The Christ and Pop Tradition 2022 sports activities roundup is an extension of The Coach’s Field column, the place we spotlight the goodness and fantastic thing about sports activities and discover the extra profound questions beneath the surface-level evaluation of sports activities.
We will mark 2022 because the 12 months of “getting again to regular,” with sports activities serving to us navigate the inroads we have been accustomed to pre-pandemic. Listed here are a few of the greatest headlines and most missed tales in sports activities from 2022’s first quarter.
Chiefs Followers Donate to Buffalo Kids’s Hospital
Following what was maybe the most fantastic football game ever played between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Buffalo Payments within the AFC Divisional spherical of the NFL playoffs, Chiefs followers confirmed off their generosity. The fan base collected $13 contributions: 13 representing the 13-second drive the Chiefs made to ship the sport into time beyond regulation. The gathering, about $178,000, was donated to Oishei Kids’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York.
Buffalo’s fan base, aka the Payments Mafia, is thought for donating to an opposing staff’s charity or trigger after they win. For instance, after a earlier playoff sport, the Payments Mafia donated to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s favourite charity after they received and Jackson was injured.
For all of the foolishness we see and listen to from followers often, this conduct after video games—win or lose—can be nice for each fan base to imitate, serving to deliver humanity again to sports activities.
Beijing Winter Olympics Doping Scandal
Main into the ice skating brief program of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva of Russia placed on among the finest ice skating Olympic performances of all time. Valieva showcased her expertise early within the competitors. Nonetheless, when the banned drug trimetazidine confirmed up in her system, her efficiency was shortly disputed and lots of wished her faraway from the competitors altogether.
Coupled with Russia’s history of doping scandals, it was not unfair for many to attract the logical conclusion that Russia was as much as its unethical methods once more. Nonetheless, when a panel of arbitrators cleared Valieva to proceed the competitors, it attracted the ire and derision of many within the sports activities world.
When moral controversies happen in sports activities, it’s difficult to decipher grace, mercy, forgiveness, and justice. With a rustic like Russia that’s had greater than its fair proportion of deliberate rule-breaking controversies, evidently Valieva shouldn’t have been in a position to skate.
Britney Griner Arrested in Russia
Talking of Russia, Brittney Griner, a world-renowned WNBA basketball star, was arrested in a Russian airport on drug-smuggling prices in February. (Griner had vapes containing hashish oil.) Griner, who performed on an expert Russian staff, fled the nation as President Vladimir Putin started an assault on Ukraine. In accordance with reviews, Griner was in the end tried and sentenced to 9 years in a Russian penal work colony.
It was apparent that Griner’s indictment was never really about the gram of hash oil she possessed. However along with its geopolitical implications, her detainment drew consideration to different scorching button points in america.
The injustice of Griner’s sentence was noticeably associated to the unequal pay of women in skilled sports activities in addition to her sexuality. The truth that Griner was in Russia to play skilled sports activities within the first place was problematic for a lot of. Given Russia’s observe file of anti-LGBTQ insurance policies and sentiments, many questioned if an brazenly homosexual African American lady could possibly be pretty judged in a Russian courtroom.
We’ve obtained the reply to that query, although the jury continues to be out on whether or not Christians can treat athletes as people, as picture bearers of God. (As of this writing, Brittney Griner is free as a consequence of a prisoner change with Russia.)
