A Gentleman's Game

The discussion about sport and society goes back centuries.
In antique philosophy health of mind and body were contected.
In the middle ages monks, who invented many of the forerunners of nowadays popular sports like tennis and baseball, were frowned upon as their spiritual life surely sufferd from playing games.
Ball games were all the rage in the European cities at least since the 15th century. In the Netherlands playing ball games was prohibited and abandoned to beyond the city walls due to too many inconveniences caused like smashed glass windows and over run pedestrians. Eventually halls and enclosed courts were built within the cities to accomodate the sportsman.
It seems, viewing pictures from that age, that ball sports were rather a gentleman's games.
In this day and age the social debate on sports focusses mainly on the use of drugs, but also on concerns about fans/hooligans and superstardom: 'show me the money!'.