The Religion of Sports

October 9, 2023
“Sports are our new religion,” according to this muddled meditation. Documentary filmmaker Chopra (Walking Wisdom) reflects on his love of professional sports to illustrate how they have supplanted religion in fostering community and connecting “people to something larger than themselves.” As the Boston-born son of Indian immigrants (his father is bestseller Deepak Chopra), the author rooted for the Celtics, a pastime that “helped me feel like I belonged in America.” Chopra’s recollections of trailing famous athletes while shooting documentaries yield some fascinating insights into how they approach their profession, as when he discusses attending Tom Brady’s off-season training sessions while filming the 2021 docuseries Man in the Arena and notes how the quarterback worked tirelessly to fine-tune the accuracy of his passes by adjustments as minuscule as “frog hairs.” Unfortunately, the parallels Chopra draws between religion and sports are often superficial or flimsy, as when he suggests that attending the Daytona 500 counts as a pilgrimage and that LeBron James feeling “absolutely nothing” during a particularly impressive performance in a 2012 game was equivalent to spiritual “transcendence.” A few intriguing anecdotes aside, Chopra drops the ball on this one.