who lived in relative obscurity while the scientists were celebrated for their discoveries and efforts. Sure, some would argue that the ego feeding environment of modern day sports would not be conducive towards good science, but shining a few lumens of light on them might make our society more aware of what is happening in the scientific arena. Also, the modern day sports enterprise could probably do with more humility that goes with working in obscurity.