Sport

We’re a sporting nation. We watch, play and discuss what has happened on the weekend. What is interesting is the changing expectations around sport. Let me explain.

The modern games evolved out of the 18^th and 19^th centuries with the purpose of human competition in a civilised society. Cricket and boxing first represented this ideal, followed by football and tennis. This led to the phrase “Football is a gentleman's game played by ruffians”

In fact, some have argued that sport has a civilising element.

Yet I think that it is Christianity that shaped the way we approached sports.

You see, in the 19^th century England, character mattered more than achievement. The way the game was played was more important than the outcome (“That’s just not cricket”).

So how has sport changed? The focus is on results.

Ancient Roman had sports, where the strong thrived and the weak perished. They performed armed combat entertaining audiences in grand outdoor stadiums. Crowds cheered as they watched gladiators compete in violent confrontations with other gladiators. Is this not the National Football League?

Ivan Cole argues that “The proper purpose of sport in a healthy culture is transcendence. To transcend is to surpass or exceed ordinary limits” The focus is not on character but on achievement, over and above what would normally be expected.

Norbert Elias argued that the modern game has become a re-enactment of hunter gatherer. It is here that our primitive tribalism is displayed (including chants, threats and euphoria).

With sport becoming professional the focus in on achievement. This is not just for the sportsperson. The crowd have expectations too. The athlete is viewed as an employee and the effectiveness, and if possible the spectacle of the performance is all that counts.

 Now sport has followed the culture of the day (Nietzsche’s theory of power, Macintyre on values and Satre’s existentialism). And yet we are saddened when sports people are flawed. Could it be that we are tacitly aware of the value of character? Or do we see ourselves in sport, warts and all?