So just why do we watch these sports anyway?
Millions will watch the
Super Bowl on Sunday
Virtually no one knows
why.
We understand why crowds
will gather to sate themselves
with food and drink (They're
called pagan rituals. They've
been around for centuries) We
understand why people place a
few nickels on the outcome of
the contest (That's gambling It
also goes way Iwick)
We oven understand why tlu*
winning team’s hometown fans
will celebrate in the streets (riots
are o useful way of telling news
papers or historians that some
thing important is happening).
However, the game's the thing
Why do we watch the game?
The meeting of sports and
philosophy is an awkward one
Would Nietzsche care about
20,000 people doing the wove
and chanting "airhall"? Did
Sartre try to luorn to throw a
knuckler or run the wishbone?
The philosophy of sport actu
ally has its mvn section in any
library, but the few hooks there
are mostly self-important, dull
or feeble efforts by professors
who realized they could culti
vate an area of research with n
beer in one hand and a remote
control in the other
Most convenient ways to
describe sports don't work
Sports aren't merely a soc ial
activity Watching a game alone
doesn't change the game Mil
lions of kids shoot baskets alone
in driveways after school
Sports i ould he called chil
dren's games for big kids, but
one would have to explain why
we confer tremendous social sta
tus upon athletes, or why ath
letes help shape ideals of aes
thetic beauty and human
perfoc tion
Mnytie some truth is found in
labelling sports as "entertain
ment" or "leisure activity."
Watching a game can he an
escape from everyday life, a
moans of quelling self-con
sciousness. We can watch with
out being watched. We c an yell
without l*eing veiled at
Drugs and alcohol may mute
self-const lousness also. One
hopes that sports exists as mom
Scott Simonson
t ho it a minor stimulant Sports,
it has boon said, is lift* with the
volume turned up
Sports deliver highs and lows,
emotion and drama, ail with a
minimum of commercial inter
ruptions Perhaps we like sports
because we am given a chance to
feel, to react spontaneously and
sincerely without judgment Per
haps this explains the appeal of
sport to men that am supposed
to be emotionally reluctant or
repressed, the guvs who put
marriage proposals on score
hoards because it's easier than
doing it in person.
Dostoyevsky wrote that chil
dren make-believe as they awak
en to an appreciation of drama
and other art Children rnav also
exercise imagination in playing
sports, but sports <.an't rightful
ly be called art Sports does not
seem to express or represent to
the extent that art does The
games we watch exist in the
moment but rarely impress
themselves more deeply.
However, sports do»w possess
a sense of the dramatic. Roger
Angeli. regular contributor to
the ,Veu Yorkrr and the nation's
baseball writer laureate, called
sport the only form of drnmn
that never repeats itself,
Angeli said that in no other
place do we often see the humil
iation of the groat and the exal
tation of lowly. The star ages or
is outplayed by the rookie The
journeyman emerges from
nowhere into instant notoriety.
Battling with failure, earning
success, struggling to prove
one's self: We see all these.
Games, years and careers turn
on luck that is indiscriminately
clement and cruel We find all of
these in sports and we find them
in ourselves In its own way.
sports tells stories
Sports ran lx* a reflection of
who wp arp. but it also ran bp
bpttur than we arp To watch a
Michapl Iordan or a Roger
Clemens or a )o« Montana is to
watch grace under pressure, to
soe miniature arts of heroism, to
know that confidence and
courage and achievement are
possible in measures that we
ourselves may have never
known or imagined
So why do wo watch sports?
This Sunday, the best answer
may still be "Shut up and pass
me the bean dip."
Maybe its enough to know
that 9-year-olds and 90-year
olds will both be watching
Maybe Bruce Smith or Emmitt
Smith or Leon Lett, heaven for
bid. will do something sensa
tional or spectacular or just
downright odd, and you will bo
glad you were watching instead
of thinking about this. Some
things are best reasoned. Some
things am better seen and felt
Scott Simonson is a sports
reporter for the Emerald.
Oregon Daily Emerald
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