My friend Jay Nordlinger has written a very fun column about what he would do if he owned a sports team. Like many of you, I imagine, I find the temptations of his hypothetical too alluring to resist penning a reply. I’d like to take a slightly different approach to the question, however.
As one of our resident Atlanticists here at NR, I have the benefit of looking at America at something of a distance, against the contrasting background of the rest of the world. If there’s any advantage to this foreign perspective, it’s that of an increased sensitivity to America’s exceptional traits and eccentricities. This is as true of sports as it is of politics, but the former is rarely examined through the same Tocquevillian lens as the latter by foreign observers. With that in mind, I present for your consideration this small treatise on American Exceptionalism as it manifests itself in the context of sports.
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