It was Wednesday night, November 14th standing in an in the
stands yelling and cheering for a Ball States football team as they charged the
field and got ready their last game of the season. A man standing behind me
started chanting “USA! USA!” And soon it wasn’t just that one man, but half of
the stands chanting the same thing. It was then when I realized Dave Zirin Was
right, football, and most likely other sports, aren’t just games. Yes at their
heart they are about athleticism and competition and fun, but they are a lot
more than. Like many things, Sports are what people make them. Bald Eagles
don’t innately stand for freedom or America but that’s what we’ve made them to
mean. In the same way have made hitting a ball with a stick into a small hole,
and getting a ball into a basket into things that mean hard work, skill,
determination, strength and teamwork. Like at most any other form of
entertainment and media it reflects that
which enables it, like a mirror held up to society. Should sports be blamed for being segregated
in the 1950’s, or was it simply a reflection, commentary on society’s feelings
and attitudes at the time. So I do think sports are political, just like a bird
can be political. And if we see something that in sports that we think needs to
change, I don’t think that changing the sport is the first step we need to take
in order to bring the change we desire. Maybe the change we want to we want to
see, has to start with us.
J. D. Purdie
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