By Nic LaPonte
Everyone is aware of the conventional sports. You have soccer, the single most popular game in the world, American football, the rallying sport of colleges everywhere, baseball, America's favorite pastime, basketball with its speed and fury, and a myriad of others that are televised, publicized and followed by millions of dedicated fans.
But what makes these sports, sports?
Is it these fans, the stadiums, the commercials, the contracts, the celebrity athletes?
If it's not what people see about the sport, the lights, the fame, the paychecks then what is it?
Is it the athleticism inherent in our perception of the word "sport"?
In that case, is golf not a sport? What about billiards or table tennis? These sports require little of the raw athletic power of football or basketball and yet are still thought of as sports.
Why should we disallow video games and card games from the world of sports? I'm pretty sure I saw poker being played on ESPN3 the other night.
So what gives? It seems to me that it's pretty hard to find a solid definition for what falls under the heading of sports these days.
Another difficult distinction arises when looking at the labels applied to athletes.
"Professional," for instance, is a misleading term applied typically to athletes who either appear on TV or earn their livelihood by playing. I would argue however, that many feel jilted by the term because of its connotation in term of quality. Those who play at a high level of a sport that isn't recognized as such may not feel like their participation is recognized or appreciated by the public at large.
To an extent this is true - those competitors who participate in sports not held in esteem by the public at large will be forced to play second fiddle in the public eye to those who are more mainstream.
Even sports that are televised - say for example, bass fishing - are not necessarily the kind of activities that attract the attention of the public eye that many athletes crave. It's often the case that no matter how hard you work or how hard you push the importance or excitement of your sport, it will never reach popular heights. It is a sad thing when a sport, despite what the people who love it want, begins to die off. This not only prevents people from playing the game itself, but it also stops the sport from reaching new heights of athleticism by recruiting new talent.
One of the many reasons that the players of mainstream sports are referred to as professionals over those people who play lesser known sports is the fact that the level at which they play may in fact be a higher one. As harsh as that sounds, if you look at the sheer number of people playing baseball or basketball on the MLB or NBA level and the number of people honing their skills to try to get to that level, you have a much more competitive environment than, say, the professional roller derby league. This greater number of aspirants also means a larger pool of talent to draw from, as well as much tougher selection criteria to make it to the upper echelons of a sport.
A rower, for example, trying to get on the crew team at the University of Washington has to be an almost Olympic lever practitioner of the sport to make the varsity boat. If that same rower were to apply here for the crew team, he or she could get on the team and enjoy the sport without having to be a god-like competitor.
No matter what sport you play, or at what level, in my book, if you go out and leave it all on the field during games and practice, then that makes you a professional. TV spots and shoe commercials non-withstanding.
