Sports Role in post-9/11 Society
September 11, 2001 is a day that will remain forever embedded in the minds of all Americans as the day terrorism hit home and changed our lives forever. We all remember where we were, what we were doing and how we reacted. We also remember how we dealt with the tragedy.
Sports was one of the many coping devices Americans used to deal with the devastating attacks and, as a result, the deep social significance of sports in our culture was further revealed.
Our reading for this week discusses the coverage of sports in the print media, beginning with issues of sports journalism as a serious form of journalism. Wayne Wanta of the University of Missouri (Wanta 105) writes, “Newspaper editors often consider sports a necessary evil: Sports sections are among the most read, but sports are not viewed with the same respect as other newspaper staples, such as crime news, politics, and business. Add to this the impression held by many editors that sportswriters do not take themselves seriously and sometimes engage in ethically questionable practices, and it is no wonder that sports departments are often looked upon as the “toy department” of newsrooms.”
Although sports sections may have the knock of not being as “respectable” as hard news, 9/11 showed us that sports and society are tightly intertwined. Sports offered Americans a temporary escape from harsh reality of the attacks and a sense of return to “normal life” by taking in a game.
Flip Bondy, a contributing writer to MSNBC.com and a columnist for the New York Daily News summed up sports role in post-9/11 American society in his September 5 article "After 9/11, it was no longer 'just' sports “We could take the good from it, revel in the triumphs, forget any disappointment at our convenience. There were no real ramifications. It is why sports can bring us such comfort, when real life brings us such great pain. It is why they resumed the games in New York, after the planes hit.”
Baseball returned to New York on Sept. 21, 2001 with the Mets hosting the arch-rival Atlanta Braves. Mike Piazza, the heart and soul of the New York Mets, would provide fans with something to cheer about as he blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning that would prove to be the game winner.
"It is kind of an iconic moment," Piazza said as reported on www.mlb.com, "to say there's a beginning to the healing process, to try to get back to living our lives.” http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060906&content_id=1649210&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym
It was moments like this that were played out in stadiums all across the country that gave Americans a little relief from the heartache and a reason to join together and cheer. Sports gave Americans a temporary reprieve from the attacks and a chance to honor the men and women that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
On Monday as we take time remember and honor the men and women who lost their lives five years ago we can also stir up the memories and images that helped us deal with the tragedies.
One of mine is Piazza’s home run against the Braves on the night baseball returned to New York.
What’s yours?
6 comments:
For me September 11th reminds me of the US Open. I remember just days before the attacks cheering for the worlds best tennis players on my TV and days later the city that hosts one of the greatest tennis tourny's in the world was up in flames. I remember thinking a few days later, how will this city ever recover. How can we go to a yankee game and feel normal again, or when the US Open comes back will it be the same? I guess we learned like so many other countries that life moves on. And it really was amazing how quickly life went back into routine. It is weird but every year, Sept 11th almost goes to the back of my mind and it is a sporting event.....the US Open....that reminds me the anniversary is aproaching.
I can remember exactly where I was sitting and what I was doing at the times of the attacks five years ago. I was sitting in English class junior year of high school when my Principal came in to tell us the news. Throughout the day we watched it develop on the tv in the caf. Although I live in Mass and wasn't direclty impacted, a few of my classmates had family members that worked in or around the towers and my good friend's Uncle died at the Pentagon. I remember being sad and down all day but I was able to escape it through sports. That afternoon we had a home soccer game. It gave my teammates and I about 2 hours to forget about what was going on in the world and concentrate on something we loved to do. It also gave the fans something to get their minds off the events. I remember thinking that the crowd was pretty big that day and I think it's because everyone was looking for an outlet to let go of the day and focus on something that was fun. I definietly agree that sports played a major role in the 9/11 attacks, not just professional sports but local sports too.
I think 9/11 will be one of those days that everybody will remember where you were and exacty what you were doing. I was attending college in central Pennsylvania and I had plenty of calls on my cell phone asking me if I was anywhere near where Flight 93 came down. Fortunately, I was about 45 miles away, but it was scary nonetheless. I can remember getting home and just watching television...I'll never forget the type of fear I felt. It was something I had never experienced before and hopefully will never again.
As far as the sports memory... I'll never forget the first baseball game played in New York... what an amazing atmosphere. It's true that sports were a great distraction from what was happening in the world...I love how "God Bless America" was now seen during the game instead of performed during the commercial. Seeing our uniformed men and women sing this song has started a new tradition...and we haven't lost a beat.
Thank God for sports during that time (even though there was a slight interruption)... where else could we have found postive news?
I too was sitting in my junior year English class when my friend that sat behind me poked me and asked if I had heard the news. Being that I went to a Catholic school, the rest of the classes were cancelled and we all went to the auditorium to hold a prayer service. After reading this post, I thought about what my first sports memory from September 11th was and really one thing came to mind. I was babysitting my friend's little brother and we were watching WWF Smackdown the following Thursday. The show was usually taped Tuesday and aired on Thursdays, but due to the attacks they aired a live broadcast on Thursday the 13th. I just remember the ropes were red, white, and blue instead of the normal neon blue, and all of the wrestlers, announcers, refs, and any WWE officials all gathered around the ring and God Bless America was sung, and they had a moment of silence. Every other minute chants of "USA" broke out in the arena (different from the normal chants heard at those events), and no one really paid attention to the matches. The focus of the night was all the wrestlers prerecorded messages about their thoughts and their prayers to those they lost. The reason I remember this is because so many of them were breaking character (something Vince never allows) to talk about their feelings. Huge grown men with gigantic muscles were crying on camera when they were talking about how they felt. I know it's not Mike Piazza hitting a home run, and even calling this a "sports moment" can be seen as kind of a stretch, but watching those videos really hit me in a way I'll never forget.
September 11th is a day I will remember forever. I had just entered my freshman year at Quinnipiac University. The attack on US soil happened while I was in class and when I returned to my dorm students were huddled around the television in the lounge. Some were crying while others just watched in disbelief. I rememeber heading back to my dorm room in awe. When I turned on the television in my room, I just watched the planes fly into the towers over and over again. I saw people jumping out of the buildings. It was at that point I realized that I was so lucky to have all my love ones still with me and I said few prayers.
At the time sports was the only thing on television that was not wrapped up in the terrorist attacks though tributes were being made to those that lost their lives. The university had american flags placed on our basketball uniforms to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.
~Charmaine Steele
I remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. It was the break after my first class, and for the rest of the day I was sitting in the library glued to the television screen. All of our classes were cancelled that day and every classroom had a television and counseling services in it that day. I also remember that our soccer game was cancelled that day and thinking "Thank god...how could I even think about playing on a day like this." However, I also remember a lot of the girls on my team and some of the boys soccer players being really upset that the games were cancelled. I guess people dealt with it in different ways.
In terms of what I remember from the world of sports, it was that EVERYONE was wearing the FDNY and NYPD hats. On every uniform and helmet there was some sort of tribute to America; wethere it was an American flag or an emblem of the twin towers. The national anthem has seemed that much more intense since September 11th.
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