Sports: Why We Need Games as a Culture
By: Dr. Denise Renye
There aren’t a lot of spaces for traditionally gendered men to experience body movement. Athletics is one of them. This is more so for the players and less so for the spectators. The spectators often experience quite the opposite of athleticism with a high probability of sitting to watch the game and an increase in using substances, such as alcohol. Some of those spectators in the Bay Area expressed anger, frustration, and grief as they watched the San Francisco 49ers lose to the Rams, and thus blow the team’s chance of playing in the Super Bowl. Some non-sports fan may scoff at, or be confused by, the emotional display, but sports are an important part of Western culture and give people an outlet to express their feelings. In fact, watching sports may be one of the only spaces some folx feel safe expressing their emotions and connecting with others. And while still in a global pandemic, having connection points with others is greatly important.
We’ve all seen depictions on TV of fathers and sons bonding over sports, hugging each other when their team wins, but not being able to do so at other times. For people who have trouble expressing their feelings for whatever reason – it’s not “manly,” considered “weak,” they’re teased when they do so, etc. – crying when their favorite football team loses a game means they can do so without judgment. That’s highly valuable because when emotions remain suppressed, they can burst forth as rage against your neighbor, the clerk in the grocery, or your spouse. I realize that’s rampant these days, but it doesn’t have to be. Let sports be an outlet, if you need it.
In addition, Dr. Art Markman, a psychology professor at UT Austin said in a New York Times editorial that, “On game day, fans get to have the full range of emotional experience including anxiety, joy, anger, excitement and disappointment. There are few opportunities in life that afford these extreme emotional experiences.”
It's true. A sports game can be exhilarating, especially if it’s close. At any second, one team or another can pull ahead, which is a special kind of thrill. And not only does watching sports create a healthy outlet for emotion, there are other benefits as well. After all, we’ve been watching sports for millennia: gladiators date back to the 4th century B.C.E!
Sports create a sort of tribal connection, or in other words, affiliation with other people. Markman goes on to say, “We are wired to be part of a group and to treat our group members (our ingroup) as privileged over everyone else. We feel pride, warmth and security by belonging to a group.”
Everyone wants to feel pride, warmth, security, and belonging. Those are basic needs all humans have. Watching sports can meet those needs and can do so for an extended period of time because there’s a shared history with a team. You’ve seen the highs and lows. You’ve watched the team evolve. You can recount when so-and-so did such-and-such way back when. You can groan when a play goes awry and celebrate when things work out. And typically, there’s a rival to pit against. That rivalry can operate as a safe “enemy,” can create the same positive psychological and social effects of warfare, but in a way that doesn’t cause the same devastation.
Even if we’d like it to be otherwise, war makes people feel more alert, alive, and bonded with their community in the face of a collective threat, according to psychologist William James in his essay The Moral Equivalent of War. But obviously, ordinary people don’t want war after war. In that case, enter sports, which create artificial "life and death" situations that still have meaning and importance without the intense bloodshed.
Dr. Steve Taylor, a psychology lecturer at Leeds Beckett University in the U.K. said in a Psychology Today article:
“The excitement and intoxication which was once derived from warfare can be gained from national and international sporting competitions, from following your country at the Olympics or the Soccer World Cup. The sense of belonging and allegiance to your army comrades or the sense of togetherness of being a nation at war can now be gained through supporting your baseball club. The heroism and loyalty or feeling of being ‘more alive’ on the battlefield can be gained from the athletic or football field.”
We need sports. We need games. They help us on an individual level express emotion, but they also help us on a communal level by creating a safer outlet to work with “rival” energy. Far from being frivolous, sports are vital for our culture.
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References
James, William. “The Moral Equivalent of War.” The University of Kentucky. https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/moral.html. Accessed February 2, 2022.
Markman, Art. “Sports Rivalries Fill a Tribal Need.” The New York Times. March 16, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/16/fans-and-the-foes-they-love-to-hate/sports-rivalries-fill-a-tribal-need
Panacy, Peter. “49ers suffer painful collapse vs. Rams, lose NFC championship.” Niner Noise. January 31, 2022. https://ninernoise.com/2022/01/30/49ers-painful-collapse-rams-nfc-championship/
Taylor, Dr. Steve. “Sport and the Decline of War: How sport can help the human race transcend war and conflict.” Psychology Today. March 14, 2014. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201403/sport-and-the-decline-war