Yesterday, Chris wrote about the perspective we need to have as a society concerning sports. It was well written, concise, and truthful. I tweeted at him that the other side of the same coin is the ability of sports to function on a high level of purpose in our society. So in essence Chris wrote what sports is not, and I will write about what sports is and can be.
Sports can be used in many forms. It is a medium for relationships. Men bound over sports because it gives each of us a chance to communicate with a goal at hand. Often the excuse for men not wanting to talk on the phone is that it doesn't accomplish anything unless they are calling for a specific purpose (that has kind of gone the same was VHS tapes considering the advances in temporal written communication, ie text messages or messaging services.... but that can be linked to the idea that men need a barrier between them and who they are communicating with and that is another blog post). Men use sports as a way of sharing and celebrating their relationship. We tie oursevles to certain teams, programs, franchises and then we celebrate their wins and mourn their losses.
That can be detrimental when we take sports out of the context of a game and tie it to our lives. At my wedding, my brother told me their were mutual friends of mine who had just met. One was an UA alum and the other was a AU fan. Both are great guys, kind, coniderate, and the kind of people you want to be friends with. Then the two began discussing college football (unbeknownced to the other they were rivals). It quickly went from "I think y'all are overrated.." to "Well at least I can read." My brother said it got uncomfortable quick and he got out of there. When sports goes from symbolizing ones culture or region or even personality and begins to actually represent it, the line is blurred and can be crossed.
Another great thing sports does, and should do, is represent the kind of culture we want to live in. Sport is by nature played on a fair playing field, open to all who can play well. The best play at high levels and are often monitarily rewarded. The not so good become fans or reporters or the peanut guy. Either way, sport has a place for so many and affords more than those playing a chance to be apart of the game. That is why sport trancended race in this country before anything else did. The best needed to play and it wasn't long before the best of all races had that opportunity to compete against each other.
The reason for such resistance was because people saw that letting blacks into sport was a microcosm for letting blacks into the dominate white culture. Once equality could be achieved at the national level by a major organization like MLB, it could and should have been achieved everywhere else.
A similar movement is being had with homosexuals in sports. Often times, athletes come across homophobic because they percieve homosexuality as an afront to their idea of masculinity or feminity. But the bigger question is, if having the best players or teams means being tolerant... no being loving and accepting of someone who isn't like you, then so be it. A great deal of athletes are not homophobic, but the sensationalism of the media for pointing someone out who is can paint a broad stroke on from a small brush... the same thing we are trying to fight against.
Sports can bring the best out of us. It gives us a chance to achieve a common purpose, to go through adversity together, and win or lose with grace. That is why sport is beloved. We find out about ourselves, we become alive, we achieve... or we fail. Failure hurts, but in failure we find out how to win.
I heard on NPR the other day a group of writers mocking sports cliches. I think it was a dirty trick because they were taking many out of context and simply mocking an athlete who is trained to say general statements as not to give the anything imflamatory or devulging to the media or opponent. The one that stood out was the statement, "We wanted it more than the other team." Sure that is in and of itself not a true statement. Generally speaking athletes both have a deep desire to win.
What I think the statement was and is alluding to is the deep desire to win backed up by the intense training physically and mentally. Further, I think it alludes to the athletes finding a slight competitive advantage in some aspect of the game that they exploited whereas their opponent failed to achieve that same advantage, thus causing defeat. But that is not something any person would say after they just played a physically and mentally taxing game. Plus I think it discounts the emotions experienced during the contest including but not limited to the brother/sisterhood of teammates, sacrafice, anger, or love managed by the ability to focus or have pose.
Sport gives us the opportunity to create new avenues in culture, to deepen our sense of community, to challenge ourselves and find humility and grace in both victory and failure. It is why we love coaches who challenge us or who point us to a goal and give us the means to achieve that goal. At FSU, Jimbo Fisher calls it "the process."
It is a way to re-program or recondition boys from lives of entitlement or poverty to work as a unit towards a common goal. It teachers focus, drive, self-control, self-sacrafice, relationship. And if someone thinks they are better than their teammate by way of action on or off the playing surface, they will be punished. Sport gives us a way to grow up our children, to endow them with good attributes that can be tranferred to other aspects of life. Coaches can love their players and players can love each other.
Sport has such a tremendous role in our society. When used in the right way, it can build up lives and give success (in many measurements). When used the wrong way, it can alienate, divide, and create Harvey Updyke or the state of Alabama.
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