Beyond Sport

No, I did not make NFL picks this week. Rather than watching NFL all day, I saw Blind Side with my mom. Blind Side is a movie about the true story of Baltimore Ravens left tackle Michael Oher. SPOILER ALERT! If you do not know the story and want to see it all for the first time in theaters this is not the blog for you.

Blind Side is everything that is great about sports. Entered into Catholic school by a friend's father, the parentless Michael is eventually kicked out of his friend's house when times get hard enough for their own family. Left with nowhere to go Michael lives homeless, lost in a world who only sees him as Big Mike. Eventually Michael is taken in by a family with both the resources and hearts to care for him. For the first time Michael learns about family and trust. When given something of his own Michael will fearlessly protect it. Michael eventually becomes a football stud after never having played organized ball before. He gets a full ride to Ole Miss where he becomes an All-American and becomes a first-round NFL draft pick. Obviously that is not a complete synopsis but it'll do.

What I love about sports is the equality it offers. If you're good, you'll play. People will want to help you. Sports are pure in a largely impure world. What makes Big Mike stand out and be ostracized day-to-day makes him fit in and become a hero on the field. Playing soccer at U of I, I play in a lot of pickup games. I have played with people from Brazil, Belize, Taiwan, China, Japan, Mexico amongst other countries. The game is its own language on the field. I remember playing with a Bosnian trio of kids when I was about 13. After the first day of practice my dad/coach and I talked about the one who played forward. He was a bull on the ball and finished very well. A natural provider on the field, I knew I had to develop a relationship with him. While his English wasn't great and his circumstance was quite different than mine we played extremely well together the next two years. It wasn't Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, but we had some good nonverbal communication in games. Trust me, we scored a lot of goals together. And that's what makes sports so beautiful. Whether it's Texas Western winning a National Championship in basketball with the first all black starting five or Jesse Owens showing where Hitler can shove his Aryan supremacy dogma, sport is blind to what people all too often see. What makes Blind Side so great is the fact that it shows how we can incorporate that purity into our daily lives.

TBG