Golf: Playing on -- The meaning of sports

By Vincent Musco Sports Central Columnist

Someday, if you are lucky, someone close to you will ask you the following question:

What is the meaning of sports?

They are not looking for an answer that tells them that NFL players compete for the Super Bowl, NHL players for the Stanley Cup, and triathletes for the Iron Man. They also are not looking for an answer involving slugging percentage, powerplay goals, or third-place finishes. Give this person close to you some credit.

This is someone who has seen sport for what it really is: an opiate of the masses. Something that co-workers talk about with more fervor than their own business. Something that generates billions of dollars in revenue and advertising each year without fail. Something that stirs an entire nation to sit for hours in front of their television screens ignoring all reality until the contest is over, or worse yet, to spend sometimes outrageous amounts of money to see the spectacle first-hand.

And I say you'll be lucky because you will now be able to answer that person -- a person of knowledge, maturity, and enough wisdom to know that sports can, and has, been corrupted here and there (see the XFL) -- correctly and succinctly. Because next week's Ryder Cup will, no doubt, fulfill everything that sport is meant to be.

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Think back to 1972. Munich. Eleven Israeli Olympic athletes taken hostage, murdered. Terrorists to blame. Games suspended for a day of mourning. After debate as to the appropriateness of sport at such a time, Games continue.

Sound familiar yet?

The Olympic Committee knew that there needed to be a day of mourning. 3,000 athletes and 80,000 spectators, not to mention the millions of people watching on television, gathered in memory of the slain victims. Hardly a dry eye existed in Munich that day. If the uniting spirit of the Olympic Games was not enough to create a feeling of brotherhood amongst the athletes and nations alike, surely this was.

Many feared the Games would not go on. Others insisted they should not, since this was no time for sports. But, the Olympic Committee disagreed. Stopping the Games would be a concession to the terrorists, a submission to their blackmail. So, with a steel reserve, the athletes, spectators, and fans around the world, along with the Games, went on.

Sound familiar now?

Unfortunately, it does. 2001. New York, Washington, D.C. Two commercial airplanes deliberately piloted into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. A third strikes the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth, on a course for possibly the White House, goes down in rural Pennsylvania. Terrorists to blame. The 2001 Ryder Cup matches, along with every other major U.S. sport, suspended indefinitely.

And so our debate as to the appropriateness of sports began. Like Munich, we needed time to mourn. Like Munich, we had no precedent timetable that would allow us to know when sport should resume. If September 11 had mirrored Munich in scope, we would know that a day or two of mourning would be appropriate before sport should go on.

But, this was not Munich. This was much, much worse. This was the loss of thousands of civilians. This was an attack on our mainland. On our greatest symbols of financial and military strength. This, for all Americans, was an attack on our very freedoms that we so heedlessly take for granted. This was not Munich.

There was no precedent, no predetermined, tried-and-true timetable for us to use. We had to make our own.

We did, and sport did eventually continue, from baseball to football to golf. And the Ryder Cup matches were re-scheduled for 2002.

Now, on the anniversary of an event that burns as vivid in our collective unconscious today as it did on the day of the attacks, the Ryder Cup is set to begin at The Belfy in England. Enter the meaning of sports. Sports to the rescue.

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The 2002 Ryder Cup will cap off a year of special moments, tributes, and memorials displayed in sports arenas, baseball diamonds, and tennis courts since sports re-started after September 11. America, back on its feet, will send its best golfers to Europe to battle for the most coveted team prize in golf.

The nation, meanwhile, will stand in unison, like we do for the Olympics, or the Super Bowl, or the World Series, and watch our best compete. Why is the Ryder Cup special? Because there is no money on the line. Right on the heels of the near labor catastrophe in baseball, the American Ryder Cup squad features millionaires, thousands of miles from their homes and competing for nothing other than pride and an irrelevant trophy, playing golf with the passion and emotion of an extroverted teenager.

And what about the event itself? A year ago, many U.S. players expressed a deep fear of even participating because of it being a high-profile event, making it prone to terrorist attacks. Many players feared the flight overseas. But it was not just the players. We all felt apprehension to fly again or enter a high-rise building out of fear of what could happen.

But now, as a nation, we are rebounding from that fear. The Ryder Cup is a symbol of that rebound. We've dusted ourselves off, shaken away any lingering irrational fears, and we are ready to play. But we are not just jumping back into the game foolishly. We have increased security measures in hopes that if sport were to be a target of terrorism, we'd stop it before it happened. So we'll play the Ryder Cup with one eye on the prize and the other on any would-be threats to safety. Similarly, we spectators will not watch it with the same attitude we had on September 10, 2001. We will bring our new wisdom and reserve to this Ryder Cup, and appreciate it all the more. And on Sunday, when the trophy is presented, the winning team can wear broad smiles underneath the plumes of champagne as the winners of the matches, and we will smile with them because we will have conquered our fear.

Because after all, what is sports but a panacea for our ailments? Some would say sport is a distraction from our everyday lives. That could not be further from the truth. Defining it as a distraction implies that sport inhibits our lives, keeping us from what is truly important in each of our own realities. But that's just not true. Sports is instead a respite, a type of entertainment that keeps score and has consequence so long as you believe in it. It is a cultural therapy in which we can combine physical relaxation with inspirational storylines and electrifying performances.

So look forward to that day when that wise, curious soul employs you to explain the deepest meaning of sports. Tell them about Munich. Tell them about September 11. Tell them how sports helped us, soothed us, nursed us back to health in a stronger, wiser form. And be sure to tell them that in no way should sport be considered a frivolous distraction that is better off abolished, especially in times of our greatest crises.

For after all, it is in those times when we need sports most.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.