Shaken Brain by Elizabeth Sandel

Author:Elizabeth Sandel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard University Press

What Now?

When Carla and Tom professed their love of sport, they never mentioned money or politics. They talked about the sheer joy of teamwork and physical and mental exertion for a common goal, underscoring the benefits of striving to perform at their personal best by summoning the physical and mental energy at practice, again and again—a process of honing skills and focus that can lead to exhilarating success. Their parents wanted them to participate for “character building”—to develop resiliency, self-discipline, and the grit to get up and try again after being knocked down. These young athletes found the virtue of sport obvious. For example, conversations with her mother had taught Carla that Title IX provided her with opportunities that her mother, a field-hockey goalie, never dreamed of. Tom had a hunch that corporations he might want to work for would rate his football past as a factor as important as his grade point average. Carla and Tom also avidly followed their sports as spectators and deeply admired the individual professional athletes who served as their role models.

Many Americans gather to cheer on their high school football teams on Friday nights—there are towns in Texas where local football verges on a religion, and there are towns in Indiana where the same is true for basketball. In small communities, friendships and business alliances form around what serves, despite intense rivalries, as a relatively nonpolarizing activity, enabling neighbors to socialize comfortably, especially when other issues such as politics and culture have become more and more partisan. Tailgating parties and sports bars can even bring the fans of opposing teams together, at least some of the time.

Sports spectator fervor cements our collective admiration for the finest athletes, past and present, who represent the physical, mental, and moral capacities we all aspire to—agility, endurance, fortitude, focus, commitment, perseverance, loyalty, camaraderie, and community. We place high expectations on athletes as modern heroes. Role models in other sectors of public and political life often fall short of our ideals. When sports heroes falter, fall, or fail to represent the best capacities of human beings, we may forgive them more easily—even gods can turn out to have clay feet. Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and co-winner (with F. W. de Klerk) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, said this about sports: “Sports have the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope, where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”

After extolling the virtues of sports, however, we must face the fact that there are injuries resulting from sports. Concussions represent a public health concern, especially repeat concussions. The health risks associated with collision sports for players subjected to multiple hits are quite high. Young athletes playing a collision sport may incur hundreds and thousands of hits without an actual concussion diagnosis.

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