Victory; Is it a Team Goal or My Goal

Sports has always been something close to my heart. All through my life I've been involved in some form of active sport/activity. I thoroughly enjoy cheerleading, bowling, skating, throwing the shock-putt and discus, football, and baseball. I randomly chose to watch "Eight Men Out" after reading the article "Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory" by H.L. Reid and I didn't realize till half way through the movie that there were many parallel concepts within the reading and the movie. Reid brings up very strong arguments around the topic of victory is and the movie prompted me to pose a more deeper question of how we process and want victory as well as the means of attaining it.

Reid's argument of Victory goes all the way back to Socrates and Plato's theory and concept of arete, excellence. Sports were an outlet that people would participate in to help make better people in the long run; or more well rounded. The overall goal of sports is to reach a winner at some point and time through gaining points, crossing a finish line, or going a distance. As a human society we lift people who engage in sports highly because we make them children's role models as well as place a huge responsibility on athletes heads to conduct themselves in the highest form of arete. Think about the outrage and uproar over Colin Kaepernick and the personal stance he is taking in the athletic arena. We place athletes on a pedestal because we innately relate the meaning of being an athlete and winning with some sort of moral ethical code of some sort. When players in games like football or basketball, players can be fined large amounts of money or even loose endorsements for "immoral" or behaviors that are not high in standard.

Reid brings to the front that the since of excellence, or arete, is known as a virtue and people take their virtues seriously. She goes into some different types of victories; a true victory, a tainted win/win-on-paper, moral victory and personal victory. In the movie "Eight Men Out" that we set back in 1919 which was the rise and prime of "American Leisure and Entertainment". There were eight men that were sought out on the Black Sox team to lose the games on purpose for a payout. Granted as athletes, they innately want to win and achieve their highest form of success however when you aren't being paid (taken care of) properly, losing a couple of games to "win big" in the bets to make a fortune. Such nature of conspiring to lose purposely for fixed bets and to cash in plays with the moral compass especially with the innocent players that are just caught up in the foolishness via association. The scandal was blown up to the point of being brought to the courts and all the players were tried in court. To actually see the intent of all the players or judge them separately.

Reid talks about how in the evolution of sports the famous inscriptions that read "know thyself" and "nothing in excess" are key to truly achieving arete in victory. She connects the phrase "Know thyself"  with understanding ones own weakness being able to overcome them. The second phrase, "nothing in excess" brings about  subject of temperance/self-control which is centered around the discipline of an athlete. Together these promote the bases of how we view our athletes currently, they must have self-knowledge (self awareness) and discipline.