Author worries sports becoming America's new religion

Author worries sports becoming America's new religion:

Sunday, February 05, 2006

By RAIN SMITH
Reporter

While absent public bathhouses, slave trade and emperors, you'll find one ancient Roman tradition thriving in modern America, especially on "Super Sunday" –– organized athletics.

But, according to a retired East Tennessee State University professor, Americans should re-evaluate how much stock is put in sports. If not, he says, the country risks paying the consequences.

"Think about the role of athletics in our society, and compare that to the role of athletics in other societies that aren't around anymore. There might be a reason for it," said Johnson City's Jack Higgs, 73. "I would invite comparison to the role of athletics in the British Empire, Nazi Germany, the fall of Rome, the fall of Greece, and on and on."

Higgs has an interesting analysis of how the pervasive influence of sports on our lives raises some serious questions.

(Of course, my views are skewed by the fact that the Broncos didn't make it in...)

I agree with Riggs in that sports, by itself, is not the problem. It is how we allow it to pervade our lives that we need to recognize and deal with.