Sport as a getaway

Someone asked me the other day why I’m taking a sports journalism class abroad, and why I love sports so much to begin with.  I honestly had no answer at the time, so decided to reflect a little to truly understand why sport is so important to me.

As a little kid with parents going through a divorce, sport was introduced to me as a way to get away from reality.  At 7 years old, I didn't understand what was going on during football games, but I knew that it was a period of time where I didn't have to worry about which parent I was going to live with or how the current reality was going to affect my future lifestyle.  As I got older, I started understanding how each sport worked and began to develop an immense admiration for all sports, but football and hockey more than others. While they were my favorites, I started my personal athletic career by playing baseball and soccer.  It was pretty clear right from the get-go that I wasn't the next Barry Bonds...I was the guy that made everyone else on the field look like superstars.  I enjoyed soccer and continued to play 'competitively' (elementary school level) until 6th grade where I finally decided to give football a shot.

Still to this day I have no idea why I'm so enamored by the sport but it basically controls my life from August until the beginning of January.  In particular, I practically am married to Notre Dame football. That's (sadly) my main priority during football season and I have so many superstitions it’s disturbing.  As far as me playing goes, I played in middle school and freshman year of high school but got knee injuries basically every year of some significant magnitude, so my doctor told me to stop playing.  I switched to something with less contact (swimming) and had some success with that.  I got recruited to swim at Denison, swam for a year, and then had second thoughts about why I was swimming rather than playing football…so decided to join the football team in the spring of sophomore year.  My career lasted pretty long...I made it until the third week of fall camp and then realized that there was a reason my doctor told me not to play...so I am now a student coach instead of a player and it seems my collegiate athletic days are over. 

I guess the main reason I love being a part of a sports team so much is because of the 'brotherhood'.  There's something about getting your ass kicked in practice ten times a week that translates to lifetime bonds that can't be taken away.  Sports also has taught me self-discipline that I will carry through my life.  I may not be in a jersey, but I will always be around at least one sports team in one way or another. Along with being a student football coach, I also live with 5 swimmers and am the home meet announcer for the my college.  It's interesting having my two main groups of friends being swimmers and then football players, but the diversity between the two has taught me a lot about how different sports have drastically different environments.

The Fab Five: How they changed American sports

Preface: This entry comes after the viewing of the Fab Five documentary.  Some background is given in my entry, but I don’t get exhaustive.

Brief overview of the Fab Five

            Everyone loves an underdog story. That’s exactly what was provided when the University of Michigan men’s basketball team, featuring a starting line up that included the Fab Five, coming from inner-city Detroit, went up against Duke University in the 1992 national championship game. Duke University is a private University that represents wealth, privilege and everything that marginalized groups had learned to resent. The five men collectively referred to as the Fab Five, from the start, did not have any advantages in their favor – their smack talk, which was a simple marker of cultural difference, was used against them, alleging them as unfit for representing a University. Similarly, the men were not able to foresee how their baggy shorts would be perceived by audiences. Sports can bring the most unlikely of people together – is there a better match than a story of inner-city versus prep school kids?

The Fab Five were the first to wear long shorts. All other teams wore short shorts.





At the same time, no one likes a failed underdog story. In such a circumstance, people typically choose to turn a blind eye and avoid thinking about the loss (exempting Duke fans). If you ask someone their first “underdog loses” story, they most likely don’t have one at the top of their heads. More profoundly, no one likes to see a deserving underdog lose their shot at a national championship two years in a row. The scene towards the end of the Fab Five documentary that shows Chris Webber with his head hung down towards the floor, silently leaving the court after losing the championship game against Ohio State, is plainly painful to watch. I believe that is what is powerful about the Fab Five documentary - It forces us to pay attention to a failed underdog story. The documentary forces us to watch and contemplate a set of underdogs with true talent, coming from the most unpromising of circumstances, be exploited and presented with a chance at glory, only to have it be snatched away. Even after the men’s college basketball careers were over, the men were being punished for merely trying to get by on 3 meals a day while being on the team and earning large sums of money for the University. I believe that when a system works to exploit and not support the underdog, it becomes blatantly unjust. 

3 players after losing to Ohio State

In a broader sense, the story of the Fab Five touches on some dominant issues within American sports. Firstly, it reveals a fundamental aspect of why we love sport - sport allows two areas that would never otherwise come together in competition, such as inner-city Detroit and a team of students coming from prep schools all over the country. It gives the underdog an opportunity to prove that it can prevail even despite coming from unequal circumstances. The Fab Five represents the hearth we associate with college sports – we associate amateurism with passion, for better or for worse. Simultaneously, it represents the worst of the circumstances where college athletes are not fairly compensated for their time, commitment and passion, and what happens when they try to get their hands on money to merely get by.

College pride vs regional stride

With the insanity of March Madness rocking the United States, I started thinking about the differences between collegiate athletics in America and Ireland.  It’s absolutely ludicrous when you actually realize how prominent college sports are back home. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body of all college sporting events.  According to an NCAA budget released Feb. 15, the Indianapolis-based group raked in $757 million through TV and marketing rights fees, championship revenue and other services last year.  This unfathomable amount of money is a direct result of how much Americans love watching collegiate sports.

In the states, top athletes get recruited in high school to attend a college that excels at his/her particular sport.  While they don’t get paid to play, most Division 1 athletes receive part or most of their education funded.  With the average cost of attending a Division 1,2, or 3 university being just over $44,000, these scholarships can drastically help top athletes financially.  After 4 years, athletes in team sports such as soccer, basketball, football, and baseball can be drafted to play for a professional team, where he/she would make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

This process is drastically different from the set up in Ireland.  With GAA and rugby dominating the nations sporting world, athletes compete at a regional/county level and then get selected to play for the national team if he/she is good enough.  This helps keep the playing field as even as possible, as wealthier teams aren’t allowed to ‘stock up’ on the best players.  Due to this set up, college athletics doesn’t seem to be very important whatsoever.  Here at UL, there’s a GAA and rugby team, but I haven’t once heard a promotion to attend a match.  In America, I attend a university that is just over 2,000 students and attending football and basketball games is huge, even though both teams aren’t very good.

The same level of separation between the two countries can be seen in the athletic facilities themselves.  All Division 1 colleges have a football stadium that’s at least the size of Thomond Park, if not bigger.  As mentioned in my last post, the biggest collegiate arena (at the University of Michigan) holds 105,000.  That’s over twice the size of the Aviva, which is the stadium that the Irish rugby team hosts international competitors.  It’s very interesting to note how drastic the two countries are in terms sporting level of importance.  This is the first time that I’ve truly thought hard about the societal difference between home and here, and I’m blown away by these facts.

Works Cited

Schlabach, Mark. "NCAA: Where does the money go?" ESPN (2011).

The loudest stadium in America is....

As college football teams around the nation commence in their 16-practice spring training, it’s time to start getting ready for the 2014-2015 season.  This year marks the first time in history for a division 1 playoff bracket, so home field advantage will be more important than ever.  Therefore, I’ve decided to examine the five toughest stadiums to play in to get everyone fired up for August. 

#5: Camp Randall, Wisconsin Badgers

            With the success that the Badgers have recently attained on the field, it’s no doubt that this cheese-eating town gets crazy on game day.  The stadium seats 80,321 and is deafening to opposing offenses.  If you’re ever in Madison on a Saturday in the fall, head over and prepare for a noise explosion at the end of the third quarter when “Jump Around” plays over the loudspeakers.

#4: Kyle Field, Texas A&M Aggies

           

            Who could possibly be louder and more obnoxious than Johnny Football himself??  The answer: his fans.  When 82,589 voices come together, you literally can’t even hear yourself think.  The stadium is known as the “Home of the 12^th Man” and there’s a reason…The crowd gets so rowdy that opposing teams feel like they are playing outnumbered because they physically cannot communicate with each other.

#3: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Florida Gators

            If you’ve ever been to Gainesville, Florida, you’ve probably noticed the massive towers shooting up the four corners of this complex.  The stairs leading up the stadium are so steep that almost every team at the university runs them when they need intense training.  Nicknamed “The Swamp,” you will find over 90,000 Tim Tebow lovers cheering on the Gators every Saturday.

#2: Autzen Stadium, Oregon Ducks

            This is an interesting one.  With room for just over 60,000 people, Autzen doesn’t even come close to being one of the bigger stadiums in the country.  However, the Ducks continual 10+ win seasons has their fan base roaring every chance they can.  Having personally attended a game at the stadium, I can verify that this place gives opposing teams noise headaches.

#1: Michigan Stadium, Michigan Wolverines

            Was it even a question that “The Big House” would win this contest?  With the ability to hold over 115,000 people, Michigan stadium is the biggest stadium in the United States.  Simply watching games on the television will send chills down your spine when the fans get loud.  As a die-hard Notre Dame fan, I remember watching this game live at home and could not believe how rowdy it got at this point in the game:

            So if you ever travel to the states during college football season, be sure to check out one of these locations and get ready to lose your voice!  As Michigan prepares to expand their stadium to hold 150,000, the games will only get louder and we will only lose our hearing earlier in life.

Works Cited

"2012 College Football Media Guide." NCAA Publishers (2012).

"'Jump Around' Tradition Returns to Student Section." University of Wisconsin Madison (2003).