While reading my own column during lunch on a Friday, I ran into an acquaintance that I hadn't seen in awhile.
One way or another, after several minutes of awkward small talk, we began talking about sports, and he asked a question no sports fanatic ever wants to hear: Why should we care about sports?
I must admit, the question had never occurred to me. A passion for athletics has always been in my blood. There was never really a specific reason - it just seemed like the right thing for a boy to love. But since I have this column space, I might as well explore the issue.
First, there is variety. Do you like team sports? Look no further than basketball, hockey or football (the European or American kind). More of a one-on-one kind of person? Tennis is the sport for you.
Like challenging yourself? Pick up a set of golf clubs and hit the fairway. The list of sports goes on and on, and there is usually at least one that people can get into for some reason, whether it is the skill involved, the strategy needed to win, or just some other hypnotizing aspect.
But the reasons that people love sports are deeper. There is no denying that professional athletes are talented and have perfected the art of what they do, which is what makes them fun to watch.
Who didn't love watching Michael Jordan drive to the lane and dunk? What tennis fan doesn't watch Roger Federer in awe as he dominates nearly every opponent on the court? How many of us can say we can hit a ball coming at us at 95 miles per hour with a wooden stick, or kick 40-yard field goals with regularity? While watching these athletes, it's incredible to think how talented they are, and that they get paid to play a game for a living (and some of them are younger than we are ... scary).
One of the most compelling things about sports, at least for me, is that sports are essentially theater. Sure, sometimes unimportant issues become overblown (does anyone really care if Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are friends?), but there is no denying there is a constant stream of plots and subplots that permeate nearly every professional sport and add to the drama.
There was the long-running soap opera that was the 86-year drought for the Red Sox, filled with drama, heartbreak, more heartbreak and finally, triumph. There are player comebacks, like Roger Clemens or Michael Jordan. There are the classic made-for-TV moments, like Cal Ripken Jr. breaking the iron man record, or Joe Carter hitting the World Series-ending home run. Whenever a player returns to a team that traded him and lights up his former team ... you can't make that stuff up.
I truly believe we love sports because we see ourselves and our struggles within the game. When we graduate from college, we are all rookies trying to break into the big time, make a name for ourselves and impress everyone around us. We love to see the underdog triumph because we've all been in that situation when the odds were against us and we ultimately overcame and basked in the glory of our accomplishment.
We love seeing our team beat its arch-rival because we all have enemies that we are constantly engaged with in a state of war, and every battle, every victory, no matter how small - whether it's knocking a team out of the playoffs, or winning a meaningless game at the end of the season - is of the utmost importance.
I also think that sometimes we want to be the athletes we see on TV. I know I've definitely pretended to be Michael Jordan while shooting hoops or Mike Piazza while batting in gym softball. Not because we are dissatisfied with our own athletic ability, but because it's just fun to pretend and lose yourself in the moment.
And when we hit that game-winning shot in three-on-three basketball or make it all the way around the bases for a "home run" (you don't count all those overthrows and dropped catches), we can't help but celebrate as if we had just made "the shot" or hit a walk-off homer. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Matt Kaufman is a sophomore majoring in economics. He can be reached at Matthew.Kaufman@tufts.edu.
