Do People Play Sports for the Right Reasons?

Terrell Owens a professional
football player 

Athletics are everywhere from the time your born to the time you die.  Whether you choose in between sports or if you even take the chance to participate in a sport is yours and only your choice.  

Growing up into sports I've learned of good reasons to do sports and I've learned of bad reasons to do sports.  

Good reasons to do sports can be to connect with friends, become more physically fit, express emotions, etc.  The reason these are all good reasons is because you believe they are.  These reasons help make different sports what they are today.

Ray Allen playing for his most current
team the Boston Celtics

For example, in the eyes of many pro athletes today is passion.  This passion is exhibited through their dedication of the game, through their countless hours practicing, extra reps in the gym and pain endured.  If a player shows passion, they have the chance to become stars.  Michael Jordan didn't become a good basketball by watching T.V everyday after all, he took the time to perfect his shot.  One great example of a current basketball is Ray Allen.  Hes spent so many hours in the gym shooting and perfecting his three pointers he has a lot to show for it.  Hes been the NBA All Stars 3 Point Champion, broken many franchise three pointer records on every team hes been on, Ranked second all time in three points behind Reggie Miller, and the list goes on.      

With the good reasons to do a sport come bad reasons.  From my experience I've seen parents push their children into sports.  My friend was bribed into playing basketball which resulted in hatred towards the game.  Whenever we would say we were playing basketball  for fun he would claim he was busy with other tasks.  

Another bad reason to do a sport is to simply live on the hype associated with it.  For example football players are stereotyped in many ways.  One popular stereo type is football players get all the girls and are the strongest.  If someone were to join their high school team, they would want these stereotypes to follow them.  In my past however, I've grown to learn that it doesn't particularly matter which sport you play, everyone has an equal chance to get whatever girl they like.  

The reason each of these examples is negative is because it shows that you don't exhibit what I called earlier passion.  Your doing it to please or benefit yourself in a bad way.  

People need to open their eyes and do what they feel is best for them.  Not only does it affect your attitude but it affects the attitude of an entire team.  So wake up and smell the coffee and simply do you.    

By: Dennis Wolf