Before the U.S. team lost in the World Cup round of 16 earlier this week, Americans could scroll through social media and find dozens of videos of fans celebrating, hanging out and showing their American pride together.
It was a brief era, it seemed, when Americans, instead of attacking each other and saying hateful things online, were embracing their common citizenship and love of a sport.
It all proved what the Reagan Center for Civility has found: Sportsmanship and civility are deeply interconnected concepts.
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Camaraderie and sportsmanship are alive and well
As Straight Arrow previously reported during its America 250 theme week, more and more Americans see a lack of respect and care for others.
Social media has been full of debates and arguments, with very little civil conversation. But that tone seemed to change over the past few weeks. Maybe not entirely, but there was a shift, and it was thanks to the World Cup.
On the soccer field and in the stadiums where World Cup games were played, the pride and camaraderie were there — just watch any video after a U.S. win when “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver is playing.
Videos featuring the song have gone viral, showing American players and fans belting out the lyrics, all as one, in stadiums across the country.
Then there are clips of fans going out to bars and restaurants to celebrate together. Folks are creating edits of American players, celebrations and moments of pride — drawing in even more folks, some of whom may not have been soccer fans in the first place.
Over the past few weeks, the World Cup and Team USA have gained popularity, with more and more weighing in and tuning in to matches.
In fact, so many people tuned in that viewership numbers for the U.S.’s final game on Tuesday were record-setting, with 30 million people watching.
A polarized America coming together over a common interest: U.S. soccer.
Sportsmanship’s impact on civility
Sportsmanship and its effect on civility are deeply studied phenomena. At its core, civility is about being able to disagree without getting, let’s say, nasty.
“People have always disagreed,” Wilk Wilkinson, Braver Angels’ director of media and operations and host of the “Derate the Hate” podcast, previously told Straight Arrow. “What’s changed is the contempt.”
But the Ronald Reagan Center on Civility and Democracy found that, while such contempt exists, people haven’t forgotten how to disagree respectfully.
In fact, respectful disagreements are evident in sports every day — just look at teams shaking hands after a game or fans of opposing teams still being friends.
The Reagan Center’s 2026 National Civility Survey found that sports are “a rare cultural institution where Americans from different backgrounds, political affiliations and beliefs routinely gather, disagree and accept common rules and outcomes.”
It found that 64% of Americans think sports are an industry that teaches Americans how to manage conflict respectfully. In fact, it even found that sports fans are more comfortable discussing politics with people they disagree with than the general public is.
“The skills learned on the field/rink/court, etc can promote civility by teaching Americans how to accept a defeat, move on, and then try again in the next game,” Samuel Abrams, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Straight Arrow. But he says Americans aren’t quite there yet, which is why there are issues within American civility.
“If Americans could understand that people win sometimes and lose sometimes in politics, just like in sports, we’d be creating the scaffolding to manage our society, and that would be a net positive for sure,” Abrams said.
A need to ‘win’
That comment leads us to another core issue we see in American civility: the need to win. Sitting down with someone who disagrees with you and simply having the goal of changing their mind isn’t going to work, Wilkinson told Straight Arrow.
“If the goal is to win the argument, you’ve probably already lost,” Wilkinson said. “People don’t change their minds when they feel beaten. If the goal is to understand, or even just to be understood, the whole thing goes differently.”
It seems in sports, the concept of understanding and not needing to feel like you “won” is understood.
The Reagan Center on Civility asked survey participants this year how important it is to be gracious when your sports team wins, and 70% of respondents said it’s “very important.” And when it comes to congratulating a winner, 65% said it’s very important.
Players who choose to be gracious, thank opponents, and be humble in victory show Americans that civility is possible.
“These teams and their players have a chance to be role models, and folks like Jalen Brunson are stepping right into those roles,” Abrams said, adding that when teams amplify positivity, it spreads.
“A viral chant took over New York during the Championship — ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish, my Christian Dior, Knicks in four’ — and this also shows that the positive values and virtues the Knicks were projecting managed to do something New York rarely sees: create a sense of collective community which sometimes we call ‘collective effervescence.’”
So, could sportsmanship be what saves civility in America?
Round out your reading
- With more prison space than prisoners, correctional facilities are shutting down.
- ‘Game changer’: New cancer treatment turns major surgery into an outpatient procedure.
- Viewers overwhelmingly support ‘The View’s’ fight against the FCC. Will that matter?
- Why an ICE shooting in Houston isn’t leading to mass protests.
- Milwaukee detective is the latest officer charged with misusing Flock cameras.
