What Counts as Sports?

The definition of what a sport actually is can be very complex because of all the variations of what some people may argue is a sport or not. My personal definition of a sport is; a competitive event that attracts spectators for their own entertainment and will always have a winner or a loser involved. There are different levels of sports, for example, youth, high school, college, and pro, which all entail some sort of winner or loser but much higher stakes as you progress through each level.

Furthermore, there are sports that we do not think about as much because they are not one of the 4 major sports, Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Hockey, but still will fall under my definition. After reading the pages assigned, it broadened my horizon into how to look at sports from a different perspective and to respect the fact that the origin of all sports was not even close to what we know as sports today. Rat-baiting and Bull-baiting were the two sports that most people would watch for entertainment back in the day. These were basically animals fighting to the death while people would place bets on them and enjoy watching as a getaway from reality. From this I found that spectators play a crucial role in sports because of the impact it has on their own lives, because of the escape one can get from watching, as well as a lot of other people too because of the economic effects it has in a society.

To focus more on the sport that I know most about and pay attention to the most, football, has seen a big drop in viewership because of the new rules that are being implemented for player safety. Although these rules seem crucial to help players with head injuries and to make sure they will be ok later in life, it has taken away the violence of the sport that a lot of people turned the game on for. It is what it is that people love to watch professionals get hit really hard because that is just human nature and with these big hits slowly coming out of the game has shown a huge decline in respect for the sport in general. This whole movement has brought to question, has football already peaked as a sport from the spectator side of it? I think it very well could have peaked but I also would love to be optimistic and believe that there are ups and downs throughout the years. The rule changes may go back to the way it was and football will be the hard nose, tough, and violent game that I grew up watching and the generations before me watched.

To conclude, the outlet that sports provide to people is a very big part of why sports are so great. Sports teach life lessons because of the team aspect and the courage it takes to step into an arena and compete against others that love the sport as well. Taking away this outlet for people to free their minds and enjoy themselves without any outside distractions would not be great for society as a whole.