Sport, Society, and Me

When I was younger, my mother was not very interested in sports. She now claims, “Raiders by marriage, Niners by blood,” and the same geographical distinction applies to “her” baseball teams. That being said, I was not raised in a sport-oriented household. While my father has been a sports fan my entire life, it wasn’t until my step-father moved into our house that I became attuned to Monday Night Football, watching a game on Sundays, and most importantly, having a group setting to bar-b-que with to watch the ever important Super Bowl. I’ve had “Super Bowl Sunday” plans since the year of Janet Jackson’s nip “slip” and I think that has a large part to do with the fact that when my step-dad moved in, Football became part of life. I have not, until recently, been involved in the game. I used to tell people that I was bored by the game because I didn’t know enough about it to follow what was going on. I’ve always liked the experience of going to professional games, all sports included, and that would also be part of my lack of interest, that I was only interested in a sport when I was there experiencing the action with a crowd of people more invested than myself. I now know more about the rules of games and how the scoring system works and like sitting down to watch some games on TV, but I’m still not a stats person that would be able to tell you how my favorite team has been doing this season.
There have only been two times in my life when I became involved in physical activities that I would consider sports. The first was wakeboarding because you couldn’t really sweat much (and that was one of my biggest concerns in my younger years of PE); you were already wet from the water, and CrossFit and hiking experiences to participate in a Tough Mudder event. I am grateful that I picked up interest in the ways that I did. I am proud when I say that I can clean over half of my body weight and I think it’s an accomplishment to say that a girl who never even ran the mile in PE is able to pull herself up and maintain stability on a wakeboard.

I feel that I had a few limitations growing up that had to do with my disregard for sports. One, my mother never pushed me to partake in sports. She never pushed me to try or, even then further, commit to a sport. This, along with not being introduced to sports that I now like to partake in, were factors of my lack of concern or interest when I was younger. I think it’s unfortunate that only popular American sports are actively pushed in younger grades PE curriculum. I only remember being taught soccer, football, and baseball in my younger years and I wish that schools had more sports funding for the introduction of sports that are less pursued by kids, which wouldn’t be the case if more money was allocated to sports in elementary, middle, and high schools. I can only imagine that if there were more funding for sports, it would go to the teams and the players, not to enhancement of the PE program, but the sports that bring students into the schools.
This begs the question then, why was I so intrigued by the sports that I did choose? Not only because they were easily attainable for me, no prior experience or knowledge needed, but because sports athletes are looked at as a different, higher, subset of American Culture. Even if I didn’t pursue a career in these sports it was still some type of physical activity that I could say I was good at, rather than just being the odd one out in the room that doesn’t know anything about participating in physically demanding sports. 
In my life, I was the granddaughter that participated in drama through out high school. While my grandparents supported that and went to the two plays that I had leading roles in, they have flown to Florida multiple times to see my cousin, their grandson play football at Florida Atlantic University. This is his third college that he is playing for and it is looking hopeful that he will be drafted in the next NFL picks, or so I hear. It’s fantastic that sports can bring young athletes so far in life, however as the article states there are many problems within the sports world and society because of the competition and drive. I wonder what that has done for my cousin having been from school to school only because the first couldn’t get him the playing time or coverage that he deserved? I wonder if in any way that has negatively affected his GPA having transferred twice now? Like Eitzen presents to the reader, student athletes are a lot of the time, “athletes first and students second.”
Looking into sports more in this Eitzen reading, I am starting to see more and more of a comparison of sports and the government that rules our society. Yes, there are governing boards with rules and regulations. So what? There are still scandals beyond belief between players in their personal and sports-related lives. That’s not to say that athletes and politicians are the worst people, they just happen to (unfortunately) be given the spotlight most of their days and get very brief moments to themselves in life without the public masses invading their personal lives. I think the idea of sports, just as the idea of government, can be fantastic, but utopian for the public to think that sportsmanship is the goal and that games are made to be played fairly.

References:
Eitzen, D.S  (2006).  Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport (2^nd Ed.).  Oxford, Rowman & Littlefield: Chapter 1