Sports, Sports, and More Sports
I’ve been hearing people talk a lot about sports lately. And boy, people have strong opinions about sports and their teams. There are teams to love, teams to envy, and of course, teams to hate. There are teams that bring us together and teams that divide us. Sports as a whole can have a dynamic effect on small communities, countries, and even the entire world. Just look at how many people watched the Fifa World Cup Final in December in the United States alone: 26 million. And you know all of those people were not avid soccer fans. Because watching or participating in sports is not just about the game or the match or the skill. It can be about so much more than that. Let’s take a look…
The most recent story in sports to make headlines is that of football player Damar Hamlin. Hamlin plays for the Buffalo Bills, and on January 2nd he collapsed on the field due to cardiac arrest. He was given CPR by an athletic trainer as his teammates, coaches, and the entire stadium watched in horror. Millions of television viewers waited to see if the game would resume, and more importantly, if Hamlin was ok. Thankfully Damar Hamlin survived that night, and is back at home with his family. Doctors say he will make a full recovery. The game never resumed because that was the right thing to do. Because the moment Hamlin collapsed, there was a dramatic shift in what was deemed important. Finishing the game was not important. Everyone was terrified that Hamlin wouldn’t make it, and the thought of a young, healthy, twenty-four year old football player dying on the field was incomprehensible.
There are many critics of professional athletes and team owners. Many times these athletes and owners don’t do themselves any favors with their actions or their comments. But you can focus on the negative things or you can focus on the positive. And there were many positive things that happened after this incident. Hamlin’s foundation for kids received an influx of donations that total to date 8 million dollars. Many of those donations came from players past and present, team owners and coaches. Hamlin says he will use all of that money to “support young people through education and sports.” Hamlin also announced he is selling t-shirts and donating all of the proceeds to first responders and to the University of Cincinnati Trauma Center where he was treated. These are the headlines you want your kids to see.
It’s no coincidence that professional athletes give back to their communities by supporting youth sports programs. It’s no surprise that when budget cuts in schools directly impact sports, parents get upset. Because there are so many lessons to be learned from sports. And I don’t mean just playing sports. You may have a child that is not particularly fond of being on a team, but there is immense value in being the team manager, the score keeper, or the equipment assistant.
Before I had kids, I knew very little about running, basketball, soccer or hockey. But because my kids love these activities, I learned to love them too. And as a family, we bonded over all of these sports at one time or another over the past fifteen years. My boys cheered on my daughter during her running career, and she in turn was in the stands during countless basketball games and soccer matches.
My youngest child will graduate this spring and head off to college like his sister and brother. There won’t be anymore games or matches to attend, and if I think about it too much I start to hyperventilate. But what keeps me calm is knowing that even though I won’t be attending their games anymore, we will still have that connection when we attend a professional football or hockey game, or watch the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Masters or any other golf tournament, the World Ski Championships, March Madness, the French Open or Wimbledon… you get the idea. We are a family obsessed. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
