“All I know most surely about morality and obligation I owe to football”,
Equality
So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them Genesis 1:27Equality is a hard principle to apply to sport. Some people have more talent than others. Some have more opportunities, better funding or better training facilities. George Orwell’s clever line in Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" has a ring of truth to it.
One of the things I love about the Olympics is the mix of sports and nations – a wonderful insight into the diversity of God’s creation. There will be some residents of the Olympic Village who are international superstars, instantly recognizable. Others have no profile – even in their own sport. But in one sense they are all equal. They are all Olympians.
Paul challenges us to value others above yourselves and have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Philippians 2:3-6.
Those of us who organize sport should seek to give equal opportunity to everyone. Joe Ehrmann tells a lovely story of his time as High School (American) Football coach. There was a boy in the school who was over-weight – the last to be chosen in pick-up games. The coaches developed a play just for the boy, so that he felt he had a role in the team alongside the more talented players.
As we compete and organize sport, let us be thankful for the talent and opportunity we have been given and at the same time remember that we are not “more equal than others!”