“Nothing more important than a bet ever depends on the outcome of a game.”
That would put the whole thing in its proper perspective, while properly draining life out of the whole national-prestige thing that comes with international athletic competitions.
Athletic competitions should be contests between the athletes – and that is all. Not, contests between the nations or communities or schools they purportedly represent. Look at American professional sports – how many players are even natives of the cities they play for?! And how many college athletes would even be students of that college if they were not athletes?!
Y’know, in the original Olympic Games, while the athletes certainly took pride in playing for their cities, they did not compete AS city athletes or teams. An Athenian might enter a given event against an Athenian, a Spartan against a Spartan.
People’s careers may depend on the outcome of a game. I think they’d consider that more important than the average bet. If you want to change that put your sign over the entrance to the board room.
When Marv Levy was coaching the Buffalo Bills, he was once asked whether a big game was a “must-win” situation. “This is not a must-win,” Levy famously replied. “World War II was a must-win.”
Some perspective about the value to a society of our ‘entertainers’ wouldn’t be a bad thing. During the COVID lockdowns, some memes arose about what’s truly ‘essential,’ but … people being people … we’ll be back to normal before too awfully long.
Lots of things more important than someone else’s bet depend on the outcome of a game. I was offered multiple full ride scholarships to college based on the outcome of my high schools games and teammate in college were paid huge sums of money to even make the practice squad in the pros. Coaches or pro athletes have their careers decided by wins and losses.
Now that athletes can even in college can be paid endorsers they can make a lot of money by being a winner. And even in high school girls are much more likely to sleep with winners than loosers. On a personal level even when I was playing rec league rugby after college how I felt after a win vs a loss was much more important than someone making money.
Betting may be amongst the least important parts of a win.
I think the OP is hearkening back to a day, possibly mythical, when sportsmanship was more important than winning, and when money didn’t rule every aspect of sports competitions down to high school and even further. Hopeless, of course.
I agree with this. If we are going to have things like Olympic Games or World Cups, they should not be run on nation-against-nation lines. Teams should be assigned randomly.
Many people have a tribalistic need for an ‘us VS them’ aspect to their life. Fan is short for Fanatic after all. Also, the need to see and perhaps participate in physical aggression.
“Real Sports”, what I consider the greatest sports related show ever produced, had a special on the usury and misery behind the glamor of being an Olympic athlete. VERY few carry their fleeting fame into their post Olympic years. There is a lot of depression about having given up their youth to concentrate on a single purpose with very little return or appreciation. There is a lot of poverty as a result. Their suicide rate is significantly higher than the norm.
This. Plus, if teams don’t have supporters, they don’t have any money. Representing a school/town/city or country gives you a ready-made set of supporters.
Now lets say you have a baseball team of 11 year olds thats playing in a league where they just stomp and mercy rule all the other teams. They get high on themselves thinking they are the best. THEN, they go play in some bigger tournament with better teams and THEY get stomped. Well partly its because they havent had to play hard.
