Idealized, prewritten stories circulate throughout American culture, searching and looking for real life events to bend and shape to their image. The media idealizes and glorifies the power of sports every single day. From stories of determination and triumph, to falls from grace and redemptions. The press portrays sports as having the power to do all these things and more. But by looking at how the media portrays sports stories in other countries, perhaps we can shed light on the myths we tell ourselves about sports in America.
A recent New York Times article discussed the corruption in professional cricket in India. The Indian Premier League, created just three years ago, has grown into a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Bringing in movies stars and glamour to a sport mirrored on US professional sports, the league has also faced criticism for corruption. Indian politicians own cricket teams, while owners also sit on the board of directors for the league. The league has also been criticized for its immense glamour and excess, which seems to heighten the perceived disparity between the country's wealthy elite and masses of poor.
But if the media portrays sports in other countries as hypocritical, does it do the same for sports in the US? Not to the same extent. Sure, the press reports sports scandals and rumors everyday (Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger being some of the most recent, highly publicized scandals). America takes these scandals so seriously because it threatens the ideals we tell ourselves about sports. Such as their wholesome, redemptive powers (exemplified by the stories told every Olympics). But there are many stories of corruption and hypocrisy in American athletics. For example the prevalence of performing enhancing drugs in sports (especially baseball). Or the fact that the NCAA has so many rules preventing student-athletes from making or accepting money, even as the organization itself reaps billions of dollars every year from those same student-athletes.
America is ripe with hypocrisy. But thats too depressing a thought to be accepted. So we create these ideals to blind ourselves to reality of things. But while these myths do help us cope with an all too often imperfect world, they can often fuel cover-ups and denials that prevent the truth from being known.
Works Cited:
The New York Times: "As Cricket Grew in India, Corruption Followed"
The New York Times: "Corruption In Big-Time Sports"
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