Not just a game

A few years ago, one of my instructors asked "What is bigger than God in the Midwest?"\nThe answer was "football."\nThe world of athletics has a culture all its own: The Sports section is one of the most popular in the newspaper. An athlete can be loved or hated forever as a result of one play. People dedicate their entire lives to following one team. A Google search of the word "sports" brings up 883 million pages. What is it about sports that creates this kind of mindset, this sense of awe and devotion?\nOn a Saturday in Bloomington, if there's a football game, one can always tell how the team is doing by the roar of the crowd and the frequency of the canon. I could almost still feel the mournful atmosphere after this past weekend's loss to Minnesota.\nIt's true, sports can be addictive. I am a longtime baseball nut; one of my goals is to attend a game in every Major League stadium. Certainly I have been disappointed by the salary demands of players and the allegations of steroid use, but this hasn't stopped me from enjoying the game itself and the surprises that can come from the field. I'm still stunned that the White Sox won the World Series.\nSports can bring to light some not-so-favorable qualities in people, such as bad sportsmanship and the excessive pressure of some parents on their children to play well. At the professional level, greed becomes particularly apparent. Still, these events continue to draw crowds year in and year out. Kids grow up idolizing figures like Pedro Martinez, Mia Hamm and Peyton Manning. When swimmer Michael Phelps won six gold medals at the 2004 Olympics, he drew support and admiration from across the country. In the case of the Olympics, athletic distinction becomes a source of national pride for all countries taking part.\nPeople are not drawn to the fact that these athletes are earning millions to throw a ball around -- OK, to some extent we are. But more than this, we are drawn to the skill and physical excellence of these athletes. Just as they can bring out the worst in people, sports can also show us at our best. Sports make a great inspiration for literary works and movies with themes of overcoming adversity. Lance Armstrong is considered a hero for bouncing back from cancer to achieve seven Tour de France victories, and because of him, millions of cancer patients around the globe now have new hope of survival.\nThrough sports we continue to celebrate the ancient Greek ideal of physical excellence. This idea of excellence was depicted in some of their statues, such as the Discus Thrower. We admire the brilliance of the artists who created such statues, but we also admire the perfection of the human form presented: the defined muscles, the strain of activity, the look of concentration on the figure's face.\nBut sports are about more than just physical distinction. Athletic events give people an excuse to get together for tailgating or a championship game party. They give kids a place to run around and get dirty without getting into trouble. They are a source of entertainment, whether we are participating or watching. For some of us, they are a way of life.