Sometimes Watching Sports Can Be Harmful. One of the strange things extraterrestrials might observe about humans, which they might not understand, is their passion for sports. That passion can lead to fights and all sorts of violence. When you think about why some of us are like that, it does make you wonder if you analyze the situation. It’s not like we gain anything physical if our team wins or lose anything if they lose, unless of course we have a bet on the team. Even if we don’t, some of us can go crazy at a loss. It almost seems to be a disease when mobs of fans decide to strike back because they are so upset about something which happened during a game. I remember a soccer mob who attacked a referee after a match in a South American country and beat him to death. Of all the games humans play, soccer seems to affect the most people and tempers often flare. Most of the time if a fan’s team wins, they get nothing out of it but an emotional lift. Why do they get this lift? It is said the fans get a sense of achievement as if they participated in the win. Changes take place in their bodies such as hormonal surges and their mental state becomes much the same as some of the athletes who won the game. It is all very strange and can be a very powerful force. On the flip side of the coin, there are those who could care less about sports and those who occasionally watch a game, but never experience this. Things connected to sports sometimes happen we may never hear about, or only a relatively few know. There was a war which took place called the Football War. It started in 1969. In this case football was what we call soccer. It involved El Salvador and Honduras. The two countries were not on good terms with each other and during a World Cup qualifying match El Salvador’s military attacked. The match was just the tip of the iceberg which set off the war. A soccer match between Egypt and Algeria led to a virtual war. Both countries were already at each other’s throats and it didn’t take much to set the war in motion, only the soccer match. When the Egyptians won the qualifying match, the Algerians felt the referee was not running a fair game. Other matches took place over time between the two countries, which were very contentious. The matches began to be looked at as warfare. At one match it was reported 6 Algerians were killed but the Algerians said the truth was 11 people had been injured. Attacks took place after the match. In 2010 15,000 police were sent to a match between the two countries. Players were threatened. The Algerians won the match and even in France 150 Algerian fans were arrested. In the U.K. over 1,000 Egyptians went to the Algerian Embassy and rioted. Sports have a history of becoming bloody events. The Mayan game of Pok-A-Tok was a ball game played by teams. The Maya played this game over 1,000 years ago. A similar game was played by the Toltecs and Aztecs. You wouldn’t want to have been on the losing team. Sometimes the entire losing team was sacrificed to the gods. There were also stories of captured soldiers being forced to play and then killed afterwards. It was said this was more than a game and sometimes was used to settle disputes between noblemen. A soccer game did not go as planned. The games took place between Albania and Serbia. The teams were playing soccer at the Partizan Stadium in Serbia. The year was 2016 and the game was a qualifier for European Championship. A drone was released carrying a large double-headed black Albanian eagle. The flag got too close to a Serbian player and he pulled the flag and drone out of the sky. The teams began to fight over the flag and soon fans emptied the stadium joining in the battle. As you can see soccer is taken very seriously in many parts of the world, but other sports have provoked violence. One sport which usually doesn’t invoke violence is one which depends on the violence of the contestants and that is boxing. During a match between junior middleweights Steven Butler and Brandon Cook in Canada the audience began to get displeased and starting pelting the ring by throwing anything they could get their hands on at it. It was said one of the fighters was far behind the other in talent. Some say it was turned into a Quebec verses Ontario fight to try and make it interesting since that was where the fighters came from. The crowd became violent and buckets, drink and food began to fly. In 1984 a tremendous riot broke out after the Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres. Celebrations took place which got out of hand. A police car was burned and several others damaged. Cops in riot gear were seen chasing a crowd of 6,000 unruly fans down a street. This riot was caused after the city’s team won; it makes one wonder why. You have to wonder which sport was responsible for the first riot. Some believe that happened during the reign of the emperor Justinian in Constantinople. During a chariot race the crowd watching the race began to riot. The green team was racing the blue team. Not only was this one of the first sports riots in history, but also one of the worst. It is said at least half of the city was burned to the ground and over 30,000 people killed and who knows how many injured. To me cricket is a game I find very boring. I am not trying to offend cricket fans; it is just that I find it too slow for me. If anyone would have told me violence broke out at a cricket match, I would have a hard time believing it, but it did. In 1879 in Sydney, Australia during one match 2,000 angry fans ran onto the field. A fight broke out between the English team and the cricket team from New South Wales. Some players were injured and 3 fans arrested. In 1904 the Tour de France took place. Some of the fans who supported one player attacked some of the others. It is hard to believe a bicycle race could invoke such passion. Sometimes the sports people love, can be the worst thing for their health. People have gotten so upset watching teams play different sports they have heart attacks and even died at the stadium or at home watching the game on television.
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