My name is Colin McGrath and I love sports. I usually cannot fall asleep without checking the headlines on ESPN so that I am caught up on what is happening in the world of sports. I wouldn’t say that it’s an obsession, but it’s close.
To me, sports personify something greater in this world. If you are like me at all, you display passion as you root for your favorite sports team. Many sports fans, watching their favorite games on television or other media, display a wide variety of emotions. We may feel hope, love, hatred, fear, outrage, and sometimes disappointment or heartbreak as we watch our favorite team or player. Once, angered by a bad performance by one of my favorite baseball pitchers, I remember feeling deceived. Deceived! As if that player had it in for me. Another instance, while the San Francisco 49ers were performing an unlikely come-back against the New York Giants in a football playoff game in 2002, my love for sports led me to behave abnormally once again. I remember losing my temper many times as I watched the game with my brother that morning. Rooting for the 49ers, who at one point were losing the game by 24 points late in the third quarter, superstition gave way. We started to say the words "I love you" before every play. It seemed as if every time we said that phrase before the ball was snapped, the 49ers responded with a game changing play. After San Francisco completed the extraordinary come-back and won the game, my brother and I felt that we had significantly contributed to the win. My point is that sometimes we are sucked in to a different world. As if sports were some sort of virtual reality. And who is it that brings us there? As technology grows in variety and sophistication, sports media becomes ever more critical in shaping and reshaping our society.
We become so absorbed in the games we love, whether it’s by playing fantasy football on the internet or watching 24-hour sports broadcasting on ESPN. Sports have become a critical part to our society, and it is thanks in part to the way the vast forms of media bring these games to us. If you are addicted to sports like I am, you probably imitate your favorite athletes on a regular basis. We wouldn't have all that without youtube.com, ESPN, or any of the other media outlets that deliver sports to us.
Former ladies tennis player Billie Jean King once said "sports are a microcosm of society." Could there be a better way to refer to the relationship between sports and modern society? Every time there is an overhaul in American culture, right alongside the musicians and artists that set the standards in style and sophistication, there are athletes. Consider King, who won the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match against male chauvinist Bobby Riggs. What she accomplished meant more than a personal victory; it was a pivotal moment in the growing American feminist movement.
There are multiple purposes for this blog. The first is to explore the relationship with sports and the media juggernauts that cover them. How does this media coverage affect the rest of us? I’d also like to find the answers to a few of my own questions. For example, why is it that sports are so important to Americans? How are sports such a critical factor on how society is shaped? Why do we care so much?
