What is a sport? - A Look at the Definition Because I Watched WAAAY Too Much ESPN.

When you are sick, you turn on the television a lot more than you normally would.

The past three weeks has certainly been no different. I was turning on the television quite a bit in order to kill the time or to watch mindless drivel. Weird thing is... I read a lot less. I am not sure... I figured I would be reading a lot more with the sickness, but alas.... that was not the case.

Anyway... I found some programming during my sick time that has me questioning the definition of the word "sport." Some of the sports on the channel blurred the lines of sport.

Dictionary.com has a variety of definitions for the word. The primary definition is the one that most of us associate with the word. "Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively."

This definition accounts for the likes of the NFLs, NBAs, and MLBs. They are organized leagues with games of physical exertion.

The definition got stickier when I was in high school and college when friends of mine would claim that cheerleading was a sport. At the time, I didn't appreciate the amount of time, energy and physical exertion the people put into it -- probably far more than say... baseball players. As a result, I was quickly converted from non-believer to believer. Cheerleading is a sport.

One of the fun sports I watched was bowling. It wasn't a recent tournament but a tournament from 1984 where the first place prize was $18,000. The drama they created was intense and as muh wife astutely put it... "These announcers are amazing. They find something different to say after each roll." Bowling is close to the edge of the definition of sport. "An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively. "

By the second definition of sport, bowling is... in fact... a sport and belongs on ESPN or ESPN2.

This second definition also explains two other borderline sports that I seriously sat and watched all the way through. The first was the 2004 Super Heavyweight Left handed Arm Wrestling National Championship. THe competitors literally would trash talk and they would almost always have to be strapped together. Quite a competition and not once did anyone turn their hat backwards and channel the power of the backwards hat. (I knew you were thinking it.)

I also was privileged to watch the National Lumberjack Competition. Those guys exert themselves far more than most atheletes too and are at risk with each of the things they do. For those of you that have seen the springboard competition, I actually saw a couple guys fall off the boards. Fascinating television.

By the second definition... both arm wrestling and the lumberjacks championships are indeed... sports.

Now... my belief in the ESPN networks came into serious question one Thursday afternoon when I plopped on the couch and turned on the JUGGLING championships from 1984. It wasn't your standard 1/2 hour throwaway episode, but rather FIVE individual 1/2 hour episodes each featuring five different championships. They included 5 Pins, 6 Pins, Rings, Balls and Teams. It was fun to watch and truly amazing how they could actually find commentators for this stuff!!!!

I was having trouble equating this with a sport until about 30 minutes ago when I found definition number 3. "An active pastime; recreation." Combine that with the first two definitions... and blammo... juggling qualifies as a sport.

I am going to continue to monitor the television and find interesting sports from around the world. Be happy that I didn't get into the National Miniature Golf Championships or the Dog Sled racing or the Table Tennis contests I watched. They were awesome.