Sports are an incredible thing.
Their popularity can bring awareness to issues such as breast cancer. They can bring fans together and build unbreakable friendships. They can even unify intense rivals when a tornado tears through a town. Even through all the good, sports and competition can bring out the worst in people. There are people who will never have a good reputation because of the way they act on a court or field.
Due to competition gone awry, Ronald William Artest Jr., is not in the NBA, but some dude named Metta World Peace is. In that infamous Pistons-Pacers match-up, Artest did not only fight the Pistons players, but decided to go into the stands and punch any Detroit fan he could get his Metta World Peace fists on.
In my favorite brawl, Yankees-Red Sox playoff game, Pedro Martinez did not even want to face someone within four decades of himself. He decided that Don Zimmer, 40 years older than Martinez, would be a better person to Olay and let him fall.
Seeing as it’s club week, there has even been a good ole “bleacher clearing no punches thrown brawl” in club basketball two years ago.
I would never argue that sports are bad. They are very useful in helping many people grow up. Too many times though, due to whatever reason, sports go askew and turn dangerous.
I have often times gotten too caught up in what was going on and said or done something stupid. But what is it about the human mind that takes competition to another level?
I am not justifying professional sports brawls, but they are at least over millions of dollars. High school sports are more about bragging rights and pride than anything else, yet one word can get under the skin enough that stupid things happen. From the outside it is easy to look in and say that the “too competitive gene” is dumb.
Yes, it is ridiculous to fight over a club basketball game, but is that different and worse than saying you had a bad day because your sports team lost? As I watched Kolton Browning run into the end zone during week two of the college football season, I quickly deemed the weekend a terrible one. I made a conscious decision that I was going to have a horrible weekend because the team I root for could not cross a white line carrying a ball made of skin from a pig as many times as the other team.
How absurd is that?
I am not saying not to be passionate. There is a time for seriousness and a time for fun, but sometime we have to stop taking things too seriously and see the big picture.
And let’s face it: in the big picture, with the big guy, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses.
