Sport

Some love it and some hate it, but there is no getting away from it, Sport is everywhere.  2012 will be especially painful for non-sports fans with the European Football Championships taking place in which England are hotly tipped to be dumped out in a penalty shoot-out against Portugal and the Olympic games coming to London in what promises to be the least successful games in British sporting history. 

The national sport is Football, it graces our screens almost every day and therefore it is no surprise that every little boy wants to be a footballer; the next Beckham or Rooney.  Instead of keeping their children grounded at a young age, it is often the case that parents, fathers in particular, will live vicariously through their son's fledging careers, force feeding them Red Bull and Pasta, pre-match, before proceeding to scream at them from the touchline for the duration of the game and then finally imparting their wisdom in an Alan Hansen-esque analysis of his sides diabolical defending and his own inability to hold the shape in a diamond midfield in the car journey home.  With all this to put up with it is a shock to me that Football is still the most popular sport amongst youngsters in the UK.  Perhaps the physical abuse, inevitable in a sport such as Rugby or Boxing, is considered less damaging by parents than the crippling emotional and psychological harm they will suffer on a football pitch.

Cricket is a sport of Gentlemen, of handshakes and sportsmanship.  It is also perhaps the most boring game I have ever had the misfortune of playing.  I can't imagine standing in a field for hours on end, waiting for a bloke with a plank of wood to hit an exceptionally hard ball in your direction at speeds of up to and beyond 100 miles an hour, is many people's idea of a well spent summer afternoon.  It’s expensive too; a mortgage is required in order to buy all of the equipment needed to ensure you still have your fingers, limbs and fertility at the end of a game.  

P.E in schools is, for most of us, our first exposure to sport as individuals.  We learn the basics with regards to being able to move without falling over and the importance of remembering (or forgetting) your kit!  As we progress through the school system, for those less willing the onus shifts from learning about a healthy lifestyle and participating in a variety of sports, to avoiding being caught having a crafty fag whilst the rest of your class does cross-country or learning how to successfully act out a pulled hamstring to Academy Award winning standard so you don't have to hurl yourself into a sandpit in preparation for sports-day.

The role models young people in this country have to look up to are of questionable moral fibre to say the least.  Who could forget Freddie Flintoff's infamous drunken excursion on a Pedalo, Wayne Rooney's prostitute scandal or Mike Tyson trying to chew Evander Holyfield's ear off in a bout watched by millions.  However if these are the role models children are following these days then we can surely expect the next generation of Sports stars to be entertaining if nothing else. 

Let’s end with something a bit more light hearted than alcoholism, prostitution and cannibalism shall we?  Here's a kid getting hit in the face with a football. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQlgA68z_L4 . Never gets old. Enjoy.