"It's Only a Game"

That has to be one of my most-despised phrases of all time. And for some reason, I always tend to hear it when it is the least true! It is NOT just a game! Well, okay, technically, definition-wise, it is just a game. Not a llama. Or a compound sentence. It is not a game AND a pistachio. It is just a game. That much I can accept.

But we all know that when somebody says, complacently or conciliatorily, "it's only a game," the implication is, "it doesn't matter." "Only" means "merely." "Only" means "I can't believe you care about something this insignificant." "Only" means "why don't you get an interest like world peace or something that really matters?" "Only" means "you are an inferior human being for even thinking about caring." Humph. Only, forsooth!

The phrase is invariably used by someone who is not a fan, or not an athlete, and is directed toward someone who is very much one or the other or both, and almost always when the team that the latter is supporting is losing in the playoffs or something. At the point where the fan is at his most tense - the team is at the do-or-die point - history is in the balance.

It is not "merely" a game. It is a CONTEST. It is a CHAMPIONSHIP. It is VICTORY at stake. There is a lot more to a game than it's definition - than the fact that what is being achieved isn't affecting the economy or the state of the Middle East. In a game there is the striving after perfection, the pitting of the best in the world against the best in the world, the attaining of things no one else has ever attained. It is a team - a group of men who have been seeking the same goal, together. It is a fan-base: people who have watched history unfolding with bated breath, and with passionate interest. There is a LOT to a game! It's not just a couple of hoops and a ball that bounces. That's almost like simplifying the Mid East conflict into a couple of guns and a line in the sand. There's a lot more to it than that! Similarly, there is a lot more at stake in a championship game than "only a game."

So, folks, let's not trivialize the role of the game in America. Let's not forget the lessons games teach, the character they build, the inspiration they give, the perfection they demand. "Games" is a word with which the word "ONLY" should never be coupled!

(And no, nobody said this to me recently - something innocuous just reminded me of it, and I thought it would be of utmost blog-worthiness.)