Sports Distraction Essay

Some people see sports as entertainment and a distraction from other things going on like most television programs are. While others, see it as more than just a game and something that can hold a lot of meaning beyond just winning. Sports can be seen as a distraction from the larger issues in many ways. For example, in the film “Not Just a Game” that we watched, sports used Pat Tillman’s story as a way to show support for the army and to distract everyone by getting them to feel this sense of patriotism because their favorite NFL team supports the army. It highlights the concept of America and “Football Sunday”. In reality, Tillman hated the war and often spoke out against it, so it distracted Americans from thinking about the war in the

For example, in the film from Monday, they talk about many athletes who used sports to address racial injustice from Jack Johnson who started riots over racial equality to the men’s Olympic U.S. track athletes who raised their fists during the medal ceremony. More recently, as we discussed in the PowerPoints after class, there’s the Swedish high jumper who painted her nails in rainbow colors for LGBT rights in the Sochi Olympics. Also the athletes like LeBron James and NFL teams who showed gestures like wearing hoodies after the Trayvon Martin and Ferguson cases. Another example, which can be argued as both a distraction and as holding value, is from after the attack on September 11th. The documentary “Nine Innings from Ground Zero” shows that the Yankees making it to the World serious was huge for New York. It served as a way for New Yorkers to forget the tragedy of what happened in their city for a couple of hours to see their team in the World Series. This short documentary on the Yankees following September 11 features interviews of people saying it was a distraction from the tragedy. However, this example can also be related to the other viewpoint that there are more significant meanings behind sports. This is because the New York Yankees did a lot for New York, the families of 9/11 victims, and the New York Fire Department during that