Archive Columns:Society and Politics

On Sportsmanship

    Upon reflection, the term "professional sports" is contradictory, since a sport, by definition, is done for pleasure, whereas a professional sport is done for money. The professional athlete is thus not a sportsman, strictly speaking. A hairsplitting distinction, it might nonetheless help explain, amidst the rise of professional sports, the near disappearance of sportsmanship, an ideal of respect manifested in the ability to lose gracefully and win modestly.

    Winning modestly has been supplanted by macho gloating of which the prototypical gesture is the fist pump. This display of self-congratulation has spread from professionals to young amateurs, and is invoked not only at final victories but at the slightest advantage. Boys and girls who were once taught that it is the job of tackles to tackle and shooters to shoot baskets, now believe it is also an occasion for self-exultation, an opportunity to underscore one's superiority and to lead the slower kind of spectator in a little service of worship.

    Betraying self-absorption and insecurity, the fist pump and its many variations run contrary to the old idea of sportsmanship in which fine play spoke for itself; spoke for itself even more loudly when appearing to be effortlessly achieved; spoke more loudly still when the victor chose to recount his opponent's qualities rather than his own. This manner may be psychologically shrewd and privately no less egotistical, but it makes for a vastly more civilized society.

    I was reminded of both the new bullying style and the older sportsmanship model while watching bits of the U.S. Tennis Open. Played one-on-one at close range, without the support of coaches or teammates, with spectators close in and fallible line judges all around, tennis puts individual character very nakedly on display. This quality magnified the benefit of sportsmanship in the older game, as it now magnifies its absence in the professional one.

    In his history of tennis, Sporting Gentlemen, Digby Baltzell, bemoaned the demise of sportsmanship, but nothing illustrated it more forcefully than a historic Jimmy Connors match, re-run during an Open rain delay. The tennis was beautiful - this is the good part of making sports professional, technique improves rapidly - but Connors' horrifically brutish tantrums, astoundingly tolerated, turned it into an ugly wash. This legacy lives on. Even Pete Sampras, widely regarded as an old school sportsman, routinely pumps his fist and is now flirting with self-praise. Sampras smugly conveyed that his Open playing was awesome; it was Agassi, the former bad boy who salvaged graciousness, praising the victor, the fans and New York.

    An even brighter throw-back shone through earlier though when, in a tough match against Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake tapped his racquet against his hand to applaud Hewitt's winners. At net after losing, he apologized to Hewitt for the crowd's boorishness when it cheered on unforced errors, and then later thanked the fans, said how thrilled he was to play, and what a good match it was.

    Maybe sportsmanship can never work in professional sports, but it would be worth trying for the sake of our children's formation. It would be inspiring if after Connors/McEnroe the pendulum could swing back, in all sports, to the example of Laver and Ashe. Maybe this classy James Blake can bring back sportsmanship, where victory is not won, nor defeat suffered, at the expense of character.

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