Essay On America: A Country That Loves Not Lives Sports

The article “Sports-Crazy America” by John Langan puts across very important and significant points about the fondness and prevalence of sports as a culture in America and its society. The core point of the article states, “America is a country where people love sports and devote a significant part of their lives to it.” He proposes several points to validate and discuss his claims right from the popularity of one or more sports among the school and college going students, high TRP of sports related shows on television to the praises and awards that US bestows upon its sportspersons and athletes. The author establishes his point when he says, “Almost all Americans are involved with sports in some way.”
First and foremost, the author uses the wide coverage of athletic and sports related events on television as a basis to gauge the craziness that America and Americans share for sports. The obsession of media and television shows with media is a direct attribution of America’s love for sports and its athletes. A considerable airtime of some of the most famous news channels is devoted to American sports events and the coverage of these events runs across all major forms of medias including radio, newspaper and magazines.
The way American kids are brought also signifies and depicts the interest in sports that Americans exude. American parents often expose their children to sports by making sure they get best of coaching right from the very small age. Often sports outshine academics in the schools and the students who perform better in sports are considered superior to the ones who are good academically. The author appropriate highlights the weightage and importance given to sports in American universities and schools when he mentions, “The United States may be the only country in the world where people often think of their colleges as teams first and schools second”.
The respect and prestige given to Athletes is America also reinforces author’s claim that America’s craziness for sports is indeed huge. Apart from huge salaries, athletes are showered with many additional gifts and benefits when they return victorious. While kids look up to them as their heroes and idols, adults admire and commend them and consider them good leaders. The commercials with sports star in America do much better than other commercials and more than often lead to significant rise in the sale of the product being advertised.
America’s love for sports is hardly substantiated by the fact that it has one of the most unfit and fat youth populations in the world. America has consistently been placed in the list of top 10 fattest nations for many years in succession now, a shameful feat that in itself shows the lack of interest in American kids and parents towards sports. Apart of this the problem of depression has increased considerably in the country’s teen population and has often been attributed to lack of physical activities and sports by the medical experts. The health issues faced by Americans completely outweigh the author’s claim that American’s are crazy for sports.
Only a fraction of Athletes in America are paid well. Many of the Olympic athletes who represent the country are poor, with some even below poverty line. Many of these medal-winning stars are given no financial aid. Indeed it has come to light that unlike many other nations in the world, American athletes receive no direct support, including the monetary part, from the federal government. The Olympic committee spends most of its budget on limited number of athletes. Though some athletes are treated well, but in a true sports loving nation these has to be no space for disparities.
American kids prefer indoor games like video games to outdoor sports. There is no denying the fact that American youth is addicted to video games and this addiction has worsened off late. According to a recent survey, almost 97 percent of children play video games. If this doesn’t sound too bad, the average time spent by per person per year in America has skyrocketed over the years and the menace (since this leads to many issues like Obesity, desensitization) has increased significantly. This again punctures the author’s claim that Americans are crazy for sports.
Though John Langan tries to prove that, “Americans love sports and consider it a part of their lives” he miserably fails to look at the flip side of the argument. Though Americans might love to watch sports or to treat a handful of their athletes well, they hardly treat sports a part of their lives. Looking at the points like Obesity, bad treatments to majority of athletes and addiction to video games exposes us to a bitter truth and busts our faith in America as a sports crazy nation. Inclusion of these ideas in the main discussion can help us figure out the reason behind America’s recognition as an unfit nation and the reluctance of its youth to get into it. It would be correct to conclude by saying that though America is a sports loving nation, it hardly is a sports living nation.