Gender and Sports

On April 23, 2013 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed the topic of gender differences in sports. Until 1972, when Title IX was introduced, women didn't many equal opportunities in sports. Many girls and women would not be playing sports today if it weren't for local and national legislation mandating equal rights (Coakley, 2010; pg 232). All people are classified into one of two sex categories: male or female. The categories are defined in biological terms, and they are viewed in terms of differences and opportunities; in fact, they're usually identified as "opposite sexes." All people in the male category are believed to be naturally different from all people in the female category, and they are held to different normative expectations when it comes to feelings, thoughts, and actions (Coakley, 2010; pg 258). These assumptions can lead to stereotypes like what we discussed during class lecture.

Agencies of Sex Role Stereotypes

The Family

• First question always asked when pregnant, boy or girl? Putting emphasis on gender importance.
• Parents direct behavior towards masculine and feminine activity.
• Toys, colors of clothing, and activities.

School

• Reinforces differential expectations: Girls take the role of having the "cute" and "adorable" personality whereas the boys take the role of being "class clown" and "imaginative."
• Steers boys and girls to different activities: Girls tend to do more shopping and hanging out with friends whereas boys play sports and hang with friends. 

The Media                                                                                          

• One of the most influencial and persuasive forces is the media.
• Preschool children watch 24 hours of TV per week.
• By the time they graduate, they see and average of 100,000 commercials.
• Sets agendas for how we think, act, and feel.

My opinion: I feel that womens sports have come a long way. Back before 1972, women in sports was not equal at all compared to mens. There are still some adjustments that need to be made. Thinking back to my high school, I realized that men and womens sports were not very equal. Although activist women and men dedicated to gender equity have produced many important changes, at least half of the 3.3 billion girls and women in the world today lack regular access to sports participation opportunities (Coakley, 2010; pg 233).




http://www.academic.marist.edu/mwwatch/spring03/articles/Sports/sportsfinal.html

Drug use in sports

On April 11, 2013 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed the topic of drug use in sports. We talked about the number of people addicted to drugs in the world which is approximately 22 million which is about 8% of the population. Since 1990, drug related deaths have increased by 540% . We talked about why athletes take drugs because of physiological, psychological, and social reasons.

Physiological Reasons                                         

• Increase oxygen transport
• Lose weight and train harder
• To build muscle and increase energy
• Mask injuries and reduce tardiness

Psychological Reasons

• Increase motivation
• To steady nerves
• To increase aggression

Social Reasons

• To win at all costs
• Pressure to win from coaches, peers, and media
• Belief that everyone is doing it
• By winning they can earn big money
• Fear of not winning

We also talked about how we felt about the use of steroids in baseball as well in other sports and how we felt about the players who use them. If we were to have the opportunity to choose if someone like Alex Rodriguez who used steroids, would we let him be in the Hall of Fame?

My opinion: I think that if you are an athlete and have cheated to make your way to the top then you don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. In my own opinion, I think that the use of steroids is cheating. I think that using steroids to enhance your ability is taking away from the game and the true meaning of what it takes to be a professional athlete and having the best athletes on the field. It takes true talent and skill to be a professional athlete, and it takes the use of steroids to destroy one. Cheaters never win.

Why shouldn't they take drugs?

Moral Reasons

• Gives an unfair advantage
• Undermines the true spirit or sport
• Reflects badly on others

Legal Reasons

• Against US law
• Against the laws of sport

Role Modeling

• Sets bad examples to others, especially young people who copy their heros and put their lives at risk
• Gives sport a bad image and lowers its status

So then now one frequently asked question would be, what is being done??

1. Strict, more rigorous and out of season testing
2. More strict punishments and life bans
3. Coordinated education programs for athletes and coaches which highlight the health and moral issues
4. More money for increasingly efficient and effective test programs
5. Unified policies about the issue

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0213/Drugs-in-sports-Who-is-winning-the-doping-war

Deviance in sports

On April 9, 2013 in my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed the topic of deviance in sports. According to Coakley's text on page 157, deviance occurs when a person's ideas, traits, or options are preserved by others to fall outside their normal range of acceptance in a society. During the lecture, we talked about America as a violent society. More people are in jail in the United States more than any other nation on earth, with about 22 million people in jail. The crime rate since 1960 has increased by 560%.

Examples of Deviance in Society

• Stealing
• Robbing a bank                                                              
• Using illegal drugs                                                        
• Violent crimes/ Murder/ Rape/ Battery

Examples of Deviance in Sports

• Fighting
• Bounty hunting
• Academic cheating                                                
• Performance enhancing drugs
• Gambling
• Illegal recruiting violations

My opinion: A lot of the reasons why we see deviance in sports in our society is because of the way that violence is publicised. Discussed during lecture, on average, a child watches a thousand acts of TV violence before they finish elementary school. In my opinion, video games hold so much violent content, and thats where a lot of children/teens learn these deviant acts. Some of these children/teens are ones who might grow up to be a professional athlete, and could someday chose to use these deviant acts for whatever reason may be all because they learned it from TV or a video game. One of the bigger things that bothers me about fighting in sports is the fact that in NHL they allow the athletes to engage in fighting and will only break up the fight if it goes to the ground. Young children are seeing this and might think that fighting is okay. Also, in MLB, if a batter charges the mound to attack the pitcher, you as a player on that team get fined if you don't come off the bench and fight someone. These are deviant acts that children learn because they are so widley broadcasted.



http://www.academic.marist.edu/mwwatch/spring03/articles/Sports/sportsfinal.html

Sports and the Media

 On April 2, 2013, in my American Sport in the 21st Century class, we discussed the topic of  whether or not sports could survive without the media. In the world today, there really is no way that sports could survive without the media. We live in a technology ruled world now where technology is expanding. With the use of internet, televisions, smart phones, radios, etc, sports are able to be spread across the world because of these types of media. The media had changed the way that sports have evolved and are viewed. Below is a list, that we came up with in class, of changes to sports as a direct result of increased media:

• Schedules and starting times
• Lengths of halftime periods
• Television timeouts (media timeouts)                     
• Expansions and formations of leagues

Media depends on sports, but not as much as sports depend on the media. Without sports, the media would not have as much to broadcast other than daily news, new movies, books, celebrities, politics, etc. There is a place for sports in the media, but if there was no sports, the media would still survive. In Coakley's text on page 408-409 it states that most media do not depend on sports. This is especially true for magazines, books, radio, films, and the internet, although it is less true for newspaper and television. The internet does not depend on sports, but certain online services make money when sports fans use the internet to get up-to-the-minute scores, obtain insider information about particular events, participate in fantasy sports, place bets with offshore bookies, access coverage of events, and enter exclusive online chats about athletes, teams, and events.

Things that the media depends on from sports:

• Importance and prominence of sports programming
• Creation of sports specifically for TV
• Creation of TV networks (For example: ESPN, NFL Network)
• Import of sponsors

My opinion: I think that sports without the media would be impossible. Honestly, everyday I come home from classes, the first thing I do is watch ESPN or get online to check my ESPN Insider news. Why? Because I love sports and hearing about the athletes and being updated on everything. I am not the only one who watches sports on a daily basis. So without the media, how would sports be broadcasted? The only way you could find out about sports is if you were located near a professional team. I also participate in fantasy sports teams online just for fun. Twitter is a great type of media. It really helps the fans be able to interact with the athletes. Fans are able to follow certain athletes they choose and are able to see whats going on in their profession. The one thing that athletes need to be aware of is what they say on twitter because a lot of things could get them into trouble, or possibly even loose fans.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1365810-social-media-in-sport-fantastic-future-or-tweeting-twits

Are sports stadiums Worth the money?

On March 28th, 2013, in my American Sport in the 21st Century class, we discussed the topic of whether or not sport stadiums are really worth all the money put into them. We came up with lists of cons and pros for this argument, and they are listed below.

Cons


New Soldier Field: Home of the Chicago Bears was remodled in 2002
with private fundsand $432 million of public money (Coakley, 2010; pg 377).

• The stadium jobs that are provided are seasonal and offer low pay wages, except to the athletes and executives.
• Construction materials are often bought outside of the local area.
• New businesses are often franchises located in other cities.
• Discretionary money is limited.
• Feeling good does not benfit everyone.

Pros

• The stadium and the team create jobs.
• Stadium construction infuses money into the local economy.
• The team will attract other businesses.
• The team will attract media and attention that boosts tourism, product sales, and economic development.
• The team will create positive psychic and social benefits.  

My opinion: If they are going to use a lot of money to build a stadium, then they need to make it beneficial to everyone instead of just the athletes. One way is that they could come up with ways to make the stadium be open all year round so that people could work all year instead of having just a seasonal job. That would really help benefit those who need the income. When going through construction of the stadium, they should first check with the local area for any materials that they could use instead of using so much money on having materials shipped to the area. In Coakley's text on page 376 it states that independent researchers explain that positive effects are bound to occur when a city spends $500 million to a billion dollars of public money on a project. However, they also point out that the public good might be better served if tax money were spent on things other than a stadium. I think that using millions of dollars to build a stadium is a ridiculous amount of money, but if that is going to be the case, then the founders should have to prove that it is going to benefit the city economically in the future.




http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/if-you-build-it-they-might-not-come-the-risky-economics-of-sports-stadiums/260900/

Are Athletes Overpaid!!

One of the big questions often talked about in professional sports today is the millions of dollars that teams are giving to these athletes. On March 28, 2013 in my American Sport class we talked about this issue and who is benefiting economically from sports. In the last two decades, the size of players contracts has exploded. In the early days of modern sport, athletes didn't make enough money to just play football or baseball they have had other jobs as well to put food on the table. Since that time there have been some changes that have provoked this rapid growth.

There used to be restrictive labor practices that kept players salaries down. There wasn't a free agency and players could not negotiate there own contracts, the owners made the decision. Until the mid 1970’s, professional athletes in the major sport leagues had little or no legal power to control their careers. They could only play for the team that drafted, and as a direct result, owned them (Coakley, 2010; p.381). The first free agency was in 1976 brought on by two players, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally. The first basketball free agency was in 1976, and the first football was not until 1993.
 
There were two legal systems that are responsible for these labor practices.
 
             Reserve System                                                                      
 

 Most restrictive in baseball and hockey   

                         

 Implemented in early 20^th century to mid 1970’s      

 

Players were bought and sold like property, 

and rarely consulted about their own wishes

 

Players were at the mercy of team owners, 

managers, and coaches

 

Each club had the right to negotiate with the players

whose services were reserved solely for that club

 

Each player’s salary was determined by the

  owners

 

               

         Option Clause

 

Most restrictive in basketball and football

 

Implemented from the early 20^th century to 1976

in basketball, and 1993 in football

 

Owners had the right to invoke the terms of a player’s

 contract one year after expiration

 

 

Owners only had to pay 90% of the original salary,

when the terms of a contract were invoked

 

If a player wanted to become a free agent he had to play one 

additional year with his original team for 90% of his contract

 

Yes there are athletes that make a ton of money, but the thing is there is only some many that really make crazy amounts of money like Lebron James and Alex Rodriguez. Most of the players in the NBA  get 1/4 of what Lebron gets. Here is the list of the average salary of professional leagues.

   AVE SAl.                         League MIN                                                           NFL$1.9M                            $405,000                 

• MLB-$3.31M                     $480,000
• NHL-$2.4M                        $475,000
•   NBA-$5.15M                      $525,000

When I look at those numbers there is one thing that stands out to me. The players that take the most beating in their sport get paid on average less than any other sport. In the NFL you have the shortest length of career and have the best chance of getting hurt and on top of that not all of your money in your salary is guaranteed like in other sports.
 
      Top 5 Highest paid athletes            

• Floyd Maywheather - $85M
• Manny Pacquiao      - $62M
• Tiger Woods            - $59.4M
• Lebron James           - $53M
• Rodger Federer        - $52.7M

     Top 4 Highest paid CEO'S

• Richard Fiarbank - $249M
• Terry Semel-  $230M
• John Hammergen - $145M
• Bruce Karatz - $135M

I think that athletes are not overpaid, but its getting very close in my opinion because what they do is very difficult and not everyone can do it. Less than 1% of us have the ability to be a professional athlete. Just think in terms of supply and demand. How many people have the ability to work at McDonald's, mostly everyone does. So you get paid very low in that job  because so many people can do it. So now how many people have the ability to be a doctor not very many and you get paid pretty good in that field because its not easy to be a doctor and there is less people to pick from. 
Now for a professional athlete, there is a very small number of people that can be one, it's less than 1% and that's why they get the kind of money they do. 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1089195-two-sides-to-every-coin-are-professional-athletes-overpaid

 
 

Abuse in Intercollegiate Sports

On March 7th, 2013, we discussed the topic of abuse in intercollegiate sports. One of the major problems in intercollegiate sports is where illegal recruiting violations have occured. College athletes are ammatures and are not allowed to receive any money for participation. Some division 1 schools have been caught violating this rule by giving money to athletes encouraging them to come to their school to play a sport, this is an unfair advantage. Another form of abuse that has been noticed is the alternating of grades and transcripts so the athlete can be eligible for a sport. Another thing is that easy majors are being made so that classes are easy enough for the athletes to pass all their classes in order to have a high GPA.

Reggie Bush is one of the top athletes
 to be caught in illegal recruiting violations and was stripped of
his heisman trophy.

Also mentioned in class, exploitation of athletes is another form of abuse in intercollegiate sports. The school uses the athletes image to promote selling tickets and merchandise in order to make money. The last issue discussed was pressure to win. The athletes get a lot of pressure from coaches, teammates, classmates, etc, to play at a high level day in and day out. Found again in Coakley's text on page 504, the lives of many intercollegiate athletes are controlled by coaches who's careers depend on making sure that athletes are completely dedicated to their sports. If they have an athletic scholarship, they are at the mercy of coaches who determine whether their scholarships will be renewed each year (Wolverton, 2008). Because of this, athletes are put in a tough position to focus mainly on their sport because they dont have control of their scholarship, and if they speak out or have a problem with the coaching or faculty staff it is possible that they could end up losing their scholarship if they are not 100% fully devoted to their sport.


http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1025477824078?LI=true#
 

Major Problems in Youth Sports

In class on February 26th, 2013, we discussed the major problems in youth sports today. Before I talk about the issues we came up with in class, I would like to explain my opinion on what I believe to be the biggest issue in youth sports. I believe that parent involvement is a huge issue in youth sports today. Not only do I believe this, but I also found a strong believer in this as well in an article online. Parents put way too much pressure on their kids to be the best at such an early age. It is not about being the best, its about being able to play and have fun, especially at such a young age.







One major problem discussed in class is overemphasis on winning. Winning should not be taught as one of the top goals in youth sports, they should be focused on their own personal goals instead. The second issue discussed was pressure by significant others to achieve success. Even friends place a major impact on putting pressure on the youth causing them sometimes to not be successful. The third issue was instilling unrealistic goals of stardum or professional status. Some parents may push their kids to this level because they want them to grow up and be successful and become a pro athlete, even though odds may be slim. The fourth and last issue we discussed was overuse injuries, over training, and burnout. By setting unrealistic goals, it can sometimes cause an injury due to the over training. By pushing young athletes above their comfort zone, it could cause them to be burnout from the sport which could mean that they do not have an interest in the sport anymore. Found again in Coakley's text on page 139, here is the youth sports national report card....

1. Child-Centered Philosophy: D
2. Coaching: C
3. Health and Safety: C+
4. Officiating: B-
5. Parental behavior/Enviornment: D

http://alphamom.com/parenting/youth-sports-theyll-make-you-crazy-if-you-let-them/

Benefits of Sports for Youth

In class on February 21st, 2013, we talked about the benefits of sports for youth. In my opinion, I think sports for youth is good for many reasons. It helps them develop a good set of communication skills followed up with team work. It helps them start new friendships at a young age that could last a lifetime. It also helps them set personal goals for their future. It gives them a good insight on the meaning of competition and helps them realize that sometimes winning isn't everything. We can relate sports to everything we do in life, and its good for them to realize that at such a young age. I believe sports can mature someone from a young person to an adult.

Here is the list of the main benefits that were mentioned in class

• Develops and maintains fitness
• Preparation for adulthood
• Opportunity to learn values
• Teaches interactive skills
• Produces opportunities for leadership

In my opinion, the world we live in today is not a very healthy society. So I strongly believe that developing and maintaining fitness is the best benefit you can get from participating in sports. Found on page 144 of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies by  Jay Coakley, research shows that playing youth sports can enhance social and physical development, but it doesn't do this automatically, nor is it likely when programs are not organized to match the overall maturational level of the children who play in them.

Why do boys and girls participate in sports? (Top 5 reasons, ranked from most important to least, discussed in class)

Boys

1. Competition
2. Fitness
3. Recognition
4. Friends
5. Parents

Girls

1. Friends
2. Parents
3. Fitness
4. Competition
5. Recognition

http://www.livestrong.com/article/95377-benefits-sports-children/

Athletes as Role Models

In the world today, we set athletes on high standards. When growing up, kids tend to look up to people. Not just people in general, but more professional athletes than anything. A major contributor to this is the fact that kids can see these athletes on television and all through the media. In my opinion, athletes should act as role models. They know their every moment in life is going to be publicized, so they need to act respectful for those who admire them. In my American Sport in the 21st Century class, on February 17th, 2013, we talked about these following important character qualities:

• Honesty
• Commitment
• Good sportsmanship
• Sense of humor
• Fairness
• Determination
• Good self-image
• High moral values

Also mentioned in class, in the beginning of the 21st century, athletes viewed being a role model as part of their jobs. I feel that every single professional athlete should make being a role model as part of their job, but there are some athletes who think otherwise. For example, found in an article online, Charles Barkley, a former NBA basketball player, gave his opinion on this topic. In a 1993 Nike ad featuring Charles Barkley, people criticized Barkley about his opinion he gave about being a role model. The words spoken by Charles Barkley are...

"I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball, doesn't mean I should raise your kids."

You can read more about this in the article linked below. Another thing mentioned in class was who are and who are not good role models.

Good Role Models

• Pat Tillman
• Tim Tebow
• Michael Jordan

Bad Role Models

• Dennis Rodman
• Mike Tyson
• Ron Artest
• Charles Barkley

Dennis Rodman  







                                                  

  Pat Tillman












http://bleacherreport.com/articles/376089-professional-athletes-as-role-models-is-it-their-job