Make America Great Again... Through Sports

The following is taken from a essay written for my English class at Utah State University.

For centuries human beings have always strived to unify themselves with other human beings. They find common ground in order to become a cohesive unit in an effort to become stronger as they join with others. This has been the pattern throughout history, the Romans tried to “unify” the world by force, the Christians tried to unify the world through religion in the dark ages and even modern day politicians use the idea of unifying the country as a political platform. Despite the worlds best efforts to come together and work to achieve a better world in which to live it always appears that this effort falls short. This may be because there are so many things in this world that can separate groups of people and drive a wedge between them such as Clinton vs Trump, Democrats vs Republicans, Democracy vs Communism, Race, Religion, poverty, wealth, rap music or classical music and even which flavor of ice cream is the best. Everywhere we turn there is something to argue about or to disagree about. So in a world where there is so much contention and arguing, where can we turn in order to help unify us? I believe the answer is simple, one of the most effective ways to unify a group of people is through organized sports.

It’s a Friday morning and students are trickling into the school from the parking lot. As usual there are the kids who drive their 1964 Mustangs that their parents purchased for them, there are the students who park their beaten down car from the mid 1990’s that has gone through 3 previous siblings before it is finally their turn to drive it and there are the kids who have taken the bus since both parents are working and do not have time to take their child to school. However today is different than most, today this vast range of wealth and social statuses that are so prevalent in high school are put aside. Why? Because tonight at 6:30 pm their high school football team will take the field in the State championship game and try to win back to back state championships for the first time in over thirty years. Max Miller, a senior at East High School in Salt Lake City Utah has been attending football games for the last four years and describes the difference between a regular day at school and game days. He says “usually at school its really separated, all the Tongan kids sit in their own hallway at one end of the school, all the Hispanic kids hang out outside the school and all the white kids just sit at the lunch tables so there’s not a lot of mixing going on between all the groups.” (Miller) For those who are not familiar East High School is one of, if not the most, diverse school in the state of Utah. Its boundaries stretch from the slopes of the Wasatch mountains on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley to the rougher Salt Lake neighborhoods such as Glendale and Rose Park. This provides for an interesting dynamic as kids who live in multi-million dollar homes are going to class with kids who just moved to America a few months prior and are still learning the English Language. However according to Max these differences seem to disappear when they are at the football games, he says “Whenever I go to the football games its like everyone is just friends with everyone, all the Tongan kids sit with us and we all just cheer for East. Its weird because at the games everyone is friends and we talk and stuff but then at school I never really talk to them and everyone just hangs out with their own friends.” (Miller) So according to Miller, a senior familiar with the culture of East High School, Football games have provided a way for these high school students to ignore the ‘social fences’ that divide these students on a daily basis and come together as a unified student body despite race, religion or wealth.

The clock has finally hit zero and East celebrates their second straight State Championship. After the presentation of the trophy and the teams shake hands, the East High football team gathers together to perform the Haka, a native dance performed by Polynesian Tribes and warriors. For an instant the entire community of East High and the neighborhoods it encompasses are completely unified, White, Hispanic and Black kids perform a dance from a culture that is so different from theirs, but they do it with their Polynesian teammates, unified as a team. In the stands students, teachers and parents yell and scream in joy, Democrats do not yell any louder than republicans, the wealthy aren’t any more proud of their kids than the poor and fans of chocolate ice cream aren’t anymore excited than fans of vanilla. For one moment the East High School community stands unified together in support of their beloved football team. This display of unification can be seen all across the country as high school sports teams provide a platform in which neighborhoods can join together in support of a common goal. However the reaching impact sports can have towards unifying people does not stop there. In continues to unify people on a grander scale even unifying large cities.

In 1908 the Chicago Cubs were World Series Champions, the greatest accomplishment a professional baseball team can achieve. Then World War I broke out, then the titanic sank, the Great Depression began and ended, Hitler took power in Germany, World War II began and ended, Martin Luther King Jr. lived and died, man landed on the moon, computers were invented, then smart phones and then the first Black president of the United States was elected all without the Cubs winning the world series again. But the city in which the first African American president called home was not going to give up that easily. For 108 years fans of the Chicago Cubs watched their team take the field, they purchased tickets to the games, they bought shirts, hats and jerseys and year after year they watched as every season ended without a championship. That was until November 2, 2016 when the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians to win their first world series in 108 years. For days afterward the city of Chicago and fans of the team celebrated their long awaited championship. As customary the team held a championship parade to celebrate the victory. According to Fox News Chicago writer Nic Flosi “Officials estimate that 5 million people showed up to the Chicago Cubs parade and rally”(Flosi) which would make the Chicago Cubs parade and rally the “seventh largest gathering in human history” (Flosi) and the “largest human gathering in United States history” (Flosi). This historic gathering shows how truly important sports are to the culture of America and to the American population. Hillary Clinton supporters did not arrive any earlier to the celebration than Trump supporters and White people weren’t any more excited than African Americans were. For a few days the city of Chicago stood unified in the celebration of their team, the Chicago Cubs, first World Series Victory since 1908.

This same pattern can be seen all across America as professional Sports teams face off against one another in the spirit of competition. The city of Cleveland rallied behind the Cavaliers as the basketball team won its first ever championship in 2016. The State of Massachusetts rallied behind their beloved New England Patriots as they won their fourth Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks in dramatic fashion in 2015. Everywhere we look we can see Cities and states support their sports teams, however this pattern doesn’t just apply to sports teams who win championships. According to a study and research done by the National Football League the average attendance for Dallas Cowboys home games was 91,459, the largest of any professional football team, despite the team only winning four games the entire year (NFL). This is further evidence that Americans will stand unified behind their team even when the team doesn’t perform well. The same could not be said about political supporters as many supporters of a politician will begin to support a different candidate when the first isn’t doing well in the polls.

Now the ultimate goal as a country is to unite the entire country. This is what political leaders have strived to do for years. However it’s difficult to unify the entire country using only American league sports teams. It will be extremely difficult for the die hard Utah Fan to root for the BYU sports teams, however both fan bases can come together in support of the Utah Jazz. But good luck trying to get a Jazz fan to root for the Los Angeles Lakers. There are many people who would doubt that sports could actually unify an entire country with so many rival teams and fan bases within a country but the answer is simple and easy. The large majority of Americans can and are unified through international sports such as the Olympics and even the Soccer World Cup. In 2014 all eyes were on Brazil as the country hosted the 2014 World Cup for soccer. According to research done by FIFA “Total in-home audience reach: 3.2 billion”. That means that 3.2 billion people around the world watched the world cup. In the United States alone 24.7 million people watched the USA take on Portugal (Statista), a single game. This shows that a CEO of a company was in front of his TV, watching the same game, cheering just as loud and was just as nervous and a fast food worker, because for a few hours nothing else mattered, race didn’t matter, social standing didn’t matter and wealth didn’t matter because both men simply wanted the USA to win a soccer game.

The same goes for the Olympics, an event that is put on every 2 years in different parts of the world where each country sends their best athletes to compete in various sports. The USA Mens Basketball team in the 2016 Summer Olympics consisted of twelve players from nine different teams. Four of these players came from the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors who had just weeks previously played each other in the NBA Finals. After the Finals had ended and the Cavaliers had won it was time for the Olympics to begin. However three of these players were from the Warriors who had just been defeated, however they put aside their disappointment and frustration and came together as a unified team with players who they had played against a mere months before, in order to accomplish the ultimate goals of winning a Gold Medal in Basketball for the entire country. This is further evidence that fans and even players can put aside their differences even when their difference is related to sports in order to become a unified group in order to accomplish something related to sports and for fans to

support their team on a national level even when the team consists of players from their rivals.

Many people would refute the claim that Sports is a viable way of unifying a group of people using the claim that not all Americans like sports, however the number of Americans who do not like sports is decreasing. According to Joseph Carroll writing about a Gallup Poll, done in accordance with CNN and USA Today, done in 2005, “Sixty-three percent of Americans […] describe themselves as sports fans” (Carroll). This is compared to the year 2000 with 56 percent of Americans describing themselves as sports fans (Carroll), a seven percent increase in just five years. This combined with the fact that according to a poll done by “60 Minutes” and published on CBSNews.com, only 10 percent of Americans said they do not watch sports (CBS News) shows the number of Americans who like sports is growing and based on trends it will continue to grow, just increasing the possibility of using sports to unify the country.

Truly in a day and age where there is so much to argue about and so much to disagree about we need something that we as human beings can turn to in order to find common ground. Surely politics is not the answer as this most recent election has dived the country at a level we didn’t think possible. Even picking a favorite Ice Cream flavor proves to be the source of arguments because their will always be one person who will argue that Strawberry is the best even when that is simply not correct. Sports, however, can be the source of unity. Even Rival colleges can become unified in their love of a local professional sports team or in the hate of another, even fans of rival professional teams can put aside their dislike for one another as the USA goes for Gold in the Olympics and even rival US soccer players can come together and work together to beat Spain. Sports can unify people through the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat and I have yet to find anything that can do a better job of that than American sports. So to rival Utah Utes fans ‘Go Jazz!’ and to rival Lakers fans ‘Go America!’.