A Torch that Had to Be Drowned

August 2022September 19, 2022By Joshua Doggrell

There comes a time when a man must put away his boyhood infatuation with professional sports, especially when they have been so profoundly marred by money interests and woke politics . . .

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Comments (16)

I have to admit I haven’t yet given up college football. My university took a stand for a very important tradition which BLM activists called racist and demanded an end to. Once the university stood up for that bit of culture they won me back, because during the 2020 season I was on my way out for sure. That doesn’t mean the university isn’t following DEI type principles in other ways. At least for now they have saved face publicly. We’ll see how long this continues.

https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/

August 31, 2022 RMB Reply
Well done sir, but one thing caught my attention — saban’s wealth is in “the neighborhood of $60 million and soaring.” That alone captures the obscenity of sports in general and college sports in particular.

August 31, 2022 heymrguda Reply
Sounds similar to my own journey away from most sports. I still watch some MMA, college wrestling and hockey. All have largely been spared from the racist BLM garbage.

Discrimination against white athletes has been pretty open for some time in the sports media. Especially in football and basketball. Plus, there is something wrong about a stadium full of white Southerners cheering on a mostly black football team that hates them (while rap music blasts over the speakers). What would their ancestors think about such a spectacle?

August 31, 2022 Bernie Reply
It’s equally difficult to be a fan and support the University of Virginia Cavaliers when the students want to erase all reference to Thomas Jefferson, the school’s founder and architect.

August 31, 2022 Mark Middleton Reply
Deny your history and you deny your future.

August 31, 2022 JWSPOONERMD Reply
This speaks to me, the son of a Kentucky father who worked to lose his accent and a great-grandfather who fought under Colonel Forrest for a year. My red is not crimson tide but (baseball) Cardinal red. Still “Southern tradition” is something I feel should be mine but was taken from me. Faith has been trashed in more ways to count. An academic, for me the betrayal there is greater than among the coaches of sports teams, and increasing. Sports celebrates manhood. The right, god-fearing kind. Thanks for your essay and may your family prosper under the shadow of the Lord’s wings..

August 31, 2022 L. Hunter Kevil Reply
Recognizing more than the dominant Anglo-Protestant version of history broadens things rather than narrowing them.

August 31, 2022 oliverlu70 Reply
While reading this article, I was reading my own thoughts. I too have walked away from spending my money on college sports (LSU). Since the removal of Southern historical names from LSU and to the wokeness that has revaished campus’ across the South, I have stepped back from being a college football junkie. As for professional sports, I walked away from it over 20 years ago.

August 31, 2022 David from Mandeville Reply
Excellent essay!

TV and mass media have destroyed college and pro sports.

Hats off to Chronicles for publishing this article.

I am in Michigan where the University if Michigan is huge. I have never understood it the allegiance to U-M from my many friends who reject all of the faddish radicalism that has been the defining feature if the campus since the 60’s.

The big turning point for me was in early 1970 when the rape culture of the major Michigan sports was revealed in various arrests and court proceedings.

August 31, 2022 Jay McNally Reply
Why’d Nick do it? Public University administration is likely ALSO part of the Administrative Deep State, and sixty mil buys a lot of “loyalty”. It is probably part of installing the “China System” of managerial control of a targeted society. What’s the love affair with sports? Joseph Campbell’s book, “Hero With A Thousand Faces” probably gives adequate answer. Ancient sports like Lacrosse or Hurling, or Field Hockey have Mythologies developed around them. Another American Indian name for their game of Lacrosse is “Little Brother to War”, the natural realm of the Hero and the contest between Good and Evil. Today’s contest between Good & Evil is not taking place on the sports field, but in the halls & offices of The Administrative State. The original movie, “Rollerball”, with James Caan, is also instructive.

September 1, 2022 Larry Bowen Reply
Sports are war by other means: “our young bravos can beat your young bravos!”

Women’s sports are different: “See how wholesome and healthy our young women are!” Except for lesbian sports. Then you beat the pathetic Third World team by 13 goals and hoot and holler over it.

But as you note, for white Christian Americans it’s no longer “ours.”

September 1, 2022 Anti-Gnostic Reply
Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

September 1, 2022 DSmith Reply
This article seems to deal mainly with the big three American pro sports and with spectator sportsmanship. Even as a kid, a few generations ago, I didn’t especially like the big three but enjoyed individual combat sports and martial arts, the latter just getting started on the US scene. I still like those sports as a spectator and even when I was in my seventies took lessons in karate, Muy Thai, jiu-jitsu and catch wrestling. Young men and women I have encountered in that sports world have invariably been polite, respectful and well-disciplined. Sports, like much in life, can be an occasion of sin, but can also be an occasion of grace, virtue and character building.

September 2, 2022 Kirt Higdon Reply
To Kirt Higdon: Years ago, Rollerball put me on a train of thought about a meaningful “Ritual Sport”. I envision something like 2 opposing teams (of 25 or so), the Seekers (or Questing Knights) vs The Shadow Warriors (backs to the Sun, thus always facing headlong into their own self-cast Shadows, immersed in the Shadow Play). The Questing Knights are called out of their Club house (Plato’s Cave) by their Redeemer/King whose “Angels” (coaches, assistants, referees,etc) have prepared them for the Quest(Mission/Game): deliver The Scroll of Names (THEIR names, in a tube like Nicholas Cage carried in Nat’l Treasure) to hang on a wooden cross on a hill far away, through the opposition of the Shadow Warriors. The Field of Contention is long and varied, like a golf course, with undulating terrain and obstacles such as ponds, streams &bridges, stone walls, quicksand traps, hedgerows, etc…, that must be navigated and fought over, to reach the Cross on The Hill. The game is played from Sun up to sundown. If they haven’t reached The Cross, the Redeemer/King agrees to walk The Gauntlet of Shadow Warriors, delivering the Scroll Himself to The Cross (supported by His attending Angels). They use pugil sticks, sortof like the shinai of kendo. Using various methods like jojutsu and jujutsu, they endeavor to disarm or knock down the Shadow Warriors who oppose their progress. Their pugil sticks are their coup sticks, their “prayer sticks”. All players have touch plates on chest & back, and a chip embedded in each end of their prayer stick which registers a “touche'” when a hit is scored, scoring a point on a scoreboard. If done right, a movie of such a sport would be as interesting as LOTR. It’s a sport I could get interested in.

September 4, 2022 Larry Bowen Reply
Great essay! The failure to acknowledge God and put Him first is at the root of the decline we are seeing in every aspect of our civilization.

September 11, 2022 Julie Paine Reply
Could not agree more. Great article and why I subscribe to Chronicles.

November 11, 2022 Scott Godwin Reply