Sports And Sports For Constructive Alternatives - 1011 Words

This March, the Center for Constructive Alternatives series dealt with the topic of Sport and Character. In today’s age, sport and sporting events have become pinnacles of American entertainment, money, and paparazzi. One is inundated with constant updates regarding football scores, feuds between athletes, and controversy over refereeing. With sport being such a focus in media and society, it often seems that sport and character are incompatible. Too often one sees an athlete get caught using illegal performance enhancing drugs, having an affair, or lying and cheating. Sport appears to be just like any other secular and commercial entertainment: decadent, impaired, and ultimately characterless. This month’s Center for Constructive†¦show more content†¦Novak then criticized the current news and sports media of today. Upset at how the media were currently portraying sports, he derided the journalists as â€Å"amateur social scientists.† Instead of tr ying to pigeon-hole sports into some social science or ‘social experiment’, sport should be seen as rituals concerning human survival on this planet: liturgical enactments of animal perfection and the struggles of the human spirit to prevail. As Mr. Novak showcased throughout his lecture, sport captures the struggle of man throughout history. This struggle is personified through the linebacker tackling the halfback, the pitcher recomposing himself after giving up a run, or a runner shaking off cramping as she attempts to complete the marathon. Sports are the human experience. Mr. Schilling’s talk set a tone unlike any other. That night, he presented a striking case for why character is influenced by sport. Drawing on his own personal experiences, Mr. Schilling said that he has come to learn that you can only gain wisdom through experiences. The experiences through sport that Mr. Schilling went through ultimately lead to the formation of the man that he is today. Sport also provides example of and experience with good leadership. Mr. Schilling talked about leadership, noting that while anyone can be a leader, there are very few leaders in the world. Although Mr. Schilling had been present among