Sport is so much a part of our culture that sometimes the future of our country seems to depend on the performance of our representative athletes. When we win, we share a collective delight. Witness the scenes on the streets of London this week.
But sport, as the government is at last realising, can offer something more concrete than euphoria; with obesity increasing, sport can be an antidote to an inactive, overweight nation. Sport can be the route to health as well as happiness.
There is one potential bugbear - alcohol. It's just as rooted in the culture, has traditionally been bound up with sport, and for some offers happiness of sorts. Does its role in sport invalidate sport's claim to play a role in the health of the nation? Can sport have it both ways?
On the weekend of the rugby World Cup final, we consumed more than 70m pints of beer. Last Tuesday, front pages were filled with images of the previous day's victory parade. And what was prominently displayed in the hand of one of the gladiators on the open-top bus? A can of beer. Good advertising for one brand; but is it good advertising for the sport?
Six weeks earlier, as England's footballers impressively gained the crucial result in Turkey that sent them into next summer's European Championship finals, some of the promotion of the game on television verged on implying that everyone would be enjoying the thrill of the match in the pub, or at least having a drink with friends in front of the TV.
Celebrating sporting success with a drink is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, both the England football and rugby union teams have major partnerships with drinks companies. Many major sporting occasions are supported by drinks brands - notably the Stella Artois tennis tournament, the Foster's British Grand Prix and the Martell Grand National. But as the nation's health and wellbeing move up the agenda of the government and of sports bodies, it is time to consider both sides of the relationship between sport and alcohol.
Some critics of the relationship would seek to break the link. How, they argue, can a link between alcohol and motor sport be justified? What drink-drive message does that send? Treat it like cigarettes, they say. Force sport to divest itself of sponsors whose products can damage health. Those criticisms will increase unless sport and its drinks sponsors show they are fostering - no pun intended - responsible drinking.
In football especially, as our highest-profile and richest sport, there are great expectations on young players to act as role models. But sometimes they find it difficult to balance this with the partying lifestyle that is also expected of these modern-day celebrities. Could players with clubs that have drinks sponsorship deals be encouraged to promote responsible drinking?
This would help the players themselves feel they were setting their own boundaries for responsible behaviour, and it could also have a positive impact on the behaviour of supporters. The sponsors should welcome such an initiative; they surely have an interest in ensuring that their brands are not damaged by players' behaviour and any association with alcohol misuse.
Sports stars shouldn't have to be supermen or women, but they need to look after themselves. Drugs are, quite rightly, the focus of much attention among sport's policy-makers, but drinking should not be ignored. Sensible advice should be given to young athletes and young adults generally.
Great strides have been made on diet and healthy living in many professional sports; some of these lifestyle lessons could become part of physical education in schools, combining a healthy and balanced attitude to drinking with the development of physical fitness and wellbeing.
If we start giving the right messages at a young age, we have more chance of influencing behaviour into adulthood. It is especially important that the sport-and-alcohol mix is handled carefully in relation to children. Under the drinks industry's new code of practice on the naming, packaging and promotion of alcoholic drinks, brands that sponsor sports clubs must make sure that the clubs they back make available for sale unbranded children's replica kits. I don't know how many children will prefer the unbranded versions to the "real thing", but this is nevertheless an important choice to offer.
Through sponsorship, celebration and shared experience, there are many beneficial cultural and commercial links between alcoholic drinks and sport. Nobody wants their image tarnished by drunken supporters or players who don't know when to stop. What we do want is for sport to work with drinks companies and all commercial sponsors to keep our eyes on the main prize - a happy, healthy and successful sporting nation.
· Trevor Brooking, the former chairman of Sport England, takes up a post with the Football Association in the new year. He is one of the participants in a debate on alcohol and sport that takes place tonight at Bafta, 195 Piccadilly, London W1.
