In the article, Not Just a Game Sport and Society in the United States, by Kenneth J. Marci, Marci talks about how Americans "examine sports from both a business and societal viewpoint before we view them as spectators or fans"(page 2). Playing a sport gives an individual a purpose in life and helps them feel important in society. He makes many arguments based off off of how sports make individuals feel, and how some athletes do not play for the money they make off playing but to inspire the younger generations and their way of living. "The world of sports encourages commercialism, sexism, and most importantly, nationalism" (page 2). Sports in each country draws attention away from their government and how the country runs, sports teams give their country a new and better identity on the field. Many fans in society pay to go to games to watch their favorite teams win and watch a competitive level, because it costs money to watch a full game people would not just attend for "fun." This article was very interesting to read. It gave me a deeper perspective on the spectators and the meaning of sports in society. I never thought of the fact that sports teams can give their country a better identity on the field. I agree some athletes do not play for the money, even though it is their job, but they play for younger children inspired by them to pick up a sport and practice to become as good as their role model.
The first sentence of the entire article sums up my whole opinion on sports. “Sports are an essential and important aspect of American society”. The way us Americans view some sports as a religious game and all of the die hard fans makes it a huge economic booster in the American society. Competitiveness is what draws people to watch all different types of sports. Watching the best athletes in the world go head to head giving everything they have is one of the greatest things to watch. Seeing the fire and energy that they put into the game and all of the off the field training put into perfecting their craft should motivate people. How the athletes give back to their community and donate lots of money to charity, schools, different programs across the country, It is a great thing to see. Sports is just a vital thing to have for the economy, It is also a huge pride factor for us Americans. When everything is televised on TV and almost everyone in the world can watch a game or see what is going on is crazy. That alone helps the sporting industry grow and that's more and more money for the economy. When Kenneth said “As a society, we construct “types” of athletes based on their economic and social value, which acts as a connotation for their overall significance to the universal spectator. The idea of “winning” is some‐ thing that fuels competition, which in my view is one of America’s greatest vices; we compete not simply to enhance our own physical attributes, but to provide ourselves with a sense of achievement at the expense of another’s failure”. He made a really good point stating that winning at another one's failure makes it that much more exciting and worthwhile to win. Overall the sporting industry today is one of the biggest economic businesses in the entire world and it will only grow from here.
ReplyDeleteSports are key in our society. When the author says, “Sports provide key dynamics when it comes to the augmentation of communal principles by enhancing the physical and mental well-being of individuals and the integration of social classes” the part that sticks out to me and is very true is “the integration of social classes” (page 1). This is such a cool thing that we have in the world. Sports bring everyone together in the world. It doesn’t even matter who you are or how much money you have. If you can buy a baseball ticket or a football ticket, you are part of a huge family and they will never turn their back on you. Sports fans are a very tight-knit community and they do not who you are. You can make friends through going to sports games and get into draft leagues and just have fun in the community. The author says “Our world can exist without the arrogance and the egotism attributed to certain athletes,...” (Page 2). I agree with this statement. In order to enjoy sports, you have to play the sport and enjoy playing it. You can’t get mad because maybe one team doesn’t want to pay you a certain amount of money or a team wants to trade you. In order to enjoy sports, you play for the fans and put yourself second. Millions of people pay to see you play so give them what they paid for. The problem in sports today is that everyone complains. Just do what you’re getting paid millions and millions of dollars to do. I know that we have issues in the world today that need to be addressed, but in my opinion these players can either play and get their money or sit out and don’t. It’s ok if you don’t like money. We can spend it on something else.
ReplyDeleteMacri starts this article off by acknowledging the massive impact sports have on our culture,economy,and society in general. He continues by emphasizing the communal impacts that athletes and sports teams can have on a city and population. Macri however, poses the question of is our unquestioned loyalty and reliability to sports fueling our entertainment or just “lining the pockets of already overpaid athletes and business gurus”? The point that Macri is trying to make is that some athletes make millions upon millions of dollars to play sports because we respect their athleticism and all of the work that they put in to shine in competition, when other athletes in less popular sports put in just as much work yet receive next to zero recognition at all and get paid pennies when compared against the mega contracts in some leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB. While I agree with Macri when he urges us to view sports from a “business and societal standpoint”, I had trouble viewing and understanding the essential point that Macri was trying to make in this article. While it is true that team owners and a large number of professional athletes make enormous amounts of money from sports, we as sports fans watch games, buy tickets, and purchase gear because of the entertainment it provides and we enjoy doing it. The average sports fan could probably care less about the enormous net worth of his favorite teams owner, or that the contract his favorite player just signed is more money than he will probably ever see in his lifetime. Professional players do make ridiculous amounts of money and in all honesty are overpaid, yet at the end of the day they are just workers with a job to do and we gladly buy the product that they produce, unfazed by the amount of money they make. While players in some leagues make much more money than other athletes, we must remind ourselves that the world of sports is first and foremost a business and in many cases business is booming. Professional players deserve the massive contracts they get because of how much revenue they create for their team and league, that’s why they are undoubtedly paid more than athletes of other smaller, less popular sports.
ReplyDeleteStarting off the article, Marci states how the impact that sports has on our economy and history has been massive and how it is one of the most leading contributers to our culture. Marci them links sports with politics and social class as well, which he states here, "Sport coincides with community values and political agencies, as it attempts to define the morals and ethics attributed not only to athletes, but the totality of society as a whole." backs up his idea that sports are more than just a game and how without sports, our idea of competitivness and enemies would be as strong since sports give us our main example of that. Marci gives really valid points throughout the article about how sports contribute to society, however one question that he asked us was " Are fans paying their hard earned money to be a part of an experience they place value upon,
ReplyDeleteor is it simply to line the pockets of already overpaid athletes and business gurus?" My opinion on that is, I don't think that fans of sports really care about the over pay or under pay of athletes or the big corporations. I think when a fan goes to see a game they either pay to see it or watch it on tv to just enjoy the actual play of it. Since the pay is not hurting the fans pockets they really don't care much about it.