The Tradition

One of my favorite things is sports. I like to play sports, watch sports, do fantasy sports (does that make me a fantasy athlete?), write about sports, read about sports and talk about sports. One of the things about sports that I like is the tradition that can be found there.

As a high school athlete, these traditions were important. In the middle of the varsity locker room floor in the field house in Greenwood, there is a circle of smooth painted concrete. It is Columbia blue and has a picture of a Ranger painted in it. Around the Ranger there are the names of all the senior football players from each year. My name is in that circle, and I'm proud of that; proud to have been a part of that tradition. The thing about tradition is that it carries over from one group, one year to the next.

When you look at sports at all levels, you find traditions. Whether it is things that teams do or things that players bring there is that sense of tradition. There are some that even transcend the level of participation and type of sport and find their way into the game. There is one that stands out to me in particular even. It is something that I have seen done at all levels of sport-from early morning pick-up basketball games and Rec League flag football, to professional athletes paid millions of dollars to run and catch and throw and shoot-and in all different sports from football to baseball and everything else. It is long standing.

I will say this about this particular tradition: even though I have taken part in it, I don't really understand where it started, how it started or even why it started. The tradition is that of the Butt-slap after a good effort or play.

What is it that causes these men-big, tough, muscular men (and why is it that it is typically only men)-to slap each other on the rump at the conclusion of an athletic sequence? How did it become that the sign that someone appreciated your effort was to slap them on their rear? And why is it that it is really only in the world of sports that this is acceptable? Every where else in our world it would be thought of as awkward and could even have the makings of legal trouble. Imagine if on Sunday morning as the congregation was filing past the pastor, rather than shaking his hand, they all slapped him on the butt and said something like "Good message, way to bring the Word" or to the ushers after the offering and were like "Way to hustle with the plates man." It just wouldn't really be the same.

I guess that is the joy of tradition in sport though. They don't have to carry over or even make sense in the "real" world. They are things that can be done and people look at them and rarely question it. Still, there are some traditions that should stay in sports. Peace and Love y'all.