Sports have such a way of captivating us, don’t they?

Think back to what football-Fridays meant at your high school. Think about how much you looked forward to competing in that soccer or lacrosse match. Imagine how much anxiety there will be on this campus before the Hoyas’ basketball game against Duke this January.

How is it that athletic competition has such a stranglehold on such a large portion of society? Although it is easy to portray sports fans as simply those who know every statistic, attend every game and blog about their favorite teams, sports capture a bigger swath of society than one would think.

Perhaps much of it has to do with the school or civic pride associated with rooting for our favorite teams. It feels good to join everyone in following what’s going on, like being able to follow a conversation about last night’s Yankees vs. Red Sox game. Even beyond that, there is certainly something about sharing in the joy or sorrow everyone feels after a hard-fought contest. But that explanation misses something. Sports are not unique in this regard; we do the same thing in following “American Idol.”

Perhaps much of it has to do with the other stuff that comes with sports. Although New York Giants fans love their team, walking through the Meadowlands parking lot before a big game would give you the impression that tailgating – and everything associated with it – is more important than the game itself.

Besides the tailgating and partying, fantasy sports and gambling definitely play a huge role in the culture surrounding sports. Gambling has always gone hand-in-hand with athletic competition – from betting on NFL spreads to filling out a March Madness bracket. For some fans, individual statistics associated with fantasy sports trump their interest in an entire team’s performance. Although it may be nice for the Saints to win, what matters most to some is that Drew Brees throws for 350 yards and four

touchdowns.

While all of these aspects of sports contribute to our love of the games, they are not the reasons we are so drawn to athletic competition. Though the extracurricular activities that come with sports can be important parts of our lives, they are mere results of our fascination with sports, not the cause of our obsession. Ultimately, we view sports with such adoration because they represent how we think life should be; they are our hope for the ideal in this imperfect world.

First of all, sports represent the ideal meritocracy. A player usually does not make the varsity squad or the big leagues unless they have proven themselves time and time again. Similarly, more often than not, a team must beat its opponent in multiple areas of a game in order to prove itself as better on a given day. While decisive underdogs may lose 99 out of 100 times, on that one day when they come up victorious, they demonstrate that actually achieving success – not a reputation – is all that matters. Sports fulfill our hope of a perfect world in which only those who deserve their accomplishments are victorious.

Undoubtedly, just as in life, sports are filled with the constant temptation to cheat. From corking bats to tripping a receiver when the referee isn’t looking, it is sometimes possible to cut corners in order to win.

How does that make us feel?

Part of the joy of victory is the knowledge that you did everything legitimately and, despite the adversity, were able to finish on top. While fans may be bothered by a tough loss to their biggest rival, they will eventually get over it, move on and look toward the next game or the next season.

But what upsets players and fans more than anything else is when a team or an individual athlete loses because of an opponents’ cheating or the referees’ failure to catch it. They feel as though something that they deserved was wrongly taken from them.

This brings us to our third reason why we love sports: the position of referee. Sports have the position of referee or umpire to enforce the rules of a game and essentially to dispense justice. It is our hope that those who cheat in sports, like in life, will be punished for their wrongful actions. If we did not think the referee was being as impartial as humanly possible, we would not obsess over sports nearly as much. We would not see sports as worthy of our adoration as a representation of the ideal world. Think about the Tim Donaghy scandal and its effect on the perception of NBA officials.

While a referee can never be 100 percent correct, it is our hope that he or she is as close to being an all-knowing, just arbiter as possible. Since officials will never be omniscient, that scenario of perfect justice is still only a hope that all fans share.

Regardless of the sport, there are few feelings better than watching the last few minutes of a tight

game where the outcome is in the balance and hoping that the best team prevails in the end. Hoping, because we know that a perfect world does not exist in our lives – on or off the field.”