My current All Habs piece looks at how sports help communities grieve human loss following a tragedy. It also considers some of the serious shortcomings of using sports to promote mourning during times of crisis. The piece is based on a discussion I had with Ted Bird and Elliott Price on The Morning Show on TSN 690 and is especially relevant in light of last month's shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Sports & Tragedy: Good Grief?
By Avi Goldberg
Last month, following the NFL’s acknowledgments of the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide in Kansas City and the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, media commentators took time to assess the place of sports in relation to real life human tragedies. Is it helpful, it was asked, to play on and to use sports as an activity to help citizens cope with the horrors they’ve witnessed, or is it better to push sports to the sidelines and to encourage participation in true practices of grieving loss? Both history and responses to recent events show how sports create meaningful, if imperfect, forums for community healing during periods of societal crisis.
You can continue to read this piece here.
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