Lucas McMillan : Sports

The power and influence of sports cannot be compared to by anything else in the world.

"Sport has the power to change the world... It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers."
         - Nelson Mandela

I know everyone who is reading this is ecstatic to hear a blog post about sports from a guy... So original.

In all seriousness, sports have power. Almost every person who has ever lived on this earth has experienced the pleasure of playing a sport. Sports can be life-changing for children and therapeutic for adults. They can make us laugh or cry and give us hope or crush it. Athletics can do so much for so many people, one example of which would be Marshawn Lynch.

Marshawn Lynch is currently the running back for the Seattle Seahawks. When he was a child, he was raised in Oakland, California, in a gang-ridden place. His father was an alcoholic and abandoned his family right when Marshawn was a child, leaving his mother, Delisa, alone and trying to raise her multiple children while working many jobs to put food on the table. Delisa forced her children to play sports at a young age and attend their sibling's sporting events to keep them off the streets. Marshawn almost always had nothing but sports, his family, and god.

Lynch is not alone... At all. Athletics have brought people out of bad situations since the beginning of mankind.

Personally, sports take me to a place that words cannot even describe. It is a place of pure bliss where nothing else in life matters, except for that sport at that moment in time. Adrenaline is rushing, my heart is pumping, and I have no worries or problems.

In the professional world of sports, I am one of the millions of fans around the world. When it comes to the NFL, I am a proud and true Buffalo Bills fan. They have the longest playoff drought in the NFL, clocking in at 14 straight years without having reached the playoffs. I constantly find myself saying, "next year" because the current season never goes very well. I have never felt the pleasure of rooting for my favorite team in a playoff style game. In a more general note, being a fan of any sport comes with its ups and downs (Yuck, I hate that phrase). Seeing your team win can bring pure joy and a loss can bring you to tears.

Overall sports can bring total elation and complete happiness or utter despair and sadness. This may be the best part of it though... Knowing that when you play, you have a major impact on the game and even if you give it your all, you still might lose. That is why many people, including me, are extremely competitive and that is why sports are loved so much around the world.

                                          - LM