As the NFL season begins on this wonderful September weekend it had me thinking WHY are sports so ingrained in our society. The month of September is one of my favorites along with March just because of sports. September includes September (playoff push) baseball, the start of College Football and the start of the NFL.
If you think about the last 2 days there has been 14 NFL games where the NFL average stadium holds around 65,000 people, and 30 MLB games where the average stadium holds about 42,000 people. This does not include all of the NCAA Football games around the country from every level such as D1 to D3 and JUCO. Not to mention you have had the start of High School football and all the local people who enjoy Friday Nigh High School Football. Just this weekend alone it is safe to say hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have attended a sporting event (myself included). So WHY?
Well as I sit and watch the Brewers today, I can't help but relate the feelings of their game against the Giants to life. In college I once did a speech on how the game of baseball has impacted me and how much it is related to life (and for this posts sake I will say the game of life). The Brewers are losing to the Giants in the 6th inning while they are in a playoff push and feelings are down as they cannot get a runner on base for 15 straight batters, but how quick things change. A walk, lazy single and then the emotions get started. A perennial Cy Young (best pitcher) award candidate is pitching against the Brewers and throws up and in on Ryan Braun twice, eventually hitting him. This sparks the Brewers bench to clear, thoughts and opinions to be shared between players and eventually resulting in the cool-mannered Craig Counsell and Wade Miley to be ejected. And after all of this it brings up the bat of Jonathan Schoop (Brewer fans not confident) but he steps up and hits a grand slam sending 40,000 people at the game and thousands others into a frenzy (including me running around my apartment). The Brewers hang on to win during this playoff push and thoughts and feelings are good. Just like life, sports drag our emotions up and down daily. I truly believe the emotions that sports brings out of us is one of the main reasons that society is so drawn to sports. To go back to my college speech, the game of baseball is won and loss by controlling something so small (the ball) and while curveballs may be thrown, errors may be had, it's how you respond and the game of baseball (life) will always be there.
Take away the emotions, I think millions of people are drawn to sports because it is in our natural ability to be competitive. Sports allow us to be competitive while also being active and using teamwork to achieve a common goal. This satisfies so many internal needs for us personally, socially and it is how we were raised. Whether it is in school, athletics, music, dramas, we are always being competitive with others or ourselves to be the best that we can be. Our inner thoughts and feelings strive towards that feeling of accomplishment and achievement and sports allows us to enjoy these feelings with millions of people from around the world.
I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend and during this crazy month of September it is hard not to be entrenched in the world of sports. So just sit back and enjoy all the moments and stories that happen before us.
I will leave you with one of my favorite sports stories because it relates to the emotions of baseball and life while also having that satisfaction of achievement in the end!
The Chicken Runs at Midnight Video
The Chicken Runs at Midnight Story
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