There is a well-known saying that “Football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans but rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen”.
Some might be tempted to add that “Cricket is a gentleman’s game played by gentlemen” while others have argued that “Ice hockey is a hooligan’s game played by hooligans” (though we may consider adding mud wrestling to such a list).
While considering football, we may recall the comment made by the legendary Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, that “Some people think football is a matter of life and death.” He did not end there, though but added (tongue in cheek we trust), “I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”
Linked to that, we might consider this popular quote, "Of all the least important things, the most important is football", often attributed to many football managers including the supremely successful Carlo Ancelotti as well as even Pope John Paul II, who not unsurprisingly (in the context of the quotation) often played football himself, as a goalkeeper.
Such people will obviously be biased towards football and no doubt any sportsman or woman will inscribe their own chosen sport into that equation. However, they may try to rank their sport in the most important category.
In many schools, there are major and minor sports, if not formally then certainly informally, though it is not for anyone outside of those schools to say which is the definitive most important sport for all.
Why would one sport be considered more important? Is it because more people play it or like to watch it? Is it because it produces better character? Is it because more people of different shapes and sizes can be involved (athletics could claim the title here)? Is it because it pays better after school? We might place more emphasis on one as opposed to another but really that is not important. It is an opinion, that is all, not a fact.
We shall not delve into that (meaningless) debate here but focus rather firstly on what indeed is the most important thing in the most important things in sport and in life. What are the most important things in life?
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Let us be clear and agree on that. Would anyone disagree that life itself is most important, along with our health, fitness, both physical and mental? Family and friends (and community) are surely up there as being important – where would we be without them? Surely, too, significance, purpose and relevance are determining factors in this equation. Who we are is more important than what we do. Quite rightly sport does not appear in those ratings.
We could easily get by in life without sport – indeed, many a pupil would love to get by without it! However, it is still important for all pupils for many reasons but it is in the category of least important things.
At least the comforting thing about those who ascribe to the claim that "Of all the least important things, the most important is football" is that they do recognise that sport (or their chosen sport) is not the most important thing.
Sport has its place. It is not the be-all-and-end-all. There are far more important things than whether our team won a particular match or trophy or title.
Sport in reality is at the lower end of what is important in life.
The same is very true in education, in school sport.
We should take it even further though, especially with regard to education, and argue that winning is the least important of all the least important things (like sport). As previously discussed, we tend to learn very little from winning while winning also tends to give us a false view of ourselves (due to the inappropriate attention we apply to winning).
What then is the most important thing about the least important things (like sport)? In a word, it has to be values. The most important thing about school sport (and indeed for sport as a whole) is the lessons to be learned about values and indeed the opportunities to instil the most valuable values in children.
Values and principles of living are what coaches and parents must be looking to have our children learn and apply.
The most important thing that we can do as educators (teachers and parents alike) is to help our youngsters see sport in its correct perspective.
It is important for a short period of time, namely the duration of a game, and for the values it can instil within us, but its results have no real significance, relevance or importance in the greater scheme of life.
We do not need to be a Pope or a player (least of all a winner) to know and understand that – nor even a gentleman or hooligan.
