What has sports in America come to?

There were a couple events the past week that magnified how disappointing the idea of sport in our country has become. The first was the baseball playoff game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves and a disputed infield fly call. The second and more severe was the Kansas City Chief game yesterday when the crowd cheered when their quarterback was injured.

There are two veins of interest with this topic, the first is fan behavior. I think fan behavior towards sports is despicable. To ever openly cheer for anyone being injured is embarrassing, and unfortunately this isn’t the first time. Read the link above with one teammates comments. As for the baseball game, hundreds of fans throwing beer and soda bottles onto the field in protest is unnecessary at the least and dangerous at worst. In terms of a personal example, Sheila and I have season tickets to Iowa football and we sit two rows from a guy that complains about every play, good or bad. If it is a bad play, the player is a piece of s*!t or the coach is an idiot. If it is a good play, then why doesn’t the coaching staff do that all the time those idiots! What do we make of a society where the importance of sports has transcended the importance of civility?

The second vein is the impact on children. How many stories have you read about brawls at kid’s soccer games, physical altercations between parents and umpires at little league games? Is winning that important? Is success in sports more important that pure decency towards others? What are we teaching our children with a win at all cost mentality?

Now having two children of my own, I at times think about and hope they don’t play sports. It feels hypocritical to have these thoughts when sports were a central part of my childhood and responsible for so many learning opportunities for me. Yet, I grew up in a different time and place (wow I feel old) and I’m not sure my children can have that same experience anymore. If they do pursue sports, I hope it is in a sport, if it exists, that teaches both competition and rules of engagement as well as the idea of winning. I hope that my children can learn the value of teamwork, doing your best, and enjoying and “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”.