PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Stadium mouths yawn wide to heaven. Beer, hot dogs, nachos, and pretzels flow down gullets. Globe-wide, raucous baby birds host masses that are somehow able to converge and sit, shoulder to shoulder, without trying to tear each other apart. Us against them is the ruling way, but here, in the maw of appetite, each agrees to let the spirit of fair play decide.
At least that’s the spiel. Reality is that owners of uniformed gladiator teams increase their billions, gladiators risk their health for fortunes, and betting houses exploit fixes and milk gambling addicts.
Gaming doesn’t win. Let’s try collaboration.
[101 words]
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the creative host of Friday Fictioneers.
Tao Talk 
wow, this is soul food, for me at least; – also: am I alone in recognising the potentially fascist risk in mass excitement? Thanks for writing,
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Thank you, Barbara. I can see the risk in it for sure, especially when it manipulated for ill purposes.
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yeas and – being a bit of a philosopher I just had a little light bulb that the risk may be inherent if the excitement is not beyond the knowable… will have to reflect further 🙂
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🙂
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Seen from afar, the crowd look like the rubble of a ruined building. I almost went with that. You captured some of that
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Thanks, Neil. “Rubble of a ruined building” is a great metaphor for the state of civilization today.
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A thinking post 🙂
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Thanks, Trish!
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Those big stadiums were always meant to keep the rabble happy, you know, bread and circuses, so they won’t turn on the rich and powerful… Funny, I thought “gladiator”, but as a reality instead of more metaphorically.
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I think it works either way. Thanks, Trent!
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The legalization of sports gambling is really the final straw isn’t it? The game itself isn’t even a factor anymore. (K)
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Well-said, Kerfe.
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I love how you write about beer and nachos making us think of the present and then call the players gladiators, reminding us not a lot has changed.
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Exactly, Dawn. Thank you for reading and sharing what you see in the story.
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It’s a pretty bleak picture you are drawing here. Sadly, it oftentimes does appear that professional sports and everything around it is about big bucks first and foremost, not the well-being of the athletes.
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I think competitive sports keep the mindset alive that it’s us against them, me against you. When I think of the money that is spent on it, and how it conditions kids from such an early age to win in order to feel somehow worthy, it makes me sad.
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Excellent take my friend
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Thank you, Sadje.
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You’re welcome
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But Lisa…we all have to exploit each other! That is the lay of the land now…***sarcasm included***
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Love that sarcasm! You just made me think of the Pink Floyd song, “Have a Cigar.”
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lol…that fits.
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True dat, most of our premier league outfits are now global brands, not run as a normal company is run it seems to me, Grass roots that’s where the fun is.
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I’m guessing grass roots is a bunch of buddies gets together and plays against another bunch of buddies? That does seem like it would be fun.
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That’s where sport starts. If you fund grass routes then the sport prospers
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A powerfully packed paragraph with a perfect pic. Competition and Cooperation are two important skills and can be captured well in games. Life isn’t always dancing through fields of flowers, nor thankfully gladiators killing each other. That we can gather peacefully and enjoy this tenuous balance is perhaps hopeful. But as you state, money opportunists capitalize on everything. We “just” have to stay awake. Nicely done, MSJadli — a thought stirrer.
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Your comment is much appreciated. It feels like everything is monetized these days. How do we extract ourselves from it as a society?
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Money has certainly ripped the soul out of sport, but then, was it ever as nostalgic as we remember it once being?
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My dad was never into sports but my stepdad was a star team athlete and did a lot of solo sports and expected the same from his sons. They were mediocre at best and am sure they must have felt like they let him down. I remember sporting games on TV all of the time and him screaming at the screen. Good question, Iain.
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Sport is the new opium of the masses – especially with the price of entry these days. I suppose it’s better than outright warfare though.
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I remember when I was still working how real talk was avoided by my co-workers in the safe haven of sports talk. It’s empty chatter that rules our world now. I think it’s better than outright warfare, but why must we have only those two choices? Thank you for reading and your thoughtful comment.
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Sports is big business.
Players know that & make the moves to rake in the moolah. All are busy making or trying to make money while the game shines 🙂
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Yes indeed, Anita. What I’ve seen is it is a control mechanism for the poor kids. Instead of supporting them in getting good education and careers, they dangle the carrot of “rich sports star” in front of them. Only a very small % of them go on to realize that dream and the rest stay trapped in the ghetto without anything but spoiled dreams and shady dealings.
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Sport is now a business, not a game. Millionaire players employed by billionaire bosses at the spectators’ expense.
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WELL SAID, KEITH!!!!
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without trying tear each other (I think you need a to in this sentence ~ been there) This is a powerful piece with so many aspects. Well done. My favorite? Gladiator teams. Yep!
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Alicia, thank you for catching the typo. I try to proofread and double proofread but once in awhile one slips by. Thanks also for the kind words.
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As I said, been there. Plus, I’m a copy editor for a local magazine, so my mind and eye catch that sort of thing.
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❤
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Cool job!
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Marleen, editing the magazine keeps my writing at least a little bit sharp. I edit for free. The man who brings everything together is a friend. I gotta tell you, some of the articles are so poorly written it takes me over three hours to edit two pages. He’s lucky I like him, and I enjoy the slash-and-burn process.
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It’s true. Sports have become another corporation, a shrine to the almighty dollar.
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They’re also a symptom of a very dysfunctional culture. The way they push kids in sports makes me sick! The schools around here always seem to find the funds for new sports facilities but never enough for the arts and humanities.
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I agree that diverting money from the arts/humanities is criminal. Sports are important, too. I read an article the other day that said a record number of people under 40 are having heart attacks due to their sedentary lifestyle. That’s another aspect of our dysfunctional culture. I think education should be well-rounded and include art and athletics.
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I think so too, but it absolutely doesn’t have to be competitive sports athletics. Stretching, aerobics, and self-defense as a group would be just right.
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I very much appreciate the team work experience from high school. But I was on a team that was newly being included (a girls thing) as official and worthy to earn a varsity letter. We weren’t primarily competitive, but there was a lot of physical activity involved; plus memory and creativity. We did elect to participate in citywide competitions a few times, but that wasn’t the main objective. Anyway, my point is that teams are something we need to figure out how to foster without largely having such a sick culture.
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Very well-said, Marleen. We *have* to have teamwork (aka collaboration) if we hope to get ourselves out of this mess. Why not have non-competitive teams for every problem that threatens us, fully subsidized by us as a nation. (That’s a rhetorical question. I know why not 😦 )
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The sports fan gene skipped me. I can’t think of anything less interesting than sitting in a stadium watching other people play a game. I’d much rather be a player, which, at this point in my life, is a total unreality 🙂
What does my comment have to do with your post? I don’t know. It’s just what I was thinking 🙂
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I love your comment and of course it is connected. I like to watch some sports but it’s no big deal to me with team loyalties, etc. Way back in 2004 when I had cable TV and a love interest who was into NBA basketball I was a big fan, but after that…
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Several of my family members are avid sports fans. I just don’t care. On New Year’s day, when parents and sibling were glued to the TV, I was up in my bedroom reading. I mean, I’m glad they’re enjoying themselves. I just. . . .don’t care. At all.
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I hear you. After my mom and stepdad got together (I was 10 or so) “the games” were always on the TV. Thankfully my stepdad worked for the railroad and could be gone 1-3 days at a time.
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Dear Lisa,
A lot of food for thought, slathered with mustard and relish. 😉 Football players most certainly are modern day gladiators, aren’t they? Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Rochelle, thanks much!
Shalom,
Lisa
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Love the sentiment in this one well said 🙂
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Thanks, AJ!
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An essay veiled as a story. Great points made.
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Thank you, Clare!
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How true. Well done.
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Thank you, Athling.
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Most professional sports are about greed not entertainment. You captured that well, Lisa. A pet peeve of mine is how much professional athletes get paid to throw, kick, or shoot a ball. Oy! A very thought-provoking story.
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Thank you Brenda. I also think that the professional athletes know their bodies will be torn apart when all is said and done but think the money will be worth it. I remember Joe Namath saying something about his whole body being wracked with chronic pain and I never forgot it. Also the traumatic brain injuries that football players and boxers have…
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It’s very true. Many years ago, my husband played university football. He’s had two surgeries in his older life because of injuries he sustained then and a fair amount of pain. And, he didn’t play after college. That level of sports does wreck the body.
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i guess that’s one way of looking at it. others may disagree, though. 🙂
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Yes, a lot of others, probably.
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An interesting description, Lisa. Humans are so all of that. 🙂
Glad you included the nachos. 🙂 But, I am not judging the hot dog eaters.
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LMAO
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Amazing how so many people can make money out of the game. No wonder the people who pay for it get restless. Good one!
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Thanks, Sandra!
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The gambling companies are usually given big tax breaks by states, on top of already being a leach on society. We’re really losing it.
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Marleen I hadn’t even considered “legal” gambling 😦
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Great descriptions with the open mouth birds… competition does seem to create far more anger than necessary
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Thank you, Laurie. I remember playing board games with my younger brother. He always became enraged when he lost. I never forgot that. Looking back, I’m sure it wasn’t about the game he was so angry about 😦
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Yes. 👏 Love this! You’ve managed to write a thought-provoking piece in a small amount words. Nice one.
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Thanks, Brit!
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