IS CHEERLEADING A SPORT?
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill ruled that Quinnipiac University in New Jersey could not replace it's women's volleyball team with a competitive cheerleading team. He ruled that cheerleading is too underdeveloped (whatever that means) to be considered a sport. This ruling has set off a debate about Is cheerleading a sport? I am here today to clearly and definitively answer this very question.
Before I tell you if I believe cheerleading is a sport, then I must give you the definition of a sport. A sport is any athletic activity, whether team or individual, where you can beat another person by your own merit. In baseball, football, basketball, racing, tennis, or even bowling the person participating in the event controls the outcome of the event that they are participating in. If a participant or a team can not directly control the outcome of an event, then we will call it exactly what it is A GAME.
True, officials can make a bad call and this can effect the game, but it does not control the outcome of the game. An individual or a team can overcome that bad call and still go on to achieve victory. However, if you have judges who watch, make a determination on how good something is, and then THEY SCORE IT, you do not have a sport, you have a game. When we look at it like this, let me tell you a few things that are not a sport: gymnastics, figure skating, fishing, hunting, and cheerleading among other things do not count as sports. Let me give you a few sports: golf, tennis, ping pong, racing, and of course all of the major sports. The important thing here is that you understand CHEERLEADING IS NOT NOW NOR WILL IT EVER BE A SPORT!!!
Please do not tell me about how hard these activities are. How hard, or the number of people who can do any activity has no influence on if it is a sport or not. Very few people can program a computer, are they athletes? Is computer programming a sport? There are very few brain surgeons, is brain surgery a sport? Of course not, be my ability or inability to do a task HAS ZERO INFLUENCE ON IT BEING A SPORT!
I know, you are ready to kill me right now. I WILL NEVER READ THIS STUPID BLOG AGAIN, I'LL SHOW HIM...why don't you really show me and prove me wrong on my own blog (with actual thougts, not just you are wrong because I said so). I have always said that I am like a parent is with a child, I will take your being upset with me because I know that I am giving out truth and someday you will look back and thank me for telling you the truth. I know that that as painful as this is for you right now, it is for your own good.
I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COMMENTS!!!
UNTIL NEXT TIME...
Agreed, not to mention it takes no real talent to cheerlead. It's isn't a gift that someone can hone in on and develop to improve.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with this post for this reason, Sport is defined on Dictionary.com as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature. That being the definition, we have to agree that Cheer-leading, Hunting, Fishing,Figure Skating, gymnastics, etc.. are all qualified as sports, by it's definition.
ReplyDeleteAs for the idea of it being watched by judges who then give a score, if we say that is a reason for cheer-leading, etc.. to not be a sport, then we must also rule out boxing as a sport. Unless there is a KO, or TKO, the decision goes to the referee or to the JUDGES SCORE CARDS. The fact is, the things you mentioned as not being sports, all take some skill or physical prowess and are competitive among their respective participants. That in and of itself makes them a sport.
Whether that be the dictionary.com definition or not, as I stand on the bank of a creek and cast pieces of hotdog attached to a string out into the water, hoping that by chance (not by skill or physical prowess) a fish decides that it is hungry, I am not playing a sport any more than I am when I sit in my office and throw wads of paper at my trashcan...Yet there it appears on ESPN2...
ReplyDeleteThis all stems from some Liberal judge who says its not a sport. Well you do train hard. Have you seen the ones that try to cheer. You know the ones, That fat kid and the 40 year old washed up moms. These are the ones the first comment was refering to. The Girls/boys that work hard and train day in and day out. They are the ones that make it the sport. well that judge would say abortion is not murder but it is just that. I know that is to the extreme but, you get the point. There are probably hundreds of cases where rulings are made that are wrong and I think this is one of those cases.
ReplyDeleteCasual fishing, I agree is not a sport, but trying to land the biggest fish takes skill and know how and a bit of physical ability. to say differently shows your ignorance of the sport.
ReplyDeleteThis just in: Dictionary.com declares the invention of a new sport: COMPETITIVE WII
ReplyDeleteSo would you then contend that if I were to share my "bait" with a friend, that it then qualifies as a sport? If this is the case, then you must also contend that when a basketball team practices, they are not engaging in a sport, since there is no team that they are competing against.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Cheerleading is not a sport.
ReplyDeleteit is a spectator sport
ReplyDelete