Sports

Sports have really warped our nation, whether we care to admit it or not.  Sports are a big deal, and they’ve changed our outlook on winning.  No longer are people satisfied with fifth or even second place.  If they aren’t first, they might as well be the biggest loser.  Why have we become this way?  I think part of the reason is because so much money is spent on winning.  When you have profession athletes that are paid millions of dollars to play a game, the people who are paying them feel that their money should be well spent.  It’s very frustrating to think that some of the athletes get paid millions to sit on the bench being injured.  I can do that much!!  

The reason that I’ve been thinking about this so much lately is because of the college bowl games.  I watched most of the Orange and Rose Bowl, and I decided that I hate to watch them.  They’re so depressing, and you can almost always call the outcome.  Amazing things will happen on both sides, but then at the very end, someone will make a mistake, or the team won’t be playing very well, and the game will be over.  Then, one team walks around gloating about how “the other team played their hardest, and it was a tough fight, but we always knew we were going to win, because we really are the best” (even though they had been losing and doing awful just moments before).  They all think they’re so cool, and given, they have worked very hard to get there, but I feel that it often goes past being happy about their achievements and into rubbing in their victory.  The losing team, on the other hand, is never happy.  They can’t see that they’re the second best team in the nation.  All that they can see is that they’re losers.  Think about it next time you watch a game.  The other team feels that they might as well have come in dead last, even though they are second, or fourth, or whatever the case may be.  

Then, the worst part is seeing the person who’s “fault” it is.  You really can’t blame the loss of an entire game on one person.  Wasn’t everyone working together?  In the Orange Bowl, the kickers were not doing a very good job.  I have never seen so many missed field goal kicks, but still, it isn’t exclusively their fault.  If the quarterback would’ve thrown better, or if the runners would’ve scored more touchdowns, they wouldn’t be blaming it on the kickers.  But everyone really hates to admit mistakes, and so, they find someone to blame.  At the end of the Orange Bowl, the losing team’s kicker was sitting by a wall, all by himself, looking like he was going to cry.  I felt so bad for him!! He felt like no one at that time loved him (maybe no one did….), but still, it was very sad.  No one will ever let it go that he “lost the football game.”

The true reason that this all happens is society has taught everyone to be a poor sport.  Good sportsmanship is a dying practice.  Profession athletes are the worst at it.  They should be setting the example (they’re getting paid enough), but instead they show everyone that it’s “better” to be a poor loser.  But, since these athletes are considered the best and are role model, that’s what people learn to do.  So, I encourage you to be a good sport, and to realize that it isn’t always the end of the world to get second.  I know that I need to get better at this, but when I change my attitude, the games are more fun and I generally feel better about them afterwards.