For a sports fan, right now is an exciting time. The NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, packed with interesting story lines like the upstart Grizzlies and defining moments in Alexander Ovechkin's career approaching quickly. Baseball is flying into its second month of play with the Indians successfully continuing to shock the AL and young stars rising throughout the league. For those with a less typical sports palate, Chelsea is attempting an incredible challenge for the Premiership League title, the Champions League is winding down to an intriguing final, the French Open is quickly approaching, and the PGA US Open is beginning to pop up on the upcoming events radar.
However, when I checked out ESPN.com on Monday morning, the homepage picture wasn't of Wade staring down one of the Celtics he dropped 38 points on or Lecavalier netting his game-winning overtime goal against the Capitals. It was an unnamed fan at the Mets-Phillies Sunday night baseball game, proudly displaying his USA baseball jersey with a smile across his face.
The events of late Sunday night rung out throughout the country and reminded me (and many others I’m sure) that there is something else going on in the world besides sports. But rather than the events making me think, “Wow, look at how unimportant sports are in the grand scheme of things,” they made me think, “Wow, sports are more important than most people really give them credit for.”
And allow me to explain through several over-used cliches.
Cliche #1 - “It’s just a game.”
Every time I would walk into school the day after one of the team’s I root for was eliminated from their respective playoff, I’d be depressed, downtrodden, and just slightly happier than Tony Montana when he finds Manny and Gina together. And every time someone, usually a girl, would ask, “What’s wrong?” I would tell them and they’d reply with one of my least favorite phrases ever penned in the English language: “It’s just a game.”
People who really understand sports know that this is couldn’t be any further from the truth. Just a game would not motivate people to pour gallons of sweat on old high school gymnasium floors. Or sacrifice their body running full speed into a catcher. Or take a puck to the face, only to get stitches, lose three teeth, and miss only ten minutes of ice time. No, sports are not just a game. They aren’t just a game to the athletes who play them with unbridled intensity and they aren’t just a game to the fans who invest their livelihood into their teams.
Your rebuttal may be, “Well, you don’t even play the game, how can you care so much?” I would say that as you watch a team day in and day out, you feel like you know them. The athletes become a part of your every day life. You begin to see them more often than you see your extended family (and even some of your immediate family). The team is thoroughly entrenched in your life. And you can’t let go of something so omnipresent. Why would thousands of strangers show up for the funeral of Darryl Kile? Or millions mourn the early departure from this earth of Walter Peyton? Why do you think Brian’s Song is one of the few movies that can make any grown man cry? Just a game? Not bloody likely.
Cliche #2 – “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Let me preface this section by saying that I often scorn athletes for taking the bigger contract. I’m not really sympathetic for either side of the NFL’s labor struggle because both sides are much wealthier than about 95% of the world’s population. Athletes do get paid an inordinate amount to play a game but that should not dehumanize them. And the spoiled athlete stereotype should not dominate the perceptions the everyday person has of the sports’ profession.
But as the old cliche indicates you shouldn’t place a label on the professional athlete. A majority of athletes are a lot more selfless than most people realize. Countless teams dedicate hundreds of hours a year giving back to the communities that support them throughout their season. Think college athletes are just spoiled and looking for an easy way to the pros? Think again.
For every Terrell Owens or OJ Simpson, there are a hundred Luke Scotts.
"Scott still travels to Venezuela each winter to spend time there and work charitable missions," reported Amy K. Nelson of ESPN.com. "He ships crates of baseballs and teaching and medical supplies there. And he works with Christian families who take kids in off the streets. Scott considers it God's work and does it with no publicity. He often will seek donations from teammates, and the rest he pays for himself"
Remember Pat Tillman? He gave up millions of dollars as an NFL cornerback to fight for his country as an Army Ranger and never returned. He died in the Afghan mountains in the prime of his life. He was an athlete. Remember Roberto Clemente? He was heavily involved in aiding several Latin American countries through humanitarian work. While traveling to Nicaragua to deliver food supplies and other aid to earthquake victims, his plane crashed and his body was never recovered. He was an athlete.
Sports can’t be just a game because the people who are a part of sports drastically change our social landscape. They make us think of things bigger than themselves and the game. The athletes aren’t really athletes except for at night with the bright lights on. They are people making a difference.
Cliche #3 – “Blood is thicker than water.”
The importance of sports pulsates through the complex structure of family and often times strengthens the bonds which are most essential to us. Don’t believe me? Ask any father and child who have bonded over a journey to the ballpark. Or any mother who donates her free time to watch her offspring play soccer or tennis. The bonds which hold our families together in today’s society are often strengthened by something only sports can offer.
As I trotted down my grandparent’s stairs on Easter Sunday and entered the basement, the scene in front of me looked like this: my dad, maternal grandfather, two uncles, great uncle, and second cousin were all circled around a table. In front of my dad lay an enormous book. The men were talking about baseball. The debates ranged from greatest pitcher ever (Bob Gibson was a strong dark horse candidate) to Gary Carter’s Hall of Fame candidacy (dicey at best). As I entered the fray, three generations talked seamlessly about a common topic. Can you imagine doing that about anything else? Like for example, my grandpa and I sitting down and talking about Twitter? That’s about as likely as JoePa getting a new pair of glasses.
Rick Riley wrote about how his father and him really only truly bonded over watching Jack Nicklaus play golf. Though they shared common blood, they were at times distant. But on Sundays, cheering on the Golden Bear to a victory became a common tie. What else has this affect on people? What else brings families together in such a way? What else necessitates such bonding, such common passion?
Cliche #4 – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
One person cannot win a game (excluded individual sports like golf and tennis). It takes the perfect combination of all kinds of parts to make a team work. A successful team signifies everything that humanity should attempt to be: people making sacrifices for the betterment of those around them and contributing to a common goal with their maximum effort and attempting to reach their full potential. These are things that if applied to everyday life would ensure great things for countless individuals.
This not only applies to athletes coming together to make a team better. It applies to the fans, perfect strangers who high five each other at a bar or at the game. It applies to the people who flood the stadiums, arenas, and fields to cheer their team past its perceived maximum potential and reach that next level. When else do you see perfect strangers sit down next to each other, strike up a conversation, and two hours later, are talking like they’ve been friends for years? (Unless of course, you’re a Cardinals fan stuck next to a Cubs fan.) The camaraderie sports induce is unparalleled as they continually produce common bonds between seemingly different people. You could strongly dislike an acquaintance of yours, sit down with some common friends, watch a game in which you are cheering for the same team, and all hostility melts away.
If you doubt that sports are anymore than just some people running, skating, or throwing various objects in a usually rectangular environment, remember this; when Cote d’Ivoire qualified for the 2006 World Cup the country was being torn apart by a bloody civil war. The squad’s qualification jump-started a cease-fire and inspired President Gbagbo to restart peace talks. Les Elephants, as the team is known in their native country, literally saved thousands of lives by participation in the world’s most watched sporting event.
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I’m not trying to convince you to go memorize every statistic on Baseballreference.com and start buying season tickets to every local team. I’m not telling you to forget about the things you think are most important in your life. Obviously it isn’t the end of the world when your team is eliminated from the playoffs (though sometimes it really does feel like it). And I could list hundreds of different things that are much worse in the grand scheme of things. But before you down play the sports fanatic that lives next door or the girl who decks herself out in her team’s gear everyday, remember one cliche.
It’s much more than just a game.
