I would argue that the week of June 11 was the greatest week of the entire year for men's sports. Can't beat it; none better. The greatest athletes in the world were involved — Shaq, Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitski, Rolando and Rinhaldo, Ernie Els, VJ Singh, Tiger and Phil, David Beckham; old pro's like Colin Montgomerie and young rising stars like Wayne Rooney.
On Sunday, the final of the French Open tennis tournament was played. The top two players in the world, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were the contestants. At stake was a “grand slam” (all four “major” titles) for Federer, while Nadal sought to defend his championship from 2005. The match, in fact, turned out to be a “classic,” won by Nadal in 4 sets, continuing Nadal's strange mastery of Federer, whom no other tennis player can defeat.
Last week also saw the beginning of the US Open golf tournament. This is the most difficult of the 4 golf “majors” — the US Gold Association always makes sure that the fairway “rough” is many, many inches deep, and that the putting greens are slick and fast. Golfers who regularly break par in each round will be very lucky to shoot par for the tournament.
Professional hockey also entered its final week of the season. The championship round pitted the Carolina Hurricanes against the Edmonton Oilers, an upstart team (from the American South, no less) versus an established power. They are playing for the Stanley Cup, and it is a best–of-seven game series, ensuring a drama played out over many days.
Likewise, the National Basketball Association played its best-of-seven championship series this week. Again there's drama galore: the upstart Dallas Mavericks versus the Miami Heat led by the greatest center of this generation, Shaquille O'Neal.
So, golf, tennis, basketball and hockey are all playing for championships. And add to that the topper — last week began the World Cup.
For many Americans, soccer is a little-appreciated game. But for the rest of the world, it is the most important sporting event of all. Its importance is intensified by the fact that it is played once every four years. And it is heightened by the fact that the whole world competes — any nation can win, and every country's national pride is on display. The feelings are so intense (as you can see from interviews with any nation's fans) that it is just short of, and truly a substitute for, war! However violent it seems, it's better for Brazil and Argentina, or Poland and Germany, or Korea and China, to settle their rivalries on the “football” field than with live ammunition.
What a feast for a sports fan like me this past week was! But doubts assail me. This isn't important. It isn't about serious matters. It's “mere” sports. It's a “juvenile” interest. Watching any (much less, all) of these events (even reading about them) is “a waste of time.”
I have considered and rejected those nay-sayers. A serious problem with Washington, DC is that it's a one-industry town — politics. Everything revolves around that, and however “important” it all is, a single-minded fascination with national politics is boring. That's why the rest of the nation laughs at us — on late-night TV, with David or Jay — for being “inside the beltway” boors.
And to some extent, they are right. Summertime is a time of rest and peace, of fond memories of days gone by, of friends and family lost or won. “The days of summer,” at least for a guy, are the days of sports, of outdoor activity, of “fun in the sun.” It's not time to be spent in the library!
Of course, professional sports may not be your cup of tea. And I hope you play some of the sports you enjoy watching. But I also hope there is a bit of the little boy in you still. A bit of that child-like ability to go outside of yourself and your problems and worries, and enjoy healthy competition and the achievements of great athletes. I'll grant you that they all make too much money, and I'll even grant you that some fans are really fanatics, whose fanaticism is unhealthy. But I hope you'll grant me (and yourself) that it is by going outside ourselves, in life's simple joys, that we find peace and where we touch some portion of the joyous life that will be ours (we pray) in eternity.
Bill Saunders is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Life & Bioethics. The views expressed are his and are not meant to represent official institutional views of FRC.
