The President’s Thoughts on the Proper Place of Sports In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt’s son, Ted, made the second football team at Harvard University, instead of the varsity team. Ted reacts to the situation by sending a letter to the White House pleading for his father, the president, to come and persuade the coach into allowing him to play varsity. Roosevelt replies in a letter to his son parenting him on the dangers of putting too much emphasis on sports. Roosevelt starts his persuasive parenting letter by revealing to his son that he “greatly admires football” and that he never had the ability play football because his athletic ability was closer to “resembling Kermit’s” rather than Ted’s. Kermit was a member of the Roosevelt family and also attended Harvard. The authors inability to play football explains why he is proud of Ted “pluck” and getting this far with his athletic abilities. Roosevelt transitions to new points and then returns using his own personal talents explaining to Ted that even though there are people that are more gifted than him, he can still use his qualities to lead the team. …show more content…
This reveals to his son that athletic skills and being a strong athlete are not the only way to make an impact on the team. The author also desires his son to realize the skills that football can teach him such as how to be a leader, work as a team, and most notably to discover that he can only control certain aspects of life instead of solely playing football for the purpose of enjoying the game. All of the personal experiences and wisdom are given to Ted in order to justify how lucky he is to even be playing a collegiate sport and that he should be grateful for the skills that the game is teaching