Are sports the glue that hold America together?

When I was 10 years old the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center took place and as a young kid not fully understanding what was going on, I was terrified. For the following days the only thing that was on T.V. was the horrendous attacks that had taken place in the days prior. The only time I felt comfortable in that short period of time when I was watching either baseball or football because it brought a sense of normality to my life. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only person that felt that way during this time.

When a tragedy hits a country it is scary to everyone, because at that moment no one feels safe. The way people react is by over compensating and living too much on the safe side which is bad because now that tragedy is even worse than it has to be. This change isn’t permanent, however, everything will go back to normal but it takes time. Certain things will go a long way into speeding this process up. I feel that professional sports are one of those things that will go a long way in healing the wound that was caused by a tragedy. Many people might wonder how that’s possible but when you think about it, it’s very simple.

I mentioned earlier the struggles this country went through after the attacks on the World Trade Center and how difficult it was for everyone to deal with the issue. An attack like that doesn’t only affect one group of people, it affects everyone from children to elderly people and that’s why it is so devastating. There aren’t many things that reach out to all groups of people, however, sports does reach a large portion of our country. After the attacks sports were postponed for several weeks, but once they returned it was a feeling of happiness and relief that spread across the country. I will never forget the look on everyone’s face during the flyover of the first New York Giants’ game after the attacks. It was like everything was better again. Of course that wasn’t the case, however, it brought that feeling and that’s what is important. I saw a very similar look in the crowd when the New Orleans Saints returned to their home stadium after Hurricane Katrina. As devastated as the city of New Orleans was there was still 70,000 people at that game cheering on their team just like usual.

The most comforting thing about sports is that no matter what is going in the world at the time sports will be the constant to the millions of people that watch them on a consistent basis. When I was a little kid I developed a habit that was to turn to sports whenever I reached a time of uncertainty. And I feel that I still tend to do that; when times get tough or I’m feeling down for whatever reason I always seem to turn to the thing that is always there no matter what is going on in my life, sports. That is why I ask this question, are sports the glue that hold America together?





-Dennis Crocker