Jack of all sports

Jack of all sports

How to improve the wellbeing of athletes as well as their fans.

Top sportstars make top money. But beyond doubt the top dogs are the moguls who actually own sports teams or even sports leagues. Like Roman Abramovich who owns the football club Chelsea FC, sits in a way sweeter spot than even its highest rated players. For one thing he is in no danger of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. This is a type of dementia that is now known to be caused by exactly the kinds of repeated blows to the head that are elemental to contact sports. In boxing repeated blows to the head have been known to cause ‘punch drunk syndrome’ or dementia pugilistica, for as much as a century.

Historically the affluent did not dirty themselves with contact sports, instead choosing more genteel pastimes like golf, tennis and indeed cricket. Today mega corporations that reap billions from sports profit so much more than the sportsperson whose career is short and list of life debilitating injuries long. Nita Ambani, chairperson of FSDL – the governing authority of the Indian Super League – is likely unaware of the genesis of contemporary contact sports like football in, say, Roman gladiatorial fights. Nevertheless a ‘liberal arts approach’ where athletes play a wider array of sports rather than be super-competitive in a single one, would be better for their wellbeing.

Moreover, no matter how involved you get in Mohammed Shami and Jaspit Bumrah’s hard runup and fast bowling, your pulse racing, it doesn’t build any muscles in you at all. When the “cup of life” is on, you may spend a monthful of days going “Push it along, gotta be strong … gotta go and get it … ale, ale, ale!” and yet end up the worse for health. This is the curse of the couch potato. Step away from that TV and go out, go lift a bat or ball yourself. Game on.