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Sabrina Herceg Professor Laura Ettinger, Ph.D. Academic Literacy II June 13th 2012 Sports, do we love it, or do we love it? From the ancient times sport has been a past time. Truth be told in the time of Ancient Greece and Rome, sport may have been a bit too brutal, taking into account the gladiator games and chariot races. I mean who does not remember the chariot race scene from Ben Hur? If we compare society and sport then and now, do we really see a difference? I believe that sports indeed show the way our society works.
Collective obsession with sports is nothing new. Society in general has been obsessed with sports a very long time. If we go back a couple of thousand years in the past there is a start of a distinctive pattern of behavior. Human beings are competitive. It is in their nature to want to excel. On some primitive level we want to re-create fighting and cheer on. And as with every battle, there are casualties. Death is also a part of it, and the process of losing/death can be very cleansing. This cycle of make- believe deaths and rebirths can actually be the healthiest thing about sports, or the most dangerous, depending on how you handle it. (Sheed, 492-93) Maybe this is the link between our ancestors and us: bloodthirsty need for combat and fighting. The gladiator games that were organized in the ancient Rome brought up the same obsessive behavior that is present today. What it comes down to is that people love to be entertained, and sport
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brings them that aspect. Also, people love to socialize, and again sport is there to bring them together. If we combine those two things we can conclude very quickly that sport indeed is a collective obsession. Through sports people express a lot of things from bad manners to political agenda. During the early 90s of the 20th century, Croatia was trying to get independence from Yugoslavia. What is historically remembered from that era is a specific football match, between Dinamo from Zagreb, and Crvena Zvezda from Beograd. Then and there the history was made. That game was almost important as the referendum for independence. Two teams played against each other, but in everybodys mind Croatia played against Yugoslavia for its freedom. In Maya Angelous Champion of the World she writes: My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful.(486) In these few sentences, Maya Angelou expresses the meaning that the boxing match had for the Black people. In that moment in time Joe Louis represented every AfricanAmerican that suffered and that was wronged. People from all over the United States put their hopes in him. He was every African- American, and every African-American was him. That match was all that mattered; it was not simply one man fighting another man. It was a race against race; people against people. It was fighting oppression and bigotry; it was a fight for freedom. That is what caused this obsession. But in this case its not obsession it is a ray of hope for the wary. Although she expresses her pride and happiness, she also issues a warning. It wouldnt be fit for a Black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world.(Angelou, 488)
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Winning brings retaliation. It is not a case of what one person did to another, but more of a wounded pride, or better yet a wounded sense of togetherness.
There are different reasons why we indulge in watching sports. Some do it for the love of the game, others because its cool to do so. Some watch it because the players are cute, and others to pledge allegiance to something or someone. And finally because the team they are cheering for represents a symbol to them. Symbolism is very important to people. They are in a constant need to channel their beliefs and ideals into something solid. Being a fan and cheering is one way. People are not loners; people are social beings who crave the company of others. In the company of others they share their ideas and thoughts and they feel equal, loved, cherished and protected. From an anthropological point of view people are social animals. They like to move in packs, and being a sports fan is like having your own pack. You are a part of something greater than yourself. And more importantly you are having fun, and you can leave all your worries behind. In his article Wilfrid Sheed states By the 90s of this century, sports worship had grown and taken a life of its own.(490) The question that suggests is: why now? What is so special about the last decade of the 20th century? Maybe the increased media attention to sports is one of the reasons. Also one of the reasons may be the new lifestyle, that has more loneliness in it than before, and thus people have a greater need to socialize. Watching a game is a way of socializing. Via sport people are reconnecting and watching sport is a social event. Watching sports, particularly football is a good excuse to sit around with friends, drinking beer and eating nachos (Rogers, 531). Peoples habits and preferences have changed over the years, and
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watching sports had become a normal social interaction. Sports and cheering for our favorite team awakens primitive feelings in us. In her article Sara Maratta says I can only describe what I felt as unadultered exhilaration. What kind of primitive people could condone such brutal, yet thrilling fighting? I needed to infiltrate this rare breed to discover what fed their zeal. (538) Sports awakens in us some sort of thrill, that gives a bust to our endorphins. A sense of togetherness also thrills us and excites us. The feeling of going with the flow, leaving our problems behind us, and resting our mind for just a second is a great reward indeed. Society is quite at odds with all of this.
Sports are the reflection of our society. We transfer our character into cheering for our favorite team. In the last twenty years sports stopped being just a past time, and became so much more. People identify with their team. Sport matches can be metaphors for political situations. As we saw in Maya Angelous article sport can be representing an entire race and nation. Sport can give us that ray of light that will give us hope. Being a fan became a way of expressing our feelings and ideals. I am not an avid sports fan. I watch football every now and then. But when our national team plays, and no matter what sport they play, it can be handball, water polo, football, or skiing, but I too get carried away by this feeling of fulfillment, and exhilaration. Why? I do not know. Im not completely sure what makes me want to watch and cheer, and even buy a funny hat with our national colors, but I still do it, for that sense of togetherness and friendship that seems to surface when we win.
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Works cited: Angelou, Maya: Champion of the World They say/I say: The moves that matter in Academic writing, with readings.2nd. Ed. Gerald Graff, Kathy Burkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Nortorn and Company, 2012.484- 488 Maratta, Sara: Move Over Boys, Make Room in the Crease They say/I say: The moves that matter in Academic writing, with readings.2nd. Ed. Gerald Graff, Kathy Burkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Nortorn and Company, 2012.537- 544 Rogers, Felisa: How I Learned to Love Football They say/I say: The moves that matter in Academic writing, with readings.2nd. Ed. Gerald Graff, Kathy Burkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Nortorn and Company, 2012. 529- 536 Sheed, Wilfrid: Why Sports Matter They say/I say: The moves that matter in Academic writing, with readings.2nd. Ed. Gerald Graff, Kathy Burkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Nortorn and Company, 2012.489- 511
