When you think of sports in America, what are the first three you think of? Let me guess and say you thought of football, basketball, and baseball. Am I correct? I would say that I am because these three are the most overrated sports, leaving out so many underrated sports that it is simply ridiculous.
I am going to point out two of the most important reasons why playing an underrated sport is better than being overrated.
1. Why is it that those top three never get female recognition?
Girls are not allowed to play football. The people in the small town I was raised in would have died if a girl would have joined the high school team. Girls have professional basketball teams but are hardly recognized. Let's be honest here, if it is not LeBron James, it is not basketball. Softball is the counterpart to baseball, but again there is little recognition of the sport. So female athletics are already underrated, and I believe every female athlete works just as hard, if not harder, to make their team the absolute best that they can be. The truth is that female athletes are becoming better and better every year. I know in at the high school I graduated from, the women had the better chances of making it to state then the men's teams. I've also realized in college that without the football team, the number of female athletes would overpower the men's numbers.
2. Why is it that Super Bowl Sunday is treated as a holiday and the FIFA World Cup isn't?
I have the strong opinion that if an American team is not the best, then the television stations are not going to broadcast it. Soccer fans are not the only ones that suffer from this loss of broadcasting. Golf, tennis, gymnastics, and track are all heavily underrated sports in America. Why? The answer is simple, an American team is not always the best when playing against teams from across the world. When Americans play Americans, an American is bound to win. This is not always the case in underrated sports.
What I am truly getting at is that being underrated in American athletics is not the worst thing. I am a female golfer, and people around my campus do not even know that my team exists. The key is to not let it bother you. Work hard enough to get the underrated athletes noticed. You, as an athlete, can make a difference. Prove the population wrong and make them believe the underrated sports are the better. Everyone likes to root for the underdog, so it is never a bad thing to be one.
All we can do is rise.
