The Power of Sports

Power of Sports by Deontay Morris and Kellen Sims


   If this summer has showed us nothing else about sports it has showed us the true power that sports and its athletes hold over fans and media alike. This summer Tiger Woods, Lebron James and Brett Favre, have had every part of their lives chronicled and each word they spoke gone over with a fine tooth comb. Sports have the power to captivate neighborhoods, cities, states and countries. There are various instances displaying the power of sports and having more meaning than just simply records. In 1936 the Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany when Adolf Hitler was in power. African-American track star Jesse Owens won four gold medals and defied the Nazi ideology of being the Aryan race. Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. His defiance was applauded by many blacks around the country who felt they shouldn’t fight for liberties they couldn’t receive.
   Why do these athletes and sports hold this power? The most obvious answer is that many kids grow up wanting to play these same sports and emulating athletes. Growing up everyone thinks they will be the next great NBA point guard. Then reality smacks us in the face when it becomes clear that it’s hard to make it in the NBA if you don’t grow past 5’8.
   Once people come to understand they are not going to be a professional athlete the next step in the process is to begin transferring one’s love for the sports into another area besides playing. This transference of energy is where the power of sports begin, because now fans believe they have the right to praise, criticize and ridicule athletes. The day of the “Decision” was a sad day because many believed that Lebron James respected the fans of Cleveland enough to not bring them on national television and stab them in the back. The true power of sports can best be shown through what happened next to the Cleveland Cavalier fans. There were grown men crying, women sobbing, and even more people so angry that they began to rip their Lebron paraphernalia off their bodies stomping, and burning it in the streets. The next day Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke out against the Cavs owner and his Comic Sans tirade ignoring the injustice of the Oscar Grant trial in Oakland, and once again showing the world true power of the Lebron James media frenzy.
   In many ways our lives and the lives of our friends revolve around the different sports and their seasons. This past Monday we did not go out to hang with our friends because our fantasy football draft was at 11:00 PM. We needed to be prepared and focused for the four hour draft that would ensue; the league is made up of graduate students and young professionals who had no business being up at 2:00 AM arguing over who each person chose for their team and yet there we were for one simple reason. The POWER OF SPORTS.