Wilfred Sheed's argument on sports as cultural reflection

¶ … Sports Matter, Wilfred Sheed argues that sports is an important element in modern society. At the outset of his essay, he outlines that sport embodies values that were prevalent in Victorian English society, where arguably the modern conceptualization of sport arose. Elements of teamwork, the quest for victory and self-sacrifice for the greater good (the good of the team) are all elements embodied in sport that mirrored the ethic of the era. Sport arose as an analogy to war, he notes, and war works in much the same way. England was a warring power at the time, and sport became quickly dispersed via its influence. Where war is about teamwork, self-sacrifice and the greater good, sport served to reinforce those values in society. Thus, sport was about discipline and spirit, two things that serve combat well, in addition to serving the interests of the rising nation states.

It was not only in the way that sport mirrored society that it became popular. It also became popular as a pastime, as the middle class grew in the industrial age. Where sport initially was for students and clubs, and had no real audience otherwise, it was quickly adopted as a pastime, in part for its expression of the same values as widely held in society. Sheed notes that as sport became popular with spectators, it did so more because the audience related to it, as opposed to having actually played. The same holds true today -- the spectacle and thinly-veiled war narrative, the spirit of camaraderie and of conquest -- these are defining elements in sport that have broad popular appeal. Nobody would host a war for popular entertainment, so the controlled, tame sporting event became its mild, and socially acceptable mirror.