As late as the 1970s, boxing saturated U.S. Catholic culture. It reinforced Catholic ideas about the redemptive value of physical suffering; it also offered a powerful form of assimilation to male Catholic immigrants.
Watching the N.C.A.A. annual college basketball tournament has become a tradition for many Catholics. March Madness is also a huge moneymaker for everyone except the players.
Matt Malone, S.J., is traveling abroad. But I also suspect he let me be the pinch-hitter for this column in America’s special sports issue out of pity.