What is a sport?

So since we aren’t able to have most of our sports are off because of the corona virus situation, I thought we should discuss the nature of sports.  Yup, those multi-billionaire industries, where women and men (ok let’s be honest its mostly men..or at least men who have manipulated the system so that women in professional sports make less and get less attention) try to put a ball in various places i.e. Hit it as far as possible, throw it into a hoop, manhandle it to a part of the field, or a puck you try to put through a padded monster between goalpipes. And they get paid millions of dollars to do this.  Now granted, I won’t say that the major sports are easy, but it never felt superhuman to me, especially in the age of cheating and performance enhancing drugs (Yup, screw you Ashtrays!).  And it never felt like those people deserved to get paid such a grossly high amount of money.  

But I’ll address the economics of sports later (believe me I’ve got plenty of say on that subject), the question is what is a sport and what constitutes one?  The dictionary says that a sport is something athletic that requires skill and physical prowess that often has a competitive nature.  It’s interesting that it doesn’t say that those two aspects should be equal, because its often true that those two are almost never equal.  Baseball might be the closest exception.  It takes a great deal of skill to hit and throw a baseball, have it go where you want it, and have that lead to a successful result.  It also takes physical prowess, so possess the endurance to run, to make ridiculous grabs in midair, and to generate the strength to hit or throw the ball.  It’s probably equal parts skill and physical needs. Hockey is far more of a physical sport, but it does take great skills with the stick on the puck.  It takes a great deal of physical endurance to skate up and down the ice, to endure hits, and the skills to get such a small projectile against such a small target. Football requires a great deal more physical prowess than skill.  It takes skills to run the plays, but only a certain number of people involved the game really do that, and most of the brains behind the plays are off the field on headphones.  It takes a great deal of physical presence to make the catches, and push through other players.  Basketball is more skills than physical presence, because it takes a great deal of skill to make the basket, and given just how long a shift is, you end up running up and down in spurts but you spend a lot of time on the sidelines too.  

One of the major sad things about sports in popular culture in this country is it clearly leaves out some of the most interesting sports because they are more popular in other countries.  Take soccer for instance (or futbol to the rest of the world).  This sport is equal parts physical prowess and endurance, and skills. You have to spend a great deal of time on the move, especially as a midfielder that runs all over the field.  You have to have skills with the soccer ball and your head.  There’s also lacrosse, where the ball and stick need to be manipulate (plus you can run a significant distance behind the goal and score from there which has always fascinated me.  

Then there’s something like golf.  Is golf really a sport?  The skills are undeniable (especially since my shots on the course usually end up in traffic or underwater, in a hazard that is not even on the same hole that I’m on), but is there a physical portion? Other than walking the course, which even then, many golfers elect for the cart.  Can a sport really have that great of a discrepancy between physical prowess and skill set?  How about racing, where the car does most of the work, and the driver just has to have the skills to navigate turns at high velocities.  How about horse racing…where it feels like the ardent abuse of the horse determines success.  And my favorite is cheerleading.  A sport?  I’m not so sure. Dancing requires some physical prowess and skills but spelling can often be a challenge, at least in my experience.  

I guess its really in the eye of the beholder.  One thing I think we can agree on is that the money in sports and their celebrity status is ridiculous.  This is exemplified no greater than during this pandemic.  Who are the heroes?  Is it the steroid ridden athletes who cheat with garbage cans, and hit balls far or is it the teachers who have never stopped caring for our kids, and have moved heaven and earth to continue teaching at home and overcome so many challenges on the behalf of families who have a variety of technological needs? Are these athletes on the front lines taking care of people, or is that the health community that endures the tremendous responsibility of caring for people in life and death situations, while all the while dealing with an ignorant mass of people?  Granted, that many athletes are taking care of the workers at stadiums and helping out in the community, but I think the difference is staggering.  The heroes are the teachers, healthcare workers, and other essentials.  So why then is the economic reality so starkly reversed?

A lot of it comes from societal and cultural stereotypes and norms.  Athletes must’ve sacrificed everything to be a star athlete and since the industry is so big, they can get paid in truckloads. Have you ever heard that teachers didn’t get into the profession for the money? Teachers are viewed as less worthy than athletes because they are self-less and frequently put up with less than ideal circumstances because they do care about the kids, so much that they allow that fact to be their Achilles.  How about musicians? Since what they do is considered a hobby to so many, and many do not understand how it works, its undervalued. I would contend that they are as responsibility for moving forward the spirit of humanity as captains of industry.  

So get out there and root for your favorite sport…whenever it comes back!