Sport, Society, & Me

Throughout my life sports have played a significant role in my overall development into the individual that I am today. I believe that sports stands for something far greater than just the overall outcome of a game, I believe that sports stand for strategy, work ethic, teamwork (in some situations), toughness, and above all friendship. In my situation, sports have possibly been the most constant thing in my life and the one thing that I have always able to turn too. Growing up I was the kind of kid who wanted, and was willing to participate in just about anything. However, once I began to develop into a teenager I started to focus solely on playing golf and basketball. To this day I still reference and use key traits that the two sports have taught my over time. I began to develop my connection with sports at a young age and was fascinated with where sports could take you. My Dad played basketball at the University of Illinois and is the main reason why I love sports so much to this day. Growing up in a large family with a lot of athletes has always expanded my overall knowledge on sports and continues to do so today. 

Currently in todays society people seem to be getting worked up about a lot of thingsfor whatever reason. However, I believe that sports in most societies plays a role where people can get together for a period of time and agree on something. Overall, I believe that the roles of sports is a good thing. Sports teaches individuals specific values that one would never be able to receive, for example values such as courage, teamwork, unselfishness, and winning to name a few. Personally, I think sports are one of the most important things in todays US society. From a young age people fall in love with sports or favorite sports teams and begin to become obsessed with them  and just about everything they do. For example people in cities around the country are personally buying billboard space to advertise for there favorite team to get a certain player to come play for them during free agency. This seems to be a perfect example of the role sports currently has in US society. I have come to this conclusion because one I am an avid sports fan who has been to lots of sporting events in different cities around the country and see how sports effect a society and second I think all one really has to do is look at the overall money flow that sports generate and compare it to other popular issues in todays society.  Finally, I believe that athletes position in society is at the very top and in some cases the most viewed in todays society. Athletes are valued differently in different societies however, I believe all you need to do is look at how much professional athletes are being payed to make an opinion on weather or not they are valued or respected. All in all, athletes are the ones out there doing the work and putting there bodies on the line for our entertainment and personal pleasure. So when people begin to question why do athletes get paid so much? My question for them is who should then?