Why we like Sports

I greatly enjoy watching football. I especially enjoy college football, and my favorite team is the Iowa Hawkeyes. Of course now, being married to an Alabama fan, I will also root for the Crimson Tide. I also enjoy watching professional football, where my favorite teams are the Chargers and the Vikings. I began following each of these teams for different reasons. I like the Hawkeyes because I was born and raised in Iowa, and I can’t imagine being a fan of any other team in the same way that I am a fan of the Hawkeyes. I am an Alabama fan, as I said before, because I married an Alabama fan. I have liked the Chargers since I was about five, primarily because I thought the lightning bolts on their helmets were cool. I like the Vikings because I lived in Minnesota for a few years, and because my father is a Vikings fan.

People can begin to follow a certain sports team for any number of reasons. They may do so because of their location, because of an influential person who is already a fan, or for purely whimsical or random reasons. The question isn’t really why we begin to follow certain teams, the question is why do we continue, obsessively at times, to follow those teams.

The answer can really be summed up in a single word: narrative. Human beings crave narrative. If there is any doubt on this matter, I would point you to the vast sums of money generated by the Hollywood movie and TV industry. Thousands of narratives are generated literally every day, and still we can never seem to get enough of them.

We follow sports because we get caught up in the narrative. We need narrative. In football for example, every season, every game, every half, every quarter, every drive, and indeed every play embodies a miniature narrative complete with setting, characters, plot, climax and conclusion. There are three primary elements involved in the narrative of sports which form the foundation of our obsession with them: Story, Character, and Identity.

Story

I have often wondered why anyone would spend hundreds of dollars to attend a sporting event that they could watch in high definition at home. The reason is that watching the game from the comfort of home disconnects us from participation in the story of the game. As human beings, created in the image of God, there is a longing in all of us to be, to use the common idiom, a part of something greater than ourselves. This desire is God-given, and integral to humanity. I discovered this connection to sports in October 2009, when I was privileged to attend the Iowa – Michigan game in Iowa city with my dad and my brother. We yelled and cheered, and really became (very very small) characters in the larger story: the story of a couple of specific plays, the story of that particular game, the larger story of Hawkeyes’ season, and even the story of Hawkeye football in general. We can always say that we were there. We saw the game in person, and in our small way, we participated. As human beings we find significance and meaning in the context of participating in a larger narrative. Sports provide us with a convenient outlet for satisfying that need.

Character

If ever one needed evidence that human beings are drawn to great characters, one need look no further than the media’s fixation with Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow is one of the most celebrated players in the history of college football. This is not without good reason. His statistics are staggering. However, it is not for his statistics, or even for his Heisman Trophy, that Tim Tebow has been the subject of intense media scrutiny. It is for the fact that Tebow is a Christian who lives out his faith with consistency, humility, grace, and integrity both on and off the field. This has garnered for him praise from some and mockery from others. As you may well have guessed, I am a big fan of Tim Tebow, and am extremely grateful for his very public testimony to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I grew up in the mid-west, and am not prone to root for Florida under any circumstances. I rooted for Nebraska when they played Florida for the national title in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, and rejoiced at their defeat. Yet, in the past 4 years, I have found myself rooting for Florida simply because of Tebow! As human beings we are drawn to characters who exhibit excellence in what they do. We are so fascinated by such characters that we probe as deeply into their personal lives as we possibly can in an attempt to “know” them vicariously. Following the careers of sports figures lends itself to satisfying our innate desire for relationship with great character.

Identity

As much as people claim that they do not want to be labeled or pigeon-holed so to speak, there is a desire within every person to be identified with something or someone greater than themselves. Identity is a complex and important subject, and I intend to write more about it later. At this point, suffice it to say that sports fans readily and eagerly identify themselves with their respective teams. When William and I are out running errands, or just spending quality father/son time together, it is pretty easy to identify us as Iowa fans. It would be nearly impossible to mistake William, in his black and gold Iowa hat, coat, jersey, T-shirt, and pants for anything other than a Hawkeye fan. If that doesn’t give it away, my bright gold Iowa cap, which I’m pretty sure can be seen from the moon, should! Sports fans wear the colors, fly the flags, and adorn their cars, houses, and even trees with visible indicators of their identity as sports fans. When my dad went on vacation – to Florida no less – he was able to have conversations with people he had never met before because he was wearing his Iowa Hawkeyes hat. He identified himself as a Hawkeye fan, and others who shared that identity were quick to engage him in conversation. I think we may be the only Iowa fans in Louisville, and we get some weird looks when we go shopping across the river in Indiana. Why? We have identified with Iowa, and that identity makes those who identify themselves with Indiana uncomfortable. Identity is a fundamental need of human beings, and sports provide us with a ready-made way to fulfill that need.

And your point is…?

I am not trying to attack or defend the morality of following sports. Certainly, following sports could become form of idolatry, though this need not necessarily be so. That is a discussion for another day.

What I want to demonstrate is the universality of the human drive to fill life with meaning, significance, purpose, joy, pleasure, and a host of other things through participation in narrative. Sports are only one example of this. Certainly there are other examples, but the popularity of sports is, at least to my mind, compelling evidence that there is in fact a human need for narrative.

The universality of the human need for narrative is a powerful argument for the existence of the God of the Bible, and for humanity made in His image. Darwinian evolution tells us that we are the product of random chance and time. (Which is a narrative all its own by the way.) However, narratives are ever only the product of intelligence. Even if one were to claim that there is no intelligent being directly governing sporting events, the reality of narrative in sports remains undeniable. In that case the narrative would purely be the invention of the human mind. This begs the question of why the human mind is so determined to string together purely random events in such a way as to impose order on them.

In a world produced solely by random chance and time, the tendency to see the world in terms of order and narrative could never be beneficial to the survival of a species. Narrative, which demands the existence of order and predictability in reality, could provide no advantage to a species in a purely random world because it would be contradictory to the nature of reality. Any species which seeks to operate in a way that is contradictory to the nature of reality is doomed to destruction. An inherent belief in order in a world of pure chaos would quickly result in disillusionment, confusion, and death. The only way to adequately explain the human need for narrative is to acknowledge that there is a supernatural Narrator who has created human beings in an orderly universe with a need for narrative that only He can fill.

Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, the four primary components of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, provide humanity with an overarching Narrative which both adequately explains the nature of reality and satisfies the deepest longings of the human soul. The Gospel of Jesus Christ provides humanity with a story in which to truly participate, a Great Character who is the fulfillment of all of our longings for relationship with one greater than ourselves, and it provides us with the opportunity to forge our identity in the eternal Kingdom of God. Our love for sports reveals our deep need for a Narrative larger than sports, a Narrative only God can write. When you boil it all down, we like sports because we need Christ.