When I was a kid, I was told that sportsmanship was something that was built into sports; athletes would compete the duration of the game, and then respect each other when it was complete. However, in recent years sportsmanship has lost its meaning and has swayed in a direction that has allowed uncourteous behavior to take over.
The recent uprising of flag-planting on football fields after games has taken over the sporting world as a form of celebration for winning teams. I believe that teams should be allowed to celebrate as much as they like after a win so long as they don’t do anything to disrespect an opponent.
A fight that occurred the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a prime example. The Michigan Wolverines won on Ohio State’s home turf and planted their flag on the “O” on the 50-yard line. This provoked the Ohio State players to snatch the flag and, as a result, a giant fight ensued.
This fight, among others, has led me to start thinking about how teams react to wins and loses, and how these athletes believe that what they’re doing is right. This can be true in certain circumstances— where a winning team is being disrespectful so the losing team stands their ground— but this is something that should never happen in the first place if people have good sportsmanship.
Being a gracious winner is something I was taught since I was very young, and I’ve tried to stay true to that during my athletic career, no matter what sport I’m playing. Being a gracious loser is also something that I was taught ever since I started playing sports. If another team is celebrating after a win on their own, and seeing them celebrate is upsetting, that is totally within reason. But, it becomes something out of reason when a team is celebrating separately with their own team and someone decides to start a fight simply because they lost.
I’m in no way saying that you should not be as competitive as possible while the game is going on, because you should. Athletes should compete as hard as they can and trash talk as much as they want for the duration of the game but, once that game ends, you should act graciously in victory or defeat.
Sportsmanship needs to go back to the way it used to be, where people would fight their hearts out during the game, and then respect each other after the buzzer sounded. The current state of sportsmanship needs to be turned around so that there can be respect in sports again.
Jason Kowalski • Dec 13, 2024 at 11:26 am
It seems like there is this trend that, as time goes on, people lose sight of the wide range between “friendly stranger” and “enemy who I must violently oppose the very existence of”.
First it was political radicalisation, which in itself started with using “compromise” as a name for boiling-frog tactics, followed less than two decades later by conspiracy theories and insult-slinging. Riots, death threats, and professional ethics violations became “acceptable” practice, in the eyes of both sides, long before the 2022 midterms.
Then, it became sending death threats over petty internet drama and art. Then, it became the commission of assault and battery in pursuit of the TikTok algorithm. Then, it became the use of terroristic hoaxes to make life hell for students and officers. Now, we live in an era where something as mild as refusing to drive your daughter somewhere could persuade her to murder you.
It’s clear that Sportsmanship is yet another victim of this destruction of respect and morality. Society is telling many of us to throw hands, not to shake them. I hope that we learn to ignore the social demand for bloodlust, allowing us to remain confident in our commitment to ethical and rational behavior