How many times have you tuned in to ESPN or some other sports network only to find some pseudo sport you didn’t expect to see? If you’re like me, you probably scratched your head and asked, “Why is this being covered on ESPN? What makes this a sport?”
Apparently, the sports writers at the Winnipeg Sun noticed what I did and came up with a list of their top 10 bogus sports. After reading their list, I felt inspired to create my own. These are not in any particular order. Feel free to agree or disagree.
Poker
Spelling bee
Food eating contests
Scrabble/chess/board games
Billiards
Dog sledding
Fishing
Paintball
Tractor pull
Auto racing
I think there’s an important distinction to be made here between sport and competition. What many of us refer to as sport is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “any activity done for enjoyment or pleasure, or an athletic game.” Under the first definition, you’d have to consider sex as a sport, wouldn’t you?
Competition, however, implies a contest where someone wins. It’s not necessarily an athletic activity either, such as a spelling bee. ESPN’s programming emphasizes competition, not sport per se. Perhaps they should change their tag line to read, “The Wide World of Competition?”
3 comments:
I disagree with your inclusion of dogsledding.. especially with an uncle who's done the Iditarod...
as for dissin' ESPN -- lots of more important reasons to do that :-) But in this case, remember that ESPN -- starts with Entertainment..
Yup...what anonymous said - Entertainment and Sports Programming Network - first word is entertainment. However, I just don't see how watching people play cards is entertaining.
During that downtime between sports that I would watch, I would rather be catching rugby, soccer or Australian football as opposed to cards and spelling bees. The flip-side is that I like being able to show my daughter that having a brain to use is important as well (the spelling bees).
Just my two cents.
Thank you both for your two cents.
BTW, anonymous, I don't actually hate ESPN (or dog sledding) but I do think it is becoming quite a monopoly of sports programming to the point that some of its broadcasts tend to suffer. The network is trying to be all things to all people.
You both brought up the issue of entertainment. ESPN might mean Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, but it's the games that provide the entertainment, not the network. You take away the broadcast teams, and the games would still be entertaining.
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