ABSTRACT
If you think about the hours and hours of sports programming available on television, over the radio and via the internet, it is easy to conclude that people enjoy sports. If you review the reports of sales of sporting goods in just the United States alone, it is easy to conclude that people enjoy participating in sports. Taken together, the interest in following sports passively, as spectators, and the interest in participating in sports, provide anecdotal evidence that sport is prominent in our society and something we value. The prominence of sport is further illustrated through the various metaphors people use when speaking. For example, in a business setting it would not be unusual to hear someone say, ‘Give me a ballpark figure’, or, ‘The ball is in our court’, or, ‘Be careful not to jump the gun’. We like to watch sports, we like to play sports and we like to talk about sports. Sports are important to us, but why is this so?
