Sport, Society & Me

Sports plays a huge role in my life. From when I was little, I was always doing something sports related; whether that was going to the Nuggets game with my family, participating in martial arts tournaments, volleyball games, or watching my family members play their respective sports. Even to this day, I actively play volleyball and am a competitive volleyball coach. I also just was offered a position at a local sports performance gym to do private volleyball lessons this summer. Needless to say, sports revolves around my life on a daily basis. I think I developed this connection to sports because it is how I grew up. Because of being introduced to sports at such a young age, it is familiar to me, it is an outlet, and it is enjoyable. It is almost a tool for me. I truly believe it is because I was introduced to sports at such a young age. 

Scholars may argue that sports play a negative role in society; however, I believe that it plays a positive role. While there are negative effects to having a society that has a focus around sports, I believe that the positives outweigh the negatives. In the US, I believe that sports teaches us fundamental values of commitment, discipline, and staying healthy. I remember when I was little, I wanted to quit doing martial arts after a year of doing it. My parents explained to me, that by me pushing through and never giving up shows a lot of commitment. To this day, I feel like my commitment to school, work, and coaching evolved from being taught at a young age to be committed. Because of the values that I believe sports teaches, I find it very important to our society. While I understand that there are people who might not be athletically talented, unable to play due to physical restraints, or those who have had bad experiences of playing sports, I believe that yet again the pros outweigh the cons. For those people who are unable to play sports, there are always different sports, while you might not be fast enough to play soccer, you could always do golf. If you are short and can't play basketball, you could run cross country. There is a misconception as far as there is a sport for everyone out there. You just have to do the research and test sports out. 

In society, I believe that athletes are held to a high standard. To explain, I believe that successful athletes are praised for doing good things and athletes who do bad things (drugs and breaking the law) are seen as bad people and are judged in the media spotlight for those actions. This high standard shows everyone who are positive and negative role models. One example that shows how the media holds athletes to a high standard is baseball player, Alex Rodriguez. "A-rod" was suspended for a numerous amount of games for his involvement in physical enhancement drugs. The media spotlighted this case and shows that if you participate in bad behavior, you will be caught and have negative repercussions.  The article by Eitzen explains how there are numerous negative and positives with sports in society. While I understand the points being made, I believe that when Eitzen makes claims about the paradoxes of sports, he fails to mention how some of these paradoxes are highlighted through the media in a negative way. A prime example is this case of Alex Rodriguez.

I believe that sports plays a positive role in society and should continue playing a positive role. While I understand that there are some negative consequences such as the paradoxes listed by Eitzen, I still believe that sports teaches basic fundamentals that are important to our society. 

References: 

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2014/01/alex_rodriguez_deserved_suspension_hall_of_famer_says.html

D. Stanley Eitzen: Fair and Foul Ch. 1