The Sports Issue: An extended Ramily

“I don’t know why you’re wasting yourself on sports.”

Every day for the past four years, the words of my first instructor at Ryerson have echoed in my ears. She wasn’t the first person to question my path and certainly not the last, but she was definitely the most direct about it.

There’s a stigma attached to sports reporting. Many professionals within other branches of the media see it as a lesser form of journalism—a childish glorification of petty pastimes, an afterthought living in the shadow of truly meaningful contributions to contemporary culture.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t encountered that attitude time and again at the school of journalism.

Much of the public (sport-loving and not) sees sport media as a sycophantic industry, populated by a posse of sensationalist puppets that embody everything wrong about the multi-billion dollar world of athletics.

There is plenty wrong with the sporting world, and the media that reports on it. It’s the same in that regard as almost every other facet of society.

Sports are supposed to stand for something noble. The athletic world is supposed to be one where anyone can do anything if they put their mind, body and soul into it. Sports are supposed to be a level playing field, a space of equal opportunity. If you have half a brain, you know things aren’t how they’re supposed to be.

Over the past few weeks, the American women’s national hockey team has been entrenched in a wage dispute with USA Hockey, which recently released a statement indicating that the players’ demands, if met, would cost a total of $8 million in an Olympic year.