Sports Breed Hatred

"It’s only a game."

"Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing."

- Jesus Christ being nailed to the cross. From the Gospel of St. Luke

"Heavenly Father, forgive me, I am a sports fan."

Items Soccer

1969 - Tensions between El Salvador and Honduras explode into a five-day war triggered by World Cup soccer qualifying matches. There are 2100 casualties.

- Hooliganism, particularly by British fans

- Referees being attacked or even killed

- Defensive moats being dug around soccer fields.

Items Football

- Jack Tatum hits Darryl Stingley so hard that he becomes paralyzed for life.

- Tatum later defends his play in a book called They Call Me Assassin, in which he states such play is common in the NFL. Players are expected to hit that way because their coaches and teammates accept and require it.

Many of Tatum’s critics agree that Tatum’s crime was not the hit itself but that he actually talked openly about and acknowledged what was going on.

Items Baseball

- Beanballs, a deliberate attempt to injure, too many to count.

- In 1920, Ray Chapman dies twelve hours after being beaned.

- Batting helmets are now mandatory.

Item Figure Skating

- Tonya and Nancy. Enough has been said.

Items Hockey

- Steve Moore is beaten up so badly he never plays again.

- Dan Sanderson loses his helmet in a fight, hits his head on the ice and dies.

- Stick swinging incidents, too many to count.

- Fans openly enjoying hockey fights more than the game, too many to count.

- Parents getting into fights at their children’s games, too many to count.

- Parents openly urging their children to injure other players, too many to count.

Item Cheerleading

- A mother is convicted of plotting the death of her daughter’s rival mother. Two tv movies are made about it.

In my own case, there have been too many times (especially during football and hockey games) where I have yelled at my television, "get him", letting my frustration get the better of me.

I have forgotten that the opponent I want to see got is only a human being like myself. I have seen my friends chant "injury, injury" as a way of compensation when my team has got so far ahead that their defeat is inevitable.

So what are these things? Isolated incidents of straying from sportsmanship? Emotions getting the better of us? People with "evil personalities" like bullies? Power and money driven instincts? People living their lives through sports? Revenge retaliation? "Unspoken rules" of a game?

Science and psychology have an answer.

In 1954, a social psychology experiment that would be known as the "Robbers Cave", (after the place where it took place) was conducted. The aim was to create hatred between two groups and then reconcile them.

To prevent any factor of prejudice from contaminating the experiment, only white, emotionally stable, middle-class, Anglo Saxon, Protestant boys, aged 11-12 were selected for the two groups.

The experiment was conducted in a summer camp setting.

In the first part of the experiment, the two groups were kept isolated from each other so that group norms and a collective spirit could develop.

In the second phase, the two groups were brought together in competitive contact situations where the winner took all. In this situation, one group could only achieve its goals at the expense of the other. Games like baseball, football, treasure hunt, and tug-of-war led to increased tensions between the two groups.

Hostility began to increase. There was name-calling, scuffles, and cabin raids.

Interestingly, there were also psychological changes within each group as well. Group solidarity and cooperation increased against a common enemy. Bullies within the groups became heroes when they turned their aggression against an external foe.

Group members became less tolerant of others who failed to keep up to group standards. Luke-warm and poorly competitive leaders were deposed. When hostility was at its peak, the last phase of the experiment began which was to try to reconcile the two groups.

Before placing the campers in the situations which would lead to reconciliation, the psychologists deliberately placed them in ones where reconciliation would fail. These included dinners, movies, and similar neutral gatherings.

The situations which brought about reconciliation were ones

in which the groups had to work in cooperation to achieve shared goals.

For example, the psychologists deliberately disabled a truck that was to bring both groups their lunch. The two groups had to push and pull it together in order to get it running again.

Other similar emergencies were contrived. By the end of the experiment both groups had developed friendships with members of the other group. They rode home together on the same bus.

This brings us back to the incidents listed above. Like it or not, the ugly truth about sports is that these are situations in which a goal is achieved at somebody else’s expense.

Men and women seem to have a craving or curiosity to set up situations in which a hierarchy is created based on competition. Even intangibles like beauty are measured.

So everybody on this blog whether we want to admit it or not likes situations where hatred can be created. And while we might deplore situations that deviate from "sportsmanship," the very nature of sports with its competitiveness will breed degrees of hostility.

And it is made amply clear by the incidents listed above that there are no limits. We are willing to kill and injure in order to achieve our goals. Maybe we should change the nature of sports. Invent ones where cooperation instead of competition is stressed.

The least we could do is develop more productive competitions. Give awards for how many diseases we cure, how many people we help, how many poor people we raise, how much money we give to help others, how many people’s lives we turn around.

Put our competitive instincts to good use. It would beat kicking a ball around.