Organized Sports Quotes

The world is not kind to whistleblowers - a term of art with particular resonance in football, the most hierarchical and repressive of organized sports, a world of 'systems' and 'programs' and scripted plays, where reading a medical report requires a security clearance, and practice fields are patrolled like Guantanamo Bay.

When did I know I had talent? I think it started when I first started playing sports, organized sports.

I didn't play organized football until I was in the seventh grade. Up until that point, I only played at recess and in the backyard.

I know I used to play basketball every day, whether it was for fun with my older brother or if it was organized basketball on teams.

The only time I'd played organized basketball was my sophomore year in high school, when I barely made the junior varsity team.

Whenever I wasn't watching the planes, I was playing community baseball, football, or something like that.

Our country's growing obsession with organized sports isn't just hurting our children, but also our communities. As play is siphoned off to gyms and fields, fewer kids are playing in our streets, parks, and playgrounds.

I started playing soccer when I was 4 because my sister was doing it. It was my first organized sport, and my parents thought this was a great way to get coordinated and be part of a team. I had an array of options but eventually figured out soccer was best for me.

Gradually, football has seen its appeal slip at the most basic levels. Pediatricians are advising parents not to let young children play organized football too early in life.

We are raising today's children in sterile, risk-averse and highly structured environments. In so doing, we are failing to cultivate artists, pioneers and entrepreneurs, and instead cultivating a generation of children who can follow the rules in organized sports games, sit for hours in front of screens and mark bubbles on standardized tests.

I was just fortunate to move to the States and have an opportunity to play organized football.

As the issue of youth fitness - from obesity to proper exercise regimens - takes on more resonance in schools and communities across the country, CrossFit Kids and other preschool fitness programs are raising questions about when and how children should start playing organized sports or hitting the gym.

I ran track. I ran cross country. But I did not play organized basketball in high school, at least on our team. But I played a lot of sports.

I think it is that parents just don't kick their kids out the door as much as they used to. I think the demise of sandlot sports has had a lot to do with it.

I played baseball, was on the basketball team in high school, did crew at Hofstra, and randomly played ultimate frisbee, too. But none of the organized teams I was on were anywhere near as competitive as the games on the street.

I was actually fairly athletic and coordinated, but I never played any organized sports.