Sports are something I have always been enamored by. Learning about the strategy of a sport and then seeing an athlete or team execute in competition is simply beautiful. Seeing iconic moments play out live never fails to give me goosebumps.
But by far the best part of sports are the stories. When someone asks me why I like sports so much, I point them to stories like Kurt Warner going from bagging groceries to MVP and Super Bowl champion in one year or Alysa Liu quitting figure skating after losing passion for the sport, and then rekindling that passion and winning a gold medal while having more fun than anyone else at the Olympics.
While these moments are great, I cannot help but feel some guilt being a huge advocate for sports knowing about all the issues — especially right now — that involve gender and race. There is no reason for it to be happening, and it makes me embarrassed to be a sports fan.
Winners should be made fun of?
At the Winter Olympics, both the men’s and women’s US hockey teams took home a gold medal — this calls for celebration, right? Well yes, unless you are a woman according to the president.
President Donald Trump was ecstatic to host the men’s team and celebrate their accomplishment. While doing so, he made a joke about being forced to invite the women’s team to the celebration against his will, which is completely disrespectful to a team that crushed the competition on their way to the top while proudly representing the stars and stripes.
Women’s sports have struggled gaining respect from sports fans and media; the narrative has always been that they simply aren’t as entertaining or as good as men’s sports.
Just when we were making some meaningful progress with the WNBA taking prime time broadcasting slots, multiple leagues like the NWSL and PWSL rapidly expanding due to a boom in popularity and athletes like Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson becoming household names, we get the president degrading the team who just won a gold medal.
The internet is full of faceless trolls who spew hateful beliefs about women’s sports and that is a whole other problem that needs to be addressed, but the president of the country you just represented making fun of you? How am I supposed to defend that as a sports fan?
Crime is ok as long as you’re a man in sports
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the struggles of women in sports. There are multiple instances of achievements by women being downplayed and multiple instances of coaches, staff and even team executives sexually harassing players on their team.
The most recent scandal involves the manager of a women’s soccer club in the Czech Republic who was given a one-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from coaching for secretly filming the team’s locker room and showers. This is an egregiously light sentence for what he did, and the player union of the country is currently pushing for a much harsher punishment.
The disgust I feel from this story is only compounded by the fact that this is not the first time this has happened and in many other instances it’s the same story of the person accused getting away with little punishment.
I cannot help but feel cognitive dissonance with stories like these. These types of things are obviously wrong and should never be happening, but they keep happening all while I sing the praises of sports for all the good, they do for people and communities, it feels like the blood is on my hands.
Evading the law is also happening on our side of the pond so it is not just happening in other places of the world. There was an instance with quarterback Deshaun Watson only receiving an 11-game suspension for having 24 sexual misconduct cases against him.
For those keeping score at home, that’s just over two games per case where Watson was accused of sexually harassing women during massage sessions.
This is just unacceptable behavior by the NFL but it’s common for them and other sports leagues. They act like they care about social issues until it’s time to punish their athletes for contributing to those issues and it’s embarrassing to see these leagues that I follow and pour money into do that.
The black athlete is “not helping himself”
When Josh Allen cried during his postgame interview after losing to the Broncos in the divisional round, he was praised by the media and fans for his passion for football.
Contrast this to Caleb Williams, who cried after losing his last game in college and the reactions were night and day. Fans and media were quick to label him as immature and as an emotional wreck.
In the world of soccer, Real Madrid star Vini Jr. scored a goal in the Champions League which was followed by a fun dance as a celebration, which angered the opposing team causing a player to call him a racial slur.
At first the opposing player denied it, claiming he called him “brother,” when that didn’t work, the story was changed and he claimed that he called Vini a homophobic slur, not a racial one. It is truly painful as a fan seeing a player defend himself this way.
The Champions League is part of UEFA, who have supposedly attempted to make strides toward social change. To show how serious they are, their “say no to racism” slogan is written everywhere from the stadium to the captain’s armbands. Yet, we live in a world where a player is arguing about the type of offensive slur, he called another player to receive a lighter punishment.
Amidst all this, there was an opinion developing by some people who claim that Vini had what’s coming to him for his celebration dance. That is just a horrific argument to make, and I hate that I share the same passion for sports as these people.
This is a double standard for athletes of any minority that keeps being used. When a player celebrates, trash talks, or shows emotion, they are called arrogant divas with no class.
It is embarrassing seeing blatant racism fly under the radar. While it is the good stories that make love sports, its constant stories like these that make me want to stray away from being a fan.
Should you still love sports?
Sports are and will always be my love and passion. It is uncomfortable to think about the blatant issues in the world of sports, but it would also be irresponsible to pretend they don’t exist.
It’s embarrassing to be a fan sometimes and while I wish for strides to be made to fix social issues within sports, it’s not what I think about when I think of sports. When I think of sports I think of legendary games like Game 7 of the 2025 World Series or moments like Caitlin Clark pulling up from downtown to break the all-time NCAA scoring record.
So, while all sports fans should be aware of the issues in sports and strive for change, don’t let horrible people take that sparkle in your eye that you get when you watch sports.
A sad Cubs fan. Photo by Blake Guidry on Unsplash.