One of my biggest pet peeves is when people try to make sports into something greater then it really is. Sure there are other stories that straddle the line of being relevant, but most of the time those stories are for the non-sports fan.  

The most recent example is when Japan played the U.S. in the Women’s World Cup final, the Japanese players were playing to win for their rebuilding and recovering country. A few years ago there was the New Orleans Saints who were playing for the state after it got ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. And after Sept. 11, 2001 the New York Mets played the Atlanta Braves in the first professional baseball game since the towers collapsed.

Sure all of these have great stories attached to them: The National Anthem and the service men (and women) at the Mets game, the Saints running out onto the field for the first game after the hurricane and the banner the Japan team took out onto the field thanking everybody for their support.

The problem with saying a team is playing for its (country, city, state, whatever), is the rest of the game gets lost in the shuffle, only the result of the game matter.

Japan defeated the U.S. 2-2 (PK’s 3-1) and everybody (myself not included) said that’s great because the country is suffering and still rebuilding and getting their lives together. It’s a good story.

Okay, now who can tell me my Japan won (or why the U.S. lost)?

That’s right, not very many.

The only thing that matters is that Japan won and now all their countries problems are solved…

Wait—what?

A team winning a sporting event doesn’t solve any of the problems their area they represent have.

So Japan won, the country is still in shambles, the nuclear reactor is still causing problems, they still can’t eat some food that is grown in certain areas of the country. But, hey, the women’s soccer team won the world cup. All is good.

While the game gave some (not all, not even a majority of the population) an opportunity to escape reality for a few hours and take pride in their national team. When they turned off the television and went outside, went to the market, went to the coast the country, they faced the harsh reality, there is still a lot to do to get the country back to “normal.” The Japan-U.S. game changed nothing.

Same thing with the Saints game, the residents of the Ninth Ward and the surrounding areas, they got a few hour reprieve from reality. Then as soon as they left their seats and walked back through the turnstiles they were faced with the destruction of Katrina. The Saints game changed nothing.

The same thing happened at the Mets game, the nation rallied and took immense pride in what we had achieved since the attacks, but as soon as Mike Piazza hit the winning home run in the bottom of the eight inning and the stadium emptied, all of America faced the task of regrouping, rebuilding and rebounding after 9/11. The Mets game changed nothing.

As much as we want sports to represent more then just a game, they never will be. Which is why I was proudly rooting for a U.S. victory without shame. No matter what happened on that pitch for 130+ minutes nothing was going to change what was happening in Japan.

There is a Japanese girl in my Speech 100 class, the professor asked her about the game, she had no clue what she was talking about. 

Nobody that has been affected by the tsunami cares about a women’s soccer game. And as journalists and fans, we shouldn’t make them care about the game.

They have bigger issues to worry about, a soccer game is the least of their problems.

The game took their mind off reality for a few hours, nothing more. Japan still has rebuilding to do, and no sport is going to make the process go any faster.

(Image from NY Daily News)