How sports affect us — for better or worse

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2025 (333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have always been a sports fanatic, both as participant and observer. Like many athletes or fans, I’ve been affected by sports in various ways. In 2018, I began to wonder if anyone had ever coined a term for the way sports affect us. After examining a variety of experiences — personal and otherwise — I not only came up with a name, but also reached the conclusion that this effect is truly a legitimate condition.

According to my parents and teachers, growing up, I was a kind and gentle young man. But when it came to sports, my persona changed. Some of my earliest negative sports memories include crying as I watched my favourite sports teams lose; throwing my racket as my father beat me yet again in tennis; viciously tripping a teammate in a soccer practice drill to prevent a shot on goal; and refusing to shake hands after our team lost in the finals of Quebec college basketball.

Flash forward 25 years. It was now time to pass on the hard lessons I’d learned as a youth and do my best to ensure our sons — soccer and hockey players — were good sports and knew the value of respect toward referees, coaches and opponents, no matter what the outcome of the game.

I quickly learned that this would not be easy.

Those of us with kids in sports know what is means to come face to face with parents who, adversely affected by the heat of competition, lose control. Once, while watching our 10-year-old play hockey, I asked a friend and fellow hockey dad why he was so angry about a penalty call.

When I said it was the right call, he turned and growled, “You know f-all about hockey!” I then began thinking more and more about the degree to which a person’s behaviour could be negatively affected by sports.

On the other hand, it wasn’t always negative. In 2018, when our Jets were vying for the conference finals, my colleague came to work wearing a Jets pin on her hijab. I asked if she was a hockey fan. She replied that she doesn’t know anything about hockey. Usually, in public, nobody talks to her. But, when she put on the Jets pin, suddenly strangers were asking, “Did you see the game last night?”

I then began to wonder if anyone had ever coined a term for how sports affect us. Several studies cited an increase in family violence after soccer or football matches in England and the U.S., based on the outcome of the game. A Canadian author described how a vocal minority of parents adversely affects minor-league hockey, as well as other sports, at all levels and age groups.

Having found no term describing how we are affected by sports, I contacted the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and received a copyright for Sports Affective Condition (SAC), defined as: “A phenomenon whereby a sports event, team participant or organization can have a positive or negative effect on individuals, groups or communities, locally, nationally or internationally.” Since coining the term, I’ve continued to see examples of SAC in a wide variety of settings.

Last November, I attended an extremely emotional soccer match in Valencia where all ticket sale proceeds went to reconstruction of sports facilities for children affected by the local flash floods. Then, in Mexico, I found myself in a bar full of Canadians watching the 4 Nations Face-Off final. As our anthem began to play, everyone stood and sang proudly. Can anyone deny how the final score unified our country during tumultuous political and economic relations with our southern neighbours?

Now, as our beloved Jets embark on another playoff run, our city’s pulse accelerates amid hopes of our first Stanley Cup. Positive effects are readily evident; hockey fan or not, you’d have to be hiding under a rock not to feel the buzz.

So, how will SAC play out for our cup-hungry, Jets-crazed city? An early knockout would be devastating to our sports psyche and certainly be accompanied by shouts of ‘chokers’ and calls for major changes to be made in the organization, on and off the ice. Alternately, if we go deep, and lose in the finals, will there be any sort of riot, like the mob mentality that reared its ugly head in Vancouver when the Canucks lost to the Bruins?

One thing is certain; if we, as individuals and as a collective, admit that we are susceptible to the positive or negative effects caused by Sports Affective Condition, we can, hopefully temper our emotions, win or lose.

If we win, we can celebrate like it’s 1999. If we lose, we can hold our heads high and vow to fight harder next year.

After all, “it’s only a game,” isn’t it? Go Jets Go!

Slavo Federkevic writes from Winnipeg.