Why sports is taken seriously

Last Saturday, we had a very interesting discussion about sports in the Philippines and its management with Congressman Henry Cojuangco of Tarlac during the birth anniversary of a common friend. Cojuangco was particularly concerned with the money that goes into the building of sports facilities every year the Palarong Pambansa is held. He said that billions of pesos are being wasted because of the lack of maintenance of these same facilities which eventually become unusable in a few years. Cojuangco said that these same funds could have been used more wisely for sports development following, for example, the model of the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission.

Cojuangco’s solution, which has also been proposed earlier, was to limit the building of sports facilities for the Palaro by region and not to follow the practice of building expensive facilities by province, to prevent redundancy, duplication and wastage.

We mentioned that one solution we had proposed after we stepped down from the Philippine Sports Commission was to build these Palaro facilities within state colleges and universities so that the latter would assume responsibility for their maintenance, upkeep, management and over-all sustainability. Students are expected to use such facilities thus strengthening their schools’ physical education program and elite sports.

We understand that some Palaro facilities were later built inside schools but what is perhaps needed is to institutionalize this practice through a law passed by both Houses of Congress. State colleges and universities are bestowed land grants and having decent sports facilities is part of the holistic education of children and young adults.

The conversation we had with the first-termer from Tarlac slightly touched largely ignored topics like why sport is important to the life of a nation.

Turning to sports scholars may be instructive. In his article “American Sport in the New Millennium”, D. Stanley Eitzen analyzes sports by focusing on several paradoxes that are central to sports as it has come to be.

Paradox: While seemingly a trivial pursuit, sport is important. On the one hand, sport is entertainment (Manny Pacquiao keeps on emphasizing the entertainment aspect of sport when he says, it’s not his intention to permanently maim his opponent. His purpose is to entertain the audience by giving them a good fight), a fantasy, a diversion from the realities of work, relationships and survival. But if sport is just a game, why do we take it so seriously? Among many reasons, let’s consider four: First, sport mirrors the human experience.

 According to Eitzen, the introductory essay in The Nation, which was devoted to sport, said: “Sport elaborates in its rituals what it means to be human: the play, the risk, the trials, the collective impulse to games, the thrill of physicality, the necessity of strategy; defeat, victory, defeat again, pain, transcendence and, most of all, the certainty that nothing is certain – that everything can change and be changed.

Eitzen continues by saying that sport mirrors society in other profound ways as well. Sociologists, in particular, find the study of sport fascinating because we find there the basic elements and expressions of bureaucratization, commercialization, racism, sexism, homophobia (hatred or fear of homosexuals), greed, exploitation of the powerless, alienation, and the ethnocentrism found in the larger society. Of special interest, too, is how sport has been transformed from an activity for individuals involved in sport for its own sake (amateur sports), to a money-driven, corporate entity where sport is work rather than play (professional sports), and where loyalty to players, coaches and owners is a quaint notion that is now rarely held.

Also, now, says Eitzen, athletes are cogs in a machine where decisions by coaches and bureaucracies are less and less player-centered.

A third reason why sports are so compelling is that they combine spectacle with drama. Sports, especially football, involve pageantry, bands forming a liberty bell or unfurling a flag as big as the football field and militaristic displays with the drama of a situation where the outcome is not perfectly predictable. Moreover, we see excellence, human beings transcending the commonplace to perform heroic deeds. There is also clarity – we know, unlike in many other human endeavors, exactly who won, by how much and how they did it.

Eitzel says that the fourth reason why sport is taken seriously is there is the human drama to identify with something larger than oneself. For athletes, it is to be part of a team, working and sacrificing together to achieve a common goal. For fans, by identifying with a team or a sports hero, they bond with others who share their allegiance; they belong and have an identity.

Next week, we will discuss the idea that sport has the capacity to build character…and to encourage bad character as well.