The myth of Sport is that it is supposed to be elevating. The playing field is seen as a crucible where the spirit is purified and tempered.
Here at the University of Iowa, the arrest rate for student athletes is lower than the student population in general, yet everyone is shocked in a special way when an athlete gets into a fight at a bar, uses a stolen credit card or rapes a drunk acquaintance.
As eloquently as Posnanski and others write about Sport in the mythical sense, they are wrong and the statistics of the bell curve give witness to the fact that it’s just a game and the players are just people.
Organized sports and athletes have played a significant role in human endeavor for at least 5,000 years, but who over the age of 11 still thinks sports and athletes are mythical?
I don’t see what Posnanski’s story has to do with sport (or Sport) at all – except that the crimes discussed happened to involve people who worked in athletics for a living.
It’s a story about how grown men still protect their friends, even when the price is so high that, when I first read about this, I had to stop reading the article because I was crying too hard.
That said, my kids have all become involved in Fantasy Football leagues pretty much during preschool. They aren’t confusing sports with anything other than a good time and an opportunity to try to beat people at stuff.
The myth of Sport is that it is supposed to be elevating. The playing field is seen as a crucible where the spirit is purified and tempered.
Here at the University of Iowa, the arrest rate for student athletes is lower than the student population in general, yet everyone is shocked in a special way when an athlete gets into a fight at a bar, uses a stolen credit card or rapes a drunk acquaintance.
As eloquently as Posnanski and others write about Sport in the mythical sense, they are wrong and the statistics of the bell curve give witness to the fact that it’s just a game and the players are just people.
Organized sports and athletes have played a significant role in human endeavor for at least 5,000 years, but who over the age of 11 still thinks sports and athletes are mythical?
I don’t see what Posnanski’s story has to do with sport (or Sport) at all – except that the crimes discussed happened to involve people who worked in athletics for a living.
It’s a story about how grown men still protect their friends, even when the price is so high that, when I first read about this, I had to stop reading the article because I was crying too hard.
That said, my kids have all become involved in Fantasy Football leagues pretty much during preschool. They aren’t confusing sports with anything other than a good time and an opportunity to try to beat people at stuff.