The Sporting Life

In 532 Constantinople was rocked by a series of riots that put the entire Roman Empire in peril of self-destruction. The lofty empire had, of course, seen better days; but the rising of Islam and Western Europe were still off in the Horizon. No one could equal its power and prestige. Its influence in its vicinity was second to none. So what could have caused these riots to break out? Simple, one sports team didn’t like another sports team. As one side was victorious, the other side took to torching the city.

This of course seems to be a common occurrence in America these days. I was embarrassed a few years ago when downtown Columbus witnessed such barbaric behavior; but the Buckeyes aren’t the only place where this happens. George Carlin once famously pointed out that American culture is divided into two very different mindsets with two very different sports at the center. One sport is baseball and the other is football. One represents coming home, business acumen, and the American pastoral; the other is terribly reminiscent of war. Over the years baseball’s allure has waned, while football seems to take up more and more daytime, night time, and airtime. (It is quite literally the only fantasy many men do not feel ashamed participating in either.) Despite the very aggressive nature of the game and the recent scientific evidence that it is leading to deaths and disabilities; Americans seem to love it even more.

However, even more troubling is the sport’s mentality which is seeping into every part of our nation’s consciousness. Politics is not a place for ideas, but a winner take all blood sport. Our schools are becoming more defined by what happens on gridiron than what happens in the classrooms. Our relationships are based more on who is right and wrong; than on caring for one another. 

We can simply look back on Nika riots of Constantinople and laugh, but each day we involve ourselves in the mini-riots. Each day we slash and burn relationships with people because we have to be on the right side. We have to beat someone to be better. We have to win. 

There is a violence to being right at all costs. Bonhoeffer famously addresses this in Ethics when he discusses the fact that human beings have now become arbiters of right and wrong. When we love being right, rather than reconciling another human being with what is right; we are just as guilty as they are because we become the ultimate judges of the universe. 

At the end of Nika, the emperor courted the faction opposed to the rebels. The allied with him and 30,000 rebels were slaughtered. That isn’t the end of the story though. The fighting without a purpose came to dominate the Byzantine empire and would eventually fall. When you embrace a faction to point blind obedience, your end is insured. When you embrace a purpose with the aim of helping one another, your future remains unwritten. Time will tell if Americans will abandon “the bloodsport mentality” of winner-take-all for the hard work of life together; but that is a victory I long to see.