What sportsmanship?

What sportsmanship?

Recently, I heard a conversation of radio personalities that decried the absolute horrendous state of sportsmanship in the entire United States, particularly so, on the playing fields of our universities. It appears that at a certain university in the Southeast, during games, visitors were showered with plastic bags full of urine. Shocking, you say. What’s so shocking about this? In the United States, we are conditioned to revile and debase the enemy. Whether the enemy is competing against us in sport, business, or anything else for that matter, we must not only put them down; we must crush, demolish, and annihilate them. Then we must rub their faces in the dirt and give them a final contemptuous kick to punctuate it all. We must not just win; we must humiliate. Anything else would not be ‘macho’ enough; and that dear reader, is the bottom line. For Pete’s sake, even golf, which was so far perceived as a game for sedate seniors has got into the act? Look at the ads for Nike extolling raw power. Am I missing something here? This sort of mentality is already having a tremendous affect on the individual, the community, and ultimately the very essence of our societal psyche.

This reminds me that about twenty-five years ago, I coached tennis to young adults. One day, while teaching a potentially budding prospect, I witnessed an exhibition that was nothing short of obscene. I had volleyed back a hard hit forehand shot to my erstwhile student, which he could not retrieve. The young man went bonkers. He threw his racket, cursed worse than any prostitute bilked of money for services rendered, and stomped in rage. Finally, he stopped to catch his breath. Quietly putting my hand on his shoulder, I asked whether he thought that he was so good, that he should return every ball, or whether there was just an inept dummy across the net from him.

“I am sorry coach,” he said. “It’s just that I was mad at myself.”
“Setting high standards is understandable, but not at the cost of making an idiot of yourself or your instructor.”

From childhood, we have been taught to win at all costs. If you cannot come first, if you cannot earn gold, if you cannot win the big one, you are a loser. Thus, out of ten athletes in a track event, only one is a winner, the others are all losers. Extending this analogy further, we are saying that the majority by far, in this as in other things, are losers. Am I missing something here? Are we saying that since we had to pull out of Korea or Vietnam, that we are a nation of losers?

Another case in point is that of The Buffalo Bills. By reaching the Super Bowl four times in consecutive years, a plateau that to my knowledge has not been achieved by anyone in either the American Football League or the National Football League, they showed consistency, determination, and an inexorable drive to win seldom matched by any professional team. They proved themselves winners many times over. However, through either bizarre circumstances or that on that day the other team played better, the Buffalo Bills lost all four times. Today, they are perceived the biggest losers in football. By labeling them as losers, we are sending a wrong message to the people, particularly our younger generation. The message emphatically states, “You must win at all costs.” Is it any wonder that a significant number of teens, either drop out of college or are stressed out? Ultimately, they find their niche with gangs or become social pariahs.

Maybe, my education was wrong, since I was taught to respect the dictum, “To honor while you strike him down the foe that comes with fearless eyes.” Nevertheless, it was the principle of a European nation that did not do too badly over the past two hundred years. It was a principle that underscored the absolute necessity of giving it your best effort. Then, and then only, could you walk away with your head held high, without whining, without crying, maintaining your dignity at all costs. In life, most often than not, we are going to face adversity. These are the times, when we need the solidity of learned stoicism. This is the real essence of survival. That when the going gets tough, our survival depends on how well we can suck it up and continue. We need to hold up the image of an Ajax, who knowing that death was imminent on the morrow, since he was going up against the gods, begs the night to go away, so that the world could see what he was made of. Again, the image of a Macbeth knowing that his world was in ruins hurling his defiance at life:

Blow wind; come rack.
At least we will die with armour on our backs.

This is what we need to emphasize to the younger generation, an indomitable spirit that defies anything life can throw at it. Certainly, a part of it is that winning is important. However, though reaching the goal is the dream, the dream should not be at the cost of lying cheating, and other underhand means, which appear to be the bible of most coaches in our schools and universities. We need to emphasize the principles and personal deportment of a Dean Smith, a John Thompson, a Pat Summit, John Wooden and other like-minded coaches. We need to stress that winners are not just those who win the fight; rather, winners are those who show how much fight is in them.

Riaz Sahibzada