When a Friendly meets Hostility
Leon Trotsky once said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
Tragedy struck the city of Paris, France in the same vein on Friday. Radical militants attacked six different locations in and around the city, killing over 120 people. The bloodbath is the largest attack on France since World War II.
One of the sites that faced a spine-chilling, life-threatening scenario was outside Stade de France in Saint-Denis. During an international friendly between France and Germany, two suicide bombings and a third explosion went off just outside of the stadium. The match ended in a 2–0 victory for France, but by that time hundreds were already dead.
Sporting events are supposed to be a sort of safe haven for the human race. In these instances, we’re allowed to forget about the myriad problems that we face on a daily basis, not to mention those that loom larger than us that are out of our control. What happened on Friday night is nothing short of a cataclysm on all fronts, but the very fiber of life that keeps millions of us level-headed was ripped, just a little bit, for a short time.
When the explosions were heard inside the stadium, around the 15th minute, it was met immediately with an uproar from the crowd, a mixture of excitement, fear, and a pure adrenal reaction that comes from an event of that nature (a video can be seen here). President Francois Hollande was taken away from the area. From there, it wouldn’t be long before the fans inside the confines of Stade de France were aware of what was happening so harrowingly close to them. The haven of sports, if only for a split-second, was breached by something unimaginable.
Then, match officials and executives made a controversial, but what turned out to be ingenious, decision. They decided to withhold information about the attacks on Paris from the players and fans until the match concluded. They decided to use the inherent comfort, a virtual bubble secluding the match from the outside world, to their advantage to prevent fear and panic from striking the fans and players. They made it seem as if nothing was happening, and the fans went along with it, cheering and booing normally and appropriately, even doing “The Wave” at one point. Officials saved their fans from clouding their own heads with nightmarish scenarios of what was happening, and let them enjoy themselves as much as they can.
After the match was over, the blinders that shade spectators from reality retracted, and everyone in the stadium knew of the sheer horror that, at that time, fully infected the entire country. Some exited under their own volition, players retreated into their locker rooms to check in on family members and friends, but something interesting happened. Many fans flooded the pitch and stayed there long after the match ended. They hugged one another, checked cell phones, and generally loitered under a haze of controlled panic.
The safety net that sports naturally provides is on full display. Instead of attempting to wrap their head around what just happened in their city, they stayed inside the arena, conferred with fellow fans, and decided to sidestep real-life tragedy, just for a little while longer. In that moment, the human race needed sports as much as sports needed the human race. A soccer friendly turned tragic became friendly again, with thousands of fans helping each other cope.
We have seen it happen before. Sports have an uncanny ability to heal in times of tragedy and loss. Whether it’s Mike Piazza’s go-ahead home run in the first game after the September 11th attacks, David Ortiz’s “Boston Strong” speech after the Boston Marathon bombing, or Steve Gleason blocking a punt and scoring in the first game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, sports can soften the blow of extreme adversity.
I, and everyone sound of mind and spirit, feel the pain of the massacre in Paris. During the pain and suffering, soccer provided an alternative for several thousand people. I hope everyone affected by these attacks has something to lean on to lighten the immense weight of loss that they carry.
Originally published at http://thenyunderdog.wordpress.com on November 14, 2015.
