For most of my life, I was not an avid sports fan. I attended very few football games as a music student at Northwestern University. I didn't actively dislike sports, but I found the experience of watching them less than engrossing. Clearly, I was missing something that the fanatics were seeing in the game.
But then I married a Northwestern alum who was also a huge sports fan. I began going to NU football and basketball games regularly.
I was surprised to discover the extent of the culture that had grown up around college sports. It seemed like a focus that everyone shared. When I wore my NU Wildcat gear around Evanston, strangers would comment, asking me if I had just been to a game, who won and what the score was. Or they might just raise their hands in the cat-growl sign as they drove by.
I discovered the Football Message Board, an online community where grown men followed and commented on the college game, coaches and players with an amazing focus--to a degree that seemed almost incomprehensible to me.
It was like learning a new language. Everywhere I went, I saw college and pro team colors flying, people wearing team gear, commiserating after losses and avidly discussing their team's performance after every big game.
Sports fandom in the U.S. has reached the status of a cultural movement. It is the central shared experience of our time. More so than going to the movies or rock concerts or any other activity in our increasingly fragmented society.
I became part of the community, enjoying the shared sense of cameraderie at NU football and basketball games. And I did enjoy watching NU games, although I still suspect I did not inherit the sports-watching gene.
It occurred to me that if sports didn't exist, we would have to find some other activity to focus our energies on as a community. It seems to be a deep-seated need in the human psyche to engage in one meaningful, shared activity.
And I'm wondering if there was a time when the arts could have been what the entire community decided to focus on, instead of sports.
Did we miss our opportunity?
Instead of everyone going to college football games, what if everyone went to college orchestra concerts?
Instead of following the new recruits and what teams they committed to on Signing Day, what if everyone followed college auditions?
Instead of "Meet the Team" night, you could have "Meet the Orchestra" night.
It always seemed like such a raw deal to me that only one team ultimately emerges victorious in sports, and the players on the other teams are then made to feel like losers.
Whereas in orchestral music, everyone wins. Artists who interpret the music to the best of their ability all win, as does the audience, who gets to listen to them.
Lest you think I don't see the value of sports as a shared activity, I do recognize that it encourages physical fitness, good sportsmanship and working together as a team. And really, our society could choose to focus on something worse, like cockfighting or the gladiatorial combat popular in ancient Rome.
I respect the power and drama inherent in sports. I just think our lives could be richer if we devoted similar time and focus to music and the arts.
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