As someone surrounded by artistic types, I frequently have to defend my love and passion for sports. And in defending my love for sports I often find myself trying to explain why they are important and why they matters. And sure there are plenty of reasons, both big and small why I’m a sports fan and why I think following sports is a legitimately good and worthwhile way to spend ones time, but one of the best arguments I can make was illustrated today by Tom Watson’s loss at the British Open.
For those who don’t know, The British Open is one of golf’s four major championships – like the Super Bowl, only there happened to be four each year. The legacy of a golfer is defined by how he plays in the majors. And major championships are events that are watched by the whole world. Well heading into the final hole of the British Open today an American named Tom Watson was in the lead. This might not seem significant until I mention the fact that Tom Watson is 59 years old. Yes, that’s right, 59. Many of his competitors hadn’t even been born yet when he won his first British Open. He had been a great player in his day, but he had been forgotten about, written off, and basically left for dead. And in a sports world where 40 is considered ancient, 59 is practically corpse-like. If he were to win this tournament he would become the oldest champion in any sport in American sports history by over 12 years. It would be almost beyond historic. Words really can’t do it justice.
So as Tom Watson strolled up the fairway of his final hole to thunderous applause it was one of the most beautiful and moving moments Id ever seen on a TV screen. I saw all the old men in the crowd, who seemed so hopeful and full of life and suddenly not so old after all. I thought of my Dad at home with his bad knees and bad back and chronically sore feet watching this man only a few months younger than himself about to win one of the toughest and most fiercely competitive sporting events in the world. I watched in awe as Tom Watson made his way to his ball, and as the power and beauty of the moment began to engulf me, my eyes started to well up with tears. All he had to do was make this simple 8-foot putt and the championship would be his. History would be made. It would be a moment I would one day tell my kids about.
And then he missed the putt. And he missed it badly.
And that’s why I love sports.
We spend so much of our free time consuming scripted entertainments of all types- movies, TV shows, plays, etc. – and yet no one ever really questions the validity of these “arts”. Their value seems clear – they provide entertainment and hopefully say something about life and the human condition. But when I was waiting for Tom Watson to make his putt today I was pacing around the room, palms sweaty, heart beating out of my chest and I couldn’t remember the last thing I watched that entertained and engaged me on such a strongly visceral level – well besides other sporting events. And more crucially, in almost any movie he makes that putt. But he didn’t. Because that’s how sports work. Sometimes the good guys lose. Sometimes the bad guys win. Sometimes beautiful moments fall apart in an instant and in other moments the mundane becomes sublime. Sports are often boring and almost always disappointing in the end. But then sometimes things happen that are so wonderful and incredible that they would be impossible to make up no matter how hard you tried. And there’s often no rhyme or reason for any it. All this sound like anything you know? It should, because its life. Life as it actually is, and not life as scripted “art” would have it be. It’s the reality that reality TV can only hope to be. But it never can because anything that is in any way scripted or controlled will always have a level of remove from real life. Whenever you’re watching a movie you know in the back of your mind that no matter how bad things get the hero won’t die, the boy won’t lose the girl, the world won’t end. And even if those things do happen, it’s okay - it’s not real. You have the safety of artificiality to guard you.
But if you want to experience entertainment without that safety net, entertainment where there is real heartbreak and real disappointment, real joy and real ecstasy, well I've got something for you.
Its called sports.
And it’s awesome.
