I'm going to start this entry out by saying that I am a sports fan. I plan on working in sports PR but lately I have a new perspective.
While watching the KU vs. K-state game this week I couldn't help but think this is just a game. Watching all of the the K-state fans pile out onto the court made me woder why they were all excited about one game. I understand the steak but still it really was only one game and KU could have easily won it instead.
This type of celebration should be save for winning championships. I'm not being a bitter KU fan either. I look at this as one game and it won't keep KU from winning the championship. It was probably good for the team to experience loss.
My point is with everything going on in people's personal lives and this country shouldn't we find something bigger to be excited about than one basketball game.
I understand this is American culture but it makes me wonder why people our age would rather focus all their attention on a basketball game instead of making this country better. I also wonder why the youth of America started focusing on sports and stopped focusing on trying to make change happen. In the past young people were always standing up and making change happen. They would protest the Vietnam war, civil rights, and women's rights. Now the youth is more likely to protest if there is a bad call that changes the outcome of a game. In the last fifty years there has been a change in the youth and my perspective is that it has not been a good one.
I agree that there are many more issues that students should care more about than just a basketball game, but at the same time this goes beyond just another basketball game. This year, K-State got Beasley and revenge was in order. I am a K-State fan that attends KU, and although I'm a huge KU fan, it'd deeper than that. I was raised KSU, my blood runs purple, it just so happens that KU has a much better journalism school. But when KU plays K-State, there is no way that I will ever want KSU to lose. KSU is a tradition where i'm from. You learn to love and respect and become a part of being a wildcat and that love and respect runs deep when you come up against a team that you haven't beat in what? 24 years? I agree that there are much bigger issues than a basketball game, but when you get down to it, this basketball game runs pretty deep too. It is a tradition for KU to beat KSU, but not anymore. The KSU basketball players have represented not only themselves and their program but their students as well. And that pride and gratitude is what causes all those fans, whose blood runs purple, to rush that court.
We actually talked about this a little in my Sociology class the other day. "Youth" used to be completely different from the definition we see today. Children were forced to focus on more important things to their families than their own lives, like bringing in an income, or raising a younger sibling or their own child. They had to mature a lot faster. Nowadays, youth enjoy more leisurely activities, such as watching sports. While most people do consider this a leisurely activity, some people take stronger hold of their time to be leisurely and envelope themselves in it. For some people, sports may be an escape from their personal lives and what has been going on in the bigger world. Yes, the KU/K-State game was just one game, but people will go back to their routines after the game is over, whether they won or lost. So why not celebrate a big game?