Sport
as a Need
“A
country can truly call itself sporting when the majority of its
people feel a personal need for sport.”
Pierre
de Couberlin
I
grew up in a little town in the mountains of North Carolina where a
winning high-school quarterback sat at the right hand of God in the
eyes of its citizens. The whole town turned out on Friday nights for
home games and even traveled to other towns in support of the
Wildcats. My senior year, our little team won the division
championship. Hometown heroes celebrated all the way to the bank with
their college scholarships in hand.
When
you see the dark underbelly of sports—the doping scandals in
baseball, the Jerry Sandusky disaster at Penn State, the yearly
mauling of soccer fans somewhere in the world—you have to wonder
what our fascination is that we would tolerated such horrors. When
college football coaches are paid ten times what university
chancellors are, what does it say about the value we place on
education? It's almost as though universities exist only to host
winning teams.
Don't
get me wrong. I enjoy college sports as much as anyone else. I'm just
wondering aloud why that is. I love watching the Crimson Tide roll
over opponents. I scream and yell and...well, you get the picture. We
really get charged up about our athletes. I'll bet half the world
will be tuned-in to the Olympic games in London—I will be. We can't
get half the voters in this country to show up for elections, but
we'll be glued to those games! I felt a sense of personal loss when
Andy Murray was beaten by Roger Federer at Wimbledon this year—I
wanted the Brits to take back the trophy for their iconic game. Why
do I care? It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Humans
have universally engaged in sports of one sort or another for
thousands of years. I saw playing fields in the ruins of ancient
Mayan civilizations in the jungles of Central America. The American
Indians played a form of stick-ball. Ball games were even used as a
means of settling tribal disputes—kind of like team arm-wrestling. Wish we
did that now instead of fighting endless wars.
Whatever
sports speak to in the human spirit, it's not going away. We'll cry
at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics when all those beautiful,
young, hopeful 'children of humankind' march out behind their flags.
We'll fall in love with winners and weep for losers. I don't
understand it, but maybe understanding is not necessary when it comes
to sports. Maybe it's enough to simply swell with pride when our
national anthem is played. Maybe we are all winners when our sons and
daughters, whoever they are, win gold.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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