Why Sports is Beautiful
Sports can be everything. It can be happiness. It can be despair. It prioritizes the physical specimen. It elevates heart and soul like no other medium. It can be a glaring example of the most racist, sexist and nepotism polluted dispositions, but simultaneously be our first refuge of meritocracy. It's often a platform for the most desperate grabs for money and tabloid celebrity. It regularly solidifies the most intimate and fundamental family and community ties.
Sports has been all those things recently. As usual, sports is all over the place. Bobby Knight exhibited some old school discipline. Allen Iverson exhibited some tremendous empathy. Oral Roberts scored an exhilarating upset against Kansas those kids will remember the rest of their lives. Bo Schembechler passed away right before the big game. T.O. paused the media's demonization of him by publishing a cute children's book. Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith branched out and won "Dancing With the Stars."
That being said, I would just like to highlight a really beautiful article written by Curtis Binn of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Binn humbly narrates sports at its purest. A young man with cerebral palsy found inspiration in his high school football team. He should be grateful just to be mobile, much less play football. But his spirit is big. And spirit triumphed. His father taught him to carry himself without regard to his disability. He lost his father in a car accident. His mother lost a partner in raising a special young man with special needs. That young man reached out to his football coach. He simply told the coach that he needed a parent. The football coach accepted the responsibility. That young man dreamed of dressing and being one of the guys in the football huddle one day. The coached responded. The team responded. The school responded. The community responded. Even the competition responded. He ran. He scored. Everybody cheered.
I don't want to diminish the original piece in any way. It's worth your time to read it in full. As a sports fan, I know there's some cynicism in your heart right now. You're nervous about your team's fate, you're hating on another team, your angry at the media, etc... Cure yourself. Get back to the basics. Start level. Please take the time to read the article at AJC.com.
Sports has been all those things recently. As usual, sports is all over the place. Bobby Knight exhibited some old school discipline. Allen Iverson exhibited some tremendous empathy. Oral Roberts scored an exhilarating upset against Kansas those kids will remember the rest of their lives. Bo Schembechler passed away right before the big game. T.O. paused the media's demonization of him by publishing a cute children's book. Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith branched out and won "Dancing With the Stars."
That being said, I would just like to highlight a really beautiful article written by Curtis Binn of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Binn humbly narrates sports at its purest. A young man with cerebral palsy found inspiration in his high school football team. He should be grateful just to be mobile, much less play football. But his spirit is big. And spirit triumphed. His father taught him to carry himself without regard to his disability. He lost his father in a car accident. His mother lost a partner in raising a special young man with special needs. That young man reached out to his football coach. He simply told the coach that he needed a parent. The football coach accepted the responsibility. That young man dreamed of dressing and being one of the guys in the football huddle one day. The coached responded. The team responded. The school responded. The community responded. Even the competition responded. He ran. He scored. Everybody cheered.
I don't want to diminish the original piece in any way. It's worth your time to read it in full. As a sports fan, I know there's some cynicism in your heart right now. You're nervous about your team's fate, you're hating on another team, your angry at the media, etc... Cure yourself. Get back to the basics. Start level. Please take the time to read the article at AJC.com.
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