Americans unique view on sport

  So as I contemplate relevant perspectives that come up in covering international soccer issues, I am frequently faced with the different way the United States views sports. The current NBA playoffs are a prime example. The Golden State Warriors won an NBA record 73 games this season. They only lost 9 times all season, yet here they are 1 game from being eliminated from the playoffs. Pundits are claiming that their season record will be a waste if they do not bring home the championship. This ultimate value placed on some little tournament at the end of the season is a uniquely American obsession. In all the sports leagues of Europe and especially soccer, since they were the O.G. of sports leagues, it is the season that matters, not a crap shoot at the end. If the top 8 teams in the English premier league had entered into some sort of tournament after the season and Arsenal or Man City had prevailed, what a shame that would have been for Leicester. Instead, soccer places prime emphasis on the months long season and how a team performs over that period.
  So why does every American sport insist on having some contest after the season, a second season if you will? I think the genesis for this phenomenon can be traced to baseball. Baseball was the original sports league in the USA. There were two leagues and the teams played all summer, only against those in their league. Winning the pennant, the season, was the ultimate goal, just like the soccer leagues of Europe, but then the question of which league was better persisted. As such a post season contest was held. the World Series. The champions of the two leagues played each other in "best of" format until 1969 when the leagues each expanded and split. They then held a divisional series to determine the league winners and the ever growing playoff format was hatched.
  As other sports leagues came online, first hockey, then football and basketball, they each looked to emulate the successful format of baseball. The teams would play a season that would qualify the top teams for the chance at the end of the season tournament and the league championship. Of course as critics would point out, the lure of money has forced the growth of the playoffs, the season has become less and less meaningful. In the NBA, more than half the teams make the playoffs, and often with losing regular season records.
  The MLS has also fallen victim to this Americanization. While adopting many of the traditions of their mother leagues around the world, they still call  champion the team that wins the end of season playoffs. They do give the regular season winner a title. They call it the Supporters Shield, but it pales in significance to the MLS Cup.
  So what is the significance of these American differences? I purpose that they are a function of a couple uniquely American traits; the fondness for second chances and the obsession with fairness. The second chance principal is in full view in the playoff system, where mistakes undertaken during the season can be overcome at the end. Europe feels no such need to coddle its sports teams, or its citizens. The fairness doctrine, which was chronicled as far back as De Tocqueville in his observation in the 1800's, is even more ingrained. All the major American sports have a draft, where the worst teams get a chance to build by adding the best new players. The leagues all offer some sort of revenue sharing to make sure the small clubs have a chance to compete. most of the leagues have type of salary cap to limit the powerful from taking over. The only league without a salary cap, baseball, is also light on the other restraints as well. This makes sense, being that they are the oldest sport and were originally founded more organically and less top down, but even baseball has started to worry about parity and the draft, a previous MLB afterthought, is gaining in importance.
  European soccer leagues have none of these controls. Teams do not draft. They can spend whatever they want, and often do. There is little to no revenue sharing. The big get bigger and leagues have little top down balance. Europe is comfortable with a sort of class system. They realize the world is not fair, that the rich get rich and the poor will probably spend their whole lives wrapped in the nobility of poverty. Americans are aware that the world works this way, but we bristle at such unfairness when it comes to sport. In sport we hope to offer a fair chance to everyone; a level playing field.
  Such a mirror on life is one of the main reasons that I enjoy sports. It reflects us at our best and at our worst. It highlights our differences and it shows our common humanity. Success and failure played out on a stage for us to cheer. Soccer, with it roots in almost every country on the planet does this better than most, and as the vines of the sport continue to envelope and overtake the American fan we too become a section of the garden known as World Football.