If this summer has shown us nothing else about sports it has shown us the true power that sports and its athletes hold over fans and media alike. This summer, Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Brett Favre, 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. 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 emulate these athletes. 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 transfer of energy is where the power of sports begins, 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 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 was ultimately shown by 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 Cavaliers' owner and his Comic Sans tirade ignoring the injustice of the Oscar Grant trial in Oakland, Calif., 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 sports. This past Monday we did not go out to hang with our friends because our fantasy football draft was at 11:00 p.m. Even though the league is made up of graduate students and young professionals who had no business being up at 2:00 a.m. arguing over who each person chose for their team, we were there for one simple reason, the POWER OF SPORTS.
Deontay Morris and Kellen Sims share their views at sports3-6-5.blogspot.com
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