Two words come to mind while reading this passage; Political Correctness. What is political correctness? It is quite possibly the worst idea to come around in recent times. There has always been a measure of political correctness in human culture; it is called tact.
Lately though, there are many less blind people in the world and quite a bit more people who have "diminished visual acuity." Now, instead of cheering "Go, Fight, Win!" are crowds expected to think of a more "PC" cheer? How about, "Go, do your best but remember that it's just a game, it's ok if you lose!" Saying words like "kill" "battle" and "fight" will not make an athlete actually want to kill another person.
Athletes know that sports are not everything. They understand that sports are not important compared to almost anything else in the world. Plenty of kids would take a ten dollar bill over a victory on Friday night. It seems stupid, but it's true. When a game is lost, the players go home feeling tired, ragged, and beat up. When they win, they go home feeling the exact same. Sure, they"ll feel pride and happiness, but those emotions are short lived.
Kids today do need to feel what it's like to lose. Too often, children are being sheltered from the negative aspects of life. After sporting events, all the losing teams are given trophies that, quite frankly, they don't deserve.
Sports are a competitive activity. If a coach wants to actually win, he or she can not baby their players. The players must be taught to be aggressive. Generations of kids have grown up having the words "kill" "battle" and "fight" shouted at them on the playing field. Now, they run our schools, our businesses, our courts, our country. They seem to have turned out fine without being babied.
The people that we should be scared of are the sheltered ones. They are the ones that will have reality smash them in the face once they leave the protecting arms of their parents.
