Word with Wood: For the Love of the Game

Sports are addictive. People consume this drug in all forms. On Sundays fans watch NFL RedZone on the couch for 12 hours straight, or the day before, zone out on College Game Day. They spend late nights in sports bars, one too many drinks deep. They populate the stands, just feet away from their idol, briefly forgetting what they paid to sit there. Clutching their jersey, closing their eyes, crossing their fingers and any other gesture, they believe they will somehow will their team to win--with money on the game or without. And some are lucky enough to satisfy their need on the court or field. We all have our ways of dealing with this dependency, but there is no overcoming, and everyone is addicted for their own reason.

Perhaps it’s the storybook endings that entice viewers from across the planet. Nowhere else in the world can you find picture book closing like you can in the world of sports. Derek Jeter hit a walk-off in his final game, Kobe Bryant scored 60 in his, the Chicago (formerly cursed) Cubs winning the World Series in extra innings, Chris Davis returned a kick 109 yards against Auburn’s rival. You can’t make stuff like this up. And that’s what people love so much about sports, the unbelievable endings that could only have been decided by fate. Many people struggle to find silver linings in their own lives, so to find it in the form of a clutch touchdown or homerun is the next best thing.

Or maybe it’s the stories within the game: an athlete like LeBron James coming from nothing and now being able to give back his achieved wealth to the underprivileged youth that was him just over a decade ago; the entire family of the NFL rallying around Devon Still and his daughter, Leah Still, who was diagnosed with cancer. Or James Connor, the University of Pittsburgh running back who, despite his cancer diagnosis, continued to train with his team and once he won his fight, was able return to the field. Sports allow people an opportunity to defy all of the odds that are stacked against them and become an inspiration to others.

It could be the dedication that athletes exhibit. Kobe Bryant, as crazy as it sounds, used to practice in a gym without a ball, putting up shots and dribbling with no ball in his hand just to perfect his game. Oh, by the way, these ball-less workouts were an everyday thing, well before the sun came up. Or Michael Jordan’s flu game. In a playoff game, Jordan was suffering from flu-like symptoms and had a hard time getting out of the locker room for the second half, but as his coach Phil Jackson would say, “He had the will to win.” And that was all it took.

What sports offer that many forms of entertainment do not is a break from the horrors of the infamous “real world.” In the world of sports your skin color, sexual orientation or religion have little to no importance. The only discrimination is between rivals: Yankees or Red Sox; Gators or Seminoles. The list goes on and on but even those rivals can come together. In a world plagued by hate, sports fans share at the very least, a common love for the game.

People need sports, they love them, they embody them. Baseball or football can bring a country together, soccer can bring countries together and events like the Olympics or the World Cup can bring the whole world together. Billions of people sharing a love, if not addiction, for the best athletes around the world doing what they love the most. What could be more powerful than that?

photo by Kyle Wood