More Than Just A Game

WE LEARN AT a young age that sports depend on fairness. A shared commitment to some degree of justice is required if any game is to continue. Kids playing baseball in a sandlot must agree about whether the ball was fair or foul, or the game falls apart. We complain about bad calls from referees because unjust decisions from officials invalidate the game. Despite numerous abuses, sports have the potential to instill deeply formative commitments to justice.

Although there are terrible examples of abusive coaches, most coaches instill their players with respect for rules, officials, and the opponent, encouraging selfless teamwork and giving more playing time to those working harder in practice. Studies show that athletic performance improves when athletes perceive coaches to be fair. And this formative influence can last for decades: NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar credits his former college coach, John Wooden, for providing the guidance that led Abdul-Jabbar to become a successful basketball player and lifelong justice advocate. “Coach Wooden taught me a lot about basketball through his words,” writes Abdul-Jabbar. “But more important, his example as a man of unbending moral strength taught me how to be the man I wanted to be—and needed to be.”

Athletes organized for justice—through teams or players’ unions—have power. Since baseball’s 1968 collective bargaining agreement, professional sports unions have been instrumental in securing distributive justice in the form of fair salaries, arbitration procedures, nondiscrimination policies, safety protocols, and other workers’ rights for players whose excellence earns millions of dollars for teams. In 2017, the U.S. national women’s soccer and hockey teams successfully pressured their organizations to provide them with compensation and working conditions comparable to their male counterparts.

It is not surprising, then, that former athletes have established numerous organizations dedicated to sports, community service, and civil rights. There are also organizations—from the U.N. and the Vatican to local police departments—that have developed sports programs for some of the world’s 60 million-plus refugees. Some of these programs simply seek to provide some normalcy in terrible camp conditions. Others offer the opportunity to learn local languages or integrate peoples of different cultures. “It was never easy going from one country to another,” said Warshan Hussin, an Iraqi who benefited from a Soccer Without Borders program and attests to the sport’s power to build relationships between people regardless of “where they are from, who they are, how old they are, or the color of their skin.”

We need tangible experiences of justice to know the justice of God. And from Pee Wee to professional leagues, sports can provide such opportunities to prioritize safety, practice fairness, and inspire a hunger for justice.