GOOD SPORT: Where has appropriate behavior in sports gone?
“Be a good sport.” Sounds like a phrase from some 90’s TV show where the dad is telling his son, after he lost his first baseball game, that losing doesn’t give you the right to act badly. How well do players really practice good sportsmanship? If we are going to go into girl territory, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen a player sass another player or a referee because they didn’t agree with a call. Sometimes the player just gives them a glare. Of course, we are all human and fail from time to time, but that really isn’t an excuse to act in such a manner. I’m talking to myself here as well.
Where is this aggression and lack of respect coming from? Well, let’s think about it. Who is in the stands yelling at the referees and other fans both on their own team or for the opposite team? The ones who are lashing out are the ones who are setting an example for their kids, monkey see, monkey do. Often, the athlete knows better but does it anyway. That’s the crux of it: we get to choose to be better than those around us.
We shouldn’t be puffing up and thinking or saying we’re better than someone else on the court because then we aren’t respecting those that we are competing against. It’s a choice to be humble and let ability do the talking. I believe games and sports in general would be much more clean and enjoyable if athletes actually respected the sport, officials and other athletes. My favorite games to watch and play are the ones where the competitors are just duking it out with the abilities they have.
Would games just be better if the parents weren’t involved at all? I’ll always remember, when my sister was playing travel softball, this opposing team’s parent yelled to their daughter not to worry about one of the girls on my sister’s team stealing the base because of her weight. The girl on my sister’s team would probably never admit it, but I’m sure that hurt her spirit. Perhaps we should all just realize that the spirit of sport is what we like, and we are lowering sport with our attitudes.
The big money in professional sports has twisted the love of the game. Greed to get ahead has taken the fun out of sport. It really is just a game, and it should be fun, a place for kids to learn things like accepting unsatisfactory results and to working to get better. When athletes and parents lose sight of why sport exists, we get seriously bad atmospheres and graver consequences.
