Boyhood sports and masculinity

This article was based on the relationship that sports had with boys/men. The author of this article interviewed many different athletes, of different race and different classes. He interviewed them on different kinds of factors that came with the individual playing sports, such as why they started playing to people that had the biggest influence on them playing sports, and their relationships with their fathers and sports. While the answers of the interviewers (based on their class) were not shocking to me, I did learn some different views on how some see sports. When asked "Why they play sports" to no surprise by me, at a much higher rate than the middle class athletes (almost completely whites) the lower status, and class athletes (Black and Hispanics) felt that that sports was their way out of poverty, as a way to stay occupied and because their was nothing else to do. On the other, the middle class athletes saw sports for really only what is was, a sport they enjoyed playing. And many did not view sports as "their way out". Many viewed education as being more important. Maybe it is because I grew up and still am in a middle class family that I feel this way, but I completely thought that this article was accurate on the inequalities that certain classes have over others. And how based on their class and status, their opinion on how important certain things are change. I myself love sports, especially Baseball, but I have never seen Baseball as "my way out" as maybe a working or lower class individual might see it as, I always just played Baseball for the love and fun of the game. Just like in the article with the middle class athletes, I feel education is much more important to me than sports. They also mention how boys/men related sports to masculinity, such as how popular you were based on your abilities (how good you were), and how it is a boys "natural instinct" to play all kinds of sports (according to the majority of interviewers), and how you were frowned upon  and not "accepted" if you did not play, participate and excel in sports.