Tich’s Take

“It’s just a game.”
No phrase makes my blood run hotter, faster, etc. Some of that may have to do with my blood already running hot from a particularly devastating loss when a sports ignoramus chimes in with the phrase, but it is annoying in every sense.

See, I love sports. And when I say that, I do not mean that I like sports a lot so I instead hyperbolically use “love.” I mean I truly love sports deep down in the depths of my soul. For example, I may say that I “love” pizza, but clearly my relationship with pizza cannot possibly be that complex. I merely like pizza an inordinate amount. My life would never revolve around pizza. Sports are a different story.

Sports are a way of life. Besides family, nothing brings people together as effectively. Some college football stadiums pack in more than 100,000 people on Saturdays, and for those four hours, that mass of people might as well be a giant, out-of-control group of brothers and sisters. After big plays, random strangers will high five or even hug each other. They chant in unison. And depending on the result of the game, all 100,000-plus people feel the same emotions while filing out of the stadium.

Looking back, it is funny to think that when my dad signed me up to play tee-ball when I was 6 years old that I did not even want to play. Once I learned to throw and not to run toward third base when I hit the ball, my relationship with sports was set aflame. Growing up, sports were my life. I would go to school knowing I had a game later that day and could only think about what was going to happen in the game. Maybe I would have made straight As if I did not love sports so much. Oh well.

There is no form of entertainment in the same hemisphere as sports. Movies are scripted, but sports are completely unpredictable. What is more heartwarming than a good underdog story in sports? The answer is nothing. There is a reason they make movies from particularly inspiring sports stories. Does anybody not love “Remember the Titans?” It does not have to be a movie either—I have almost cried during those emotional SportsCenter segments more than the rest of my life events combined.

Darn you, Tom Rinaldi.

Sports also are a ticket out of poverty for many athletes. LeBron James, the best basketball player in the world right now, grew up hopping from home to home because his single mom could not always afford to take care of him. Without basketball, who knows where he would be. With basketball, he earned $72 million in 2013 alone, according to Forbes. Not only has James brought himself out of poverty, but he also aggressively gives back to his community, helping future generations overcome the same adversity he faced.

People’s lives are genuinely changed because of sports. Former N.C. State head coach Jim Valvano started the Jimmy V Foundation to raise money for cancer research just months before he died of the dreaded disease. Since its founding in 1993, more the $90 million have been raised for cancer research through the foundation, according to ESPN. Had Valvano not been a legendary basketball coach, no such foundation would have ever existed. Lives have been saved because of the advancement in cancer treatment over the past 20 years and sports can be thanked for some of that.
But yeah, it is just a game.