Sports as a Measure of Healing

This is a common theme, but one that bears repeating: the importance of sports on morale and recovery from a tragedy. As the New York Times states, "Football, and a sense of normalcy, returns" to Louisiana with the LSU-Tennessee game (9/27/05).

Playing Monday's game might have been considered a frivolous and callous exercise, given that New Orleans is largely empty and crippled, and the coastal region of Louisiana is essentially under water. But not now, not when Louisiana desperately needed confirmation that something was still functioning as normal, that a patch of grass existed that was not littered with splintered homes or had not become a newly flooded playground for alligators.

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Louisiana's first major sporting event since the devastating hurricanes was meant to serve, through a national broadcast on ESPN2, as a symbol of the state's resolve and recuperative willpower. For many, the playing of the game seemed as important as the outcome.

"Sometimes sports can provide a medicine that no doctor can provide," said Skip Bertman, director of athletics at Louisiana State.

The Volunteers partly spoiled the big day for the Tigers and their fans, by staging a great come-back win. But this loss pales in comparison to the losses suffered by thousands during Katrina, and the win of even staging the game is one that will not soon be forgotten.