The Power of Sports

A dad and son watching sports on tv. The son is holding a soccer ball and they are both happy and cheering“Sports have the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”  Nelson Mandela

When I signed up for my 2024 Pensacola Mom Collective posts, I planned to write about sports this month. Initially, I thought I would write about the upcoming college and NFL football seasons or the recent spike in interest in women’s sports and female athletes. I wrote about my love for college football in October of 2021, so I needed a new twist.

The sports drought between the end of the Paris Olympics and the beginning of the college and NFL football seasons left me angsty. I needed to write about more than football, maybe about the meaning of sport to me personally. After some research, I found this quote by Nelson Mandela summed up my thoughts quite well!

I love sports and the beautiful stories that accompany them.

Likewise, I dread sports deserts or droughts, like the current period between the Olympics and college football season. The Olympics, with their four-year cycle, tease fans. We enjoy 24-hour coverage of athletes at the height of their game, many in normally underreported sports.

Commentators teach us about the nuances of the different competitions and provide compelling color commentary. So much so that we start to believe we “know” the individual athletes. These backstories sometimes introduce us to individuals, or even couples, that we are unfamiliar with.

The track and field power couple Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall are my new favorites. Learning how their individual athletic stories evolved into a love story while seeing the joy they shared over Tara’s Gold Medal in the high jump cemented my support for them. I look forward to watching Hunter compete in the Para Olympics as well.

I also discovered another compelling new athlete, Ilona Maher, of the US Women’s Rugby Squad. Her unrestrained emotion after her team won the bronze medal was palpable. She represented herself, her team, and her country so well. She used her increased exposure to encourage other female athletes to persevere. Story after story emerged, and I sat mesmerized on the couch. Then, just as I adjusted to this amazing and constant coverage, it ended, and the waiting began for the next season.

Sports provide a place for people to connect.

People come together to support their teams. People of different ages, religions, political parties, social classes, and so on overlook their differences to support their favorite team. They weep when their beloved franchise achieves a long-awaited goal.

Watching the Detroit Lions fans openly cry in the stadium during their 2023 playoff run moved me to tears. Similarly, families and friends can be divided by their devotion to different programs or athletes.

For example, families share a table on Thanksgiving Day and then go to their separate corners to watch Auburn versus Alabama in the Iron Bowl. In MLB, New Yorkers choose between the Mets and Yankees. You can’t be for both; you might even root against the other when they face a mutual opponent.

No love lost between rival fans.

Sports connect us to our children.

Sports connect us to our children, not just in the obvious ways either. Yes, our children are our favorite athletes. We introduce them to youth sports, drive them to practice, and cheer them on at games. Through youth sports, our children learn valuable lessons.

However, we also introduce them to our favorite teams. Those introductions led us to lifelong connections and shared experiences with our children of all ages. My adult children and I discuss our favorite sports, teams, and athletes. We send each other stories and videos featuring “our” people. Sometimes, we choose different sides, and we talk trash.

These connections lead to phone calls or text messages when we come across a story that reminds us of this shared affection. In our family, these shares often feature swimming or Joe Burrow.

Two very different topics, right?

I can’t sign off without addressing the uptick in interest in women’s sports. The media loves to wax on about it.

It’s “cool.”

I do not think it’s wholly attributable to “better” female athletes. Maybe it’s more open-minded fans.

It’s not as simple as the current female athletes being “better” than those of the past.

Babe Zaharias, Billie Jean King, Wilma Rudolph, and Cheryl Miller possessed timeless talent. With all the advantages afforded today’s athletes, I think these women would still be at the pinnacle of their game.

All athletes, male and female, benefit from better training, improved nutrition, and the introduction of technology and science into sport.

Today’s sports fans need not rely on mainstream television, radio, and print media for their access to athletes and related sporting events. Social media, subscription services, and streaming platforms offer fans unprecedented access to their favorite sports figures.

Just look to the recent WNBA success due to the visibility AND talent of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as an example.

I find myself planning to watch these young women compete, alongside my planning to watch Joe Burrow in the preseason. I don’t fancy myself as either a fan of women’s sports or a female sports fan, but just a sports fan – of pretty much any sport, from the PGA to the NFL, from the Olympics to the WNBA, from club swimming to NCAA collegiate sports.

In the words of the unforgettable Jim McKay, I tune in for the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

A group of people sitting on a couch cheering while watching sports on tv

 

 

Rocky Parra
Wife to Brett, mom to BethAnne, Peyton, Walker and Matthew, retired CPA, career volunteer, avid sports fan, and adorer of old Catholic Churches. Rocky passionately advocates for her son, Matthew, and autism acceptance. In 2015, she began writing about her family’s experience with autism on Facebook. In 2020, she published her first book, "Embracing Mrs. Mommy – Learning from, Living with and Loving Someone with Autism." Always in the back of my mind is Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, much is expected… ” You can find her on Instagram as @mrs__mommy.

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