The first definition of the noun 'sport' found in a dictionary is 'a source of diversion.'
Sports in the United States have developed over the years into many things beyond mere diversions. Sports are now equated with big business and million-dollar deals. Sports also provide millions of people with jobs. Sports are a way of life for many Americans. Everybody knows somebody who opens a newspaper to find the sports section and then disregards the rest.
However, I cannot remember a time when sports felt as unimportant to me as they do as I write this, a few short hours after one of the biggest tragedies ever to occur on American soil. I would guess that the majority of people holding this humble publication right now picked it up not to read about opinions on Michael Jordan, but to see what this newspaper had to say about the terrorist attacks of Tuesday.
Why was Tuesday the first day I watched CNN instead of ESPN while I ate breakfast? The answer is simple. National security issues were more important to me than an injury update from Monday night's football game.
I usually enjoy providing a humorous look at the world of sports when I write. However, it seemed too difficult not only to write something humorous, but also to write something related in any way to sports.
Granted, life must go on after yesterday's events, but sports have appropriately taken a back seat to the tragedy for now.
People will find their own ways to take their minds off the recent catastrophe when they cannot dwell on it anymore.
Many might eventually find sports to be the most soothing distraction. Very soon, I might want to watch ESPN during breakfast again instead of watching the news. But not yet.
The fact remains that sports are a powerful diversion for Americans, and at times like these, diversions are needed. As people try to recover from events that may have changed their lives and ways of thinking, sports will provide a needed outlet for support and amusement.
To remember the power that a sporting event can have in bringing people together, think back to January 1991. In the midst of the Gulf War, Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium was the setting for a moving portrait of patriotism.
With security around the stadium on the highest alert, the 'Star-Spangled Banner' played prior to kickoff as it does before all American sporting events. Television cameras captured spectators in the stadium no longer taking our national anthem for granted, evidenced by tears dripping off countless faces. At the conclusion of the song, fighter planes flew across the night sky and the stadium erupted with the frantic waving of thousands of miniature American flags.
For a few hours that night, those united Americans found a much needed diversion in a sport.
It is important to remember that sports are not life; they are a part of life. Tuesday, on a page that typically lists the winners and losers of the previous day, there were no winners to report.
