What I Love about Sports: the Great Unifier

I spent 14 of my 24 years in broadcast journalism as a sportscaster. That gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people, cover scores of memorable sporting events and witness life lessons learned through skill, agility, competition and teamwork.

Another reason that I love sports is because of its ability to bring people together for a common cause, especially in times of need. History shows sports gives individuals, teams, families, communities and nations the opportunity to heal, rally and overcome as one.

Mark my words. When COVID-19 finally buries its ugly head, the floodgates will open and citizens worldwide will once again flock to be together. And sports will serve as a great unifier.

“I think the American people need sports right now,” said Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints quarterback. “That’s typically something that really brought us through a lot of tough situations throughout our country. I think people have been able to lean on their local sports teams or national teams to unite them and get their minds off their challenges and daily struggle.”

Here are a few examples.

Hurricane Katrina – New Orleans Saints

We begin with Brees and my hometown Saints. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast, caused more than $125 billion in damage, left more than 1,800 people dead and millions homeless. The tragedy transformed the Louisiana Superdome from the home field of an NFL franchise to a shelter for thousands upon thousands of locals unable to evacuate the devastating floodwaters.

The Saints, too, were homeless. They played every game away from New Orleans that season, struggled to a 3-13 record and fired their head coach.

As the city of New Orleans ever so slowly rebuilt its infrastructure, I remember hearing a national sports talk radio host, who had no ties whatsoever to the city or the state, criticize the franchise and its efforts to rebuild the damaged Superdome amidst the controlled chaos citywide. He belittled city and state officials for putting any focus at all on football.  

I remember saying to myself, “You’re not from there. You can’t speak for locals. You can’t speak for the mayor. You can’t speak for the governor. You can’t speak for those of us who have or had ties there. Shut up! Give the people something to rally behind. They need this. Give them an emotional outlet.” 

That break came in a big way on September 25, 2006. The nation tuned in to Monday Night Football to watch the Saints and their emotionally-charged fans host their long-time rivals, the Atlanta Falcons. Just 90 seconds into the game, Steve Gleason, a player I covered as a sportscaster for his senior year at Washington State University, broke through the line and blocked a punt. The ball bounded into the end zone where a teammate recovered it for a New Orleans touchdown. The Superdome crowd exploded in excitement, delirium, dancing and pure joy. The Saints rolled over Atlanta that night 23-3 in a game many to this day, still say boasted the greatest atmosphere in franchise history.

“I think it symbolized not only maybe the resurgence of our football team, but the resurgence of the city and the recovery and the rebirth,” Brees told SBNation.

(Three seasons later, this New Orleans native celebrated on the news set just hours after the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV.)

September 11, 2001 – Major League Baseball

On September 11, 2001, terrorists launched four deadly attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, injured more than 25,000 and caused more than $10 billion in damage.

Our shocked nation stopped, mourned, honored and remembered those we lost that day. After that brief period, sporting events on the local, high school, college and professional level gave Americans prime opportunities to come together, sing together, cheer together and just plain feel a sense of “being one.”

My greatest personal post-September 11^th memory came at Veterans Memorial Arena where the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League played their first game after the attacks. With the arena lights dimmed, players from the Chiefs and the opposing team skated one-by-one to the center circle until it was entirely surrounded in an alternating fashion. Then a spotlight shone on a door at the far end of the ice. It opened and the only American member on the Chiefs roster, Kurt Sauer, burst onto the ice carrying an American flag. The crowd exploded in cheering and applause as he skated at full speed around the rink and eventually stopped at center ice. It was a simple display of patriotism yet for those in attendance like me, it was absolutely electrifying.

On the national level, I remember how Major League Baseball altered its seventh inning stretch tradition of singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame to God Bless America. And then on October 30, 2001, President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series on an emotionally-charged night. And he fired a strike right over the plate.

 USA-Russia Cold War – The Miracle on Ice

My favorite unifying moment is my all-time favorite sports moment – the Miracle on Ice. It happened on February 22, 1980. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was downstairs at my house with my family watching the United States hockey team, made up entirely of young amateur players, take on the powerhouse Soviet Union, winners of four previous gold medals and a squad that pounded the Americans 10-3 in an exhibition game just three days before the games began.

As a family, we had the opportunity to personally watch Team USA beat the Tulsa Oilers in an exhibition game in Wichita, Kansas, only one month earlier. Plus, given that we lived in hockey-crazed Canada for three years in the early 1970s, we understood the game and we were all-in for this David versus Goliath showdown.

Internationally, this was not just a game. It was a politically-charged showdown between the world’s two superpowers in the midst of a Cold War that featured decades of finger-pointing and threats of nuclear war. In response to Russia invading Afghanistan right before the winter Olympics, President Jimmy Carter announced the U.S. would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. Instead of boycotting the Winter Games, Russia announced its hockey team would come to American and win gold on U.S. soil.

Captain Mike Eruzione, goalie Jim Craig, head coach Herb Brooks and the scrappy Americans played the game of their lives beating the Soviets 4-3. Chants of U-S-A, U-S-A could be heard in the arena, on the streets of Lake Placid, New York, and across the country. The American people rallied together as one in one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports.

Come this fall, I, for one, cannot wait to blend into a crowd and let loose. Because that’s just the unifying kind of effect sports can have on us.