American sports are no longer about enjoying the game and escaping from reality. Politics has now been injected into the sports arena and it is having a huge negative effect. Viewers are turning off the channels and stopping to watch.
Sports used to be a shared space in culture where people of completely different political persuasions could cheer, laugh, and cry together over their favorite team.@DennisPrager and @BenShapiro discuss why that’s no longer the case and why this doesn’t bode well for society. pic.twitter.com/HDjVSM9GWZ
— PragerU (@prageru) October 18, 2020
Sports Have Been Brought Down
It seems that nothing is untouched by politics these days. Sports were once an opportunity to be united with those who may be different than you. As Ben Shapiro pointed out, the word sport comes from an old French word meaning distraction. It was supposed to be a distraction from everything else. An occasion to just be. It was a chance to join with others for a common goal: To just play (or watch) and enjoy the game; to be part of a team.
And now, sports have been brought down by politics. Players feel the need to share their views and discriminate. They feel the need to have an opinion on what is happening outside the field, court, or arena while they are indeed on the field.
Yes, they could have opinions. But it should not matter when they are in the game. And sadly, now it does matter.
People do not want to watch sports anymore because it became politics. Sports used to be an outlet. No one cared what others believed – especially if you were cheering for the same team.
Now, sports are a thing that divides instead of unites.
And that is just unfortunate.