Fat and happy

Athletics suffer thanks to American culture

When I was a boy, the day after Christmas was always devoted to testing presents. If I'd gotten some athletic equipment, it was requisite to go outside and try it, even if the weather was cold. Oh, did it sting when your father or buddy tossed you a ball into your shiny new baseball mitt.

I know that time and technology march on, and I'm not foolishly reminiscing about a return to the halcyon days of marbles and mumblety-peg, but I do wonder how many kids received sports equipment this holiday season -- as opposed to all those electronic games. The fact remains that as even the most recent government report so dramatically showed us, our children, not unlike the rest of us, are getting fatter. When American kids play, more and more they do it while sitting on their bottoms, not standing -- let alone running -- on their legs.

And as we sit -- usually to watch television -- so do we eat too much, as well. Especially upon return from a trip abroad, I'm always astounded at the size of our portions. There is, specifically, some immutable law that the number of french fries served must grow exponentially every year. French fries on American plates appear to breed, like guinea pigs.

Our mid-20th-century dominion over sports was bound to diminish as the rest of the world became healthier and wealthier and wise to coaching. But it is obvious that now we don't even produce athletes commensurate with our numbers, our power and our wealth. Our middle-class white boys, the smiling, wholesome crewcuts who used to grow up to be our All-American heroes, have basically disappeared. African-Americans dominate basketball and football, two of our most popular team sports, and more and more Latinos command the other, baseball. Basically, whites -- those who constitute our numerical majority and who are most advantaged -- only manage to be competitive as baseball pitchers and football quarterbacks.

The most international of individual sports, tennis, is particularly illuminating as a symbol of American athletic decline. A generation ago, half the best tennis players, male and female, were from the United States. But now, only perhaps 1/5th of the top women and less than 1/10th of the men are American.

It is instructive that movies and television must try and attract that young, white, affluent audience. And television is obviously doing a fine job. Our children are growing up as very good watchers, but, it appears, not very aggressive doers.

Thank heaven for golf -- a sport which, The New England Journal of Medicine says, "has the exercise coefficient of gardening." Golf seems to be the perfect sport for our sedentary nation. As a double minority, of Asian and African heritage, Tiger Woods was something of an anomaly on the links, especially succeeding, as he did, at such a young age. But now a 17-year-old white suburban white, one Ty Tryon, has won a place on the PGA Tour, and we can only assume that more and more of our young Lochinvars will be surrendering team games and more strenuous individual sports to hop in their carts and fire off down the fairway.

No, it's not a crisis, but you do have to wonder about a nation whose young are so fat and happy -- and whether or not their inability to be competitive in sports will eventually be reflected in other, more important endeavors in their lives.

Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His new novel, The Other Adonis (Sourcebooks Landmark), is available now at bookstores everywhere.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.