When people are strong believers in a certain religion, they will often try to convert others, sometimes violently or forcefully, into their faith. This is because they believe their religion is better than other religions. If sports are replacing religions, this same thinking can be applied. A fan believes his team is the best, and has a certain loyalty to that team because of these beliefs. So, when someone wearing an opposing jersey is verbally or physically assaulted, we could consider this as an extreme version of "conversion".
Thoughts?
I think that's a really interesting point. Throughout history, we've heard stories about people being abused for their religious beliefs. Although one may think that a devotion to a particular sports team is not a strong as one's faith in a particular religion, but as we saw in the clip, some rabid sports fans seemed to treat following the team like a religion. While perhaps they are taking it too far, one can see how some people would treat a sports team like a religion and idolize it to extreme degrees.
ReplyDeleteI think that what you said can sort of be related to a topic we are learning in World Lit, ethnocentrism. However instead of cultures, we can replace a sports team. The mere fact that both sides believe their team is better and that both are unwilling to back down results in the violent confrontations that we see.
ReplyDeleteI agree what you said about sports as a "replacement." In the documentary, it is explained the necessity for the feeling of belonging to a group. In sports, fans who support the same team become a group themselves and it is more likely for them to act out due to a case of situational attribution.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is very interesting! I never thought about relating sports and religion, but what you said really makes sense! Although sports and religion are very different, they both are things that people believe in and are passionate about. Although I disagree with you about the "conversion" part, I do think that people verbally abuse others in sporting events because they think that the team that they believe in is the best one, which is very similar to how many people think about their religion.
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