In the United States, there are endless avenues for one to pursue entertainment through athletic competition: football, basketball, hockey, snowboarding, skiing, soccer, baseball, and more. That’s just listing the professional leagues, without even mentioning semi-pro leagues or everything at the collegiate level. While sports are beneficial and fulfill many societal needs—such as fostering a sense of community, providing a common goal, and offering outlets for one’s aggressive and competitive tendencies—there are downsides as well.
In America, sports culture has become all-encompassing, often taking center stage in the lives of those who partake in its consumption. I believe this has a net negative impact on families, small communities, and society as a whole. Two questions must be asked: first, what is sports culture, and second, if I just said sports are good, how can sports culture have a negative effect?
First, sports culture is simply the avid pursuit of all knowledge related to any sporting activity. What are this person’s stats? What are their odds against this team? How have they performed in the past against them? How will they benefit my fantasy league? This leads to the second question, for they are inseparable. The way in which sports can be harmful is best explained in Christian language: it is the idolization of the sport, putting it above and before everything else. As said before, sports are a good thing, just as board games, video games, hunting, fishing, or any other hobby can be. However, when they come at the detriment of other important things, it is something to be lamented.
Now, another question must be asked: what are the other good things that are being harmed by the growth of sports culture? As I mentioned earlier, the key areas impacted are families, small communities, and society. I want to focus on the small communities aspect of this list.
Before the wide proliferation of sports, what were men doing in their free time? Some answers are obvious, such as tending to their families or becoming independent by starting their own businesses. Other answers are less apparent. For example, men might have been helping their local community or church body, or perhaps meeting with other men to discuss meaningful topics such as politics, or how to inculcate good culture and education into their communities and families. These are valuable practices that have been encroached upon by sports.
It is imperative to instill in our children and communities a sense of culture and education. We need to know who we are, where we come from, why we do the things we do, and how the things that influence our lives—movies, music, TV, books—were themselves influenced by what came before them. Due to the growth of sports and the culture surrounding them, there has been a decline in interest in these other areas of life, which are just as important, if not more so.
We need to rediscover these aspects in our lives. Learn about Vivaldi and Handel. Watch the plays of Shakespeare and Sophocles. Enjoy operas like *The Messiah* and *The Magic Flute.* We need to know the works that have stood the test of time and taught people important lessons about life and what it means to be human. If we don’t know how we got to where we are, how can we hope to build a better future?