WHY SPORT?

WHY SPORT?

I watched Rutgers (15) defeat Louisville (3) last night. Man what a game (click here for recap.) It was their first victory over a ranked team since 1988. Louisville also represented the highest ranked team they have ever defeated. Rutgers has had a football program for 137 years! Needless to say it could have been their biggest win ever. Fans stormed the field with 3 seconds left to play and the view from the blimp camera was awesome. It was like a reverse damn breaking with people flooding the field from all sides at once. The players, coaches and security had to force the fans off the field, reversing the tide of humanity. The students retreated to just outside of the end zones and side lines to from a human fence. The distant blimp camera view captured the mass of it all. I noticed something from this view I had never noticed from lower, in stadium, cameras. Maybe it was just the length of time the camera stayed on the field, I’m not sure, but I saw an energy I just hadn’t seen before. Anyway…..it got me thinking about sport in general. Why do I and so many people love it so much? Why do we get so swept away by a sport, even when we are not playing it ourselves? Why do we get so excited? Well….what ever that reason is, I like it. Below are the four reasons I find sport so compelling.

Sport is:

Honest - Rules define the game, break the rules and you are no longer playing the game and cannot achieve victory.

Blind - No race, No creed, No heritage, No gender, No age. The only requirement is you must play to win.

Sport has:

Spirit - It can possess a crowd of thousands to rush a field and embrace. It can insight a crowd to trample itself. It can make your day or ruin it. It can drive you, to push your body and mind, to places it could never go with out it. It can raise the hope of an entire country.

Purpose - There is an end. Victory is achievable on any day against any foe. The result is definite and undeniable.