It is very simple to try and act smart by saying “Sports is for idiots!”. I mean sure, the sport itself may be easy to understand and not have complicated rules on surface, but there are other things to consider. Things like what does a sport bring to the city, to the country and how do you measure the effect of sports to people who with sports have a way to let of steam? The more in depth issue directly about the sports are following how the team grows during the season, is there good chemistry, how different personalities and egos match and so on.

The intellectual characters in television series and movies often state that sports is dumb, and thus implying that they are smart by noticing that – when the rest of the “sheep” watch the ball go to the goal. There has been some changes (for the better) happening in this aspect, for example, in the hit television show “Mr. Robot”, the main character says the following: “I still don\’t understand why people like sports. They get emotional over the weirdest things. But I do see the beauty in the rules. The invisible code of chaos hiding behind the menacing face of order.”

In the quote the character is not saying that sports is stupid, but that people are strange to get all emotional about sports. And as the character points out, there are rules that the players need to follow. It’s like a play, where everyone knows their place and play their roles with emotions and actions – not to even mention the amount of money fans put on buying proper clothes or jerseys for the matches, or plays if you will.

Furthermore, the players are usually people with big personalities and become the objects of fandom. The players are the heroes of the play and the fans choose their favorite kind of play, favorite play and from there the favorite character. In the matches, usually there are period breaks which could be compared to the intermissions in plays at the theater. Obviously, if you go to the opera you can be served wine and cocktail snacks, but when you go to see a football match you are served beer and hotdogs. Is this one way to separate classes in the society?

The plays have topics from history with timeless meanings, for example love, war, politics, etc. And this more wider and broader issue is missing from the sports as a whole. Sure, there are teams and players who are considered legendary and venues that have a lot of history, but the issue remains: in sports things happen then and there, not how Romeo and Juliet can still be reletable for people of all ages.

The point of this text is to argue that sports are not as bad as they have been portrayed in popular culture. There are rules and roles, and that makes it more complicated than “just” throwing the ball to the basket.