Final Reflections

My perception of US sport before this class was more of an athlete look at it of how I love to see the big hits and I for me the sexualization of women in sports is something I didn't disagree with before.  I looked at sport a lot more ignorantly than I do now that I have taken this class.

It has definitely changed from this class to make me look at sport in a way to see what we really value in American sport and further of what we really value in American society.  This class has shown me the deep parallels that are in sport and society and how they reflect each other very closely.  Watching sports and anything really involving sport I will now have a different lens in which I watch these sporting events and be able to enjoy sports for the reasons I enjoy playing these sports.

I think the topic of the gross inequality of women and men in sports.  But I think the most important thing we looked at was that when women are in sports or sports advertisements are always sexualized.  There is never any sort of empowerment for women in sports and athletics which I don't think is necessarily the right thing.

I definitely will ask more critical questions when I watch sports and are around sports because from this class there are many things now that I did not know or at least notice about sport that I now know from this class and personally I think that it will help me understand a sport and society connection more.

My future career will be a lawyer so there is a chance that some of these skills I won't necessarily need then but I think the general idea about critically think about simple issues that I didn't think abut before is a good skill to have in anything that I do.  As for being a lawyer the debates in class were a great thing since there is a good chance that I will be in a debate during sometime of being a lawyer.

I will definitely recommend this class to a friend, in fact, I have already recommended this class to a friend and I think they are going to take it next fall.  I really enjoyed the class, it isn't your typical lecture and I really enjoy those type of classes.  Especially for my last semester before I graduate I really enjoyed this class.

Why the 'Mans Mans' Game is an Insult to Men

Every time we see or hear an athlete "coming out" and especially in the professional realm we focus on all the famed athletes and people that are saying they support the person and things are different today and it is safe for people to come out.  Is it really though? I'm not sure.  On one hand I do think things are better and that there is more support for people who are willing to come out.  On the other hand, largely we don't see what goes on in locker rooms and behind the scenes.  Maybe, it is safe and the players that do come out walk into the locker room with their head held high and an aura of respect among the players and coaches.  Or maybe not, maybe there is an aura of disgust, confusion, and fear that the gay player is going to look at me while I am changing so the teammates call names and act as if they are not a part of the team anymore.  I do think that it safer today in society for LGBT members and I would also like to think that is safer for athletes as well but I think the sport, the region, the level of sport, and the way in which they come out all play big roles in the perception.

In the Robbie Rogers article he talked a lot about Jackie Robinson and Muhammed Ali and how they changed sports forever for African Americans.  I do know that these two men made enormous amounts changes to American sport, but I also know that things did not automatically change overnight with either of these men.  The better level of equality we now have with African Americans started with Robinson and Ali but it came from more and more African Americans making their way into American sports.  That is what I think we need for LGBT athletes in American sports.  We need more people like Robbie Rogers, Michael Sams, Jason Collins, and Jennifer Harris to take a stand against people in American sports like Rene Portland and show that LGBT athletes in sports should come out and they will be safe.

I especially thought this article was very interesting.  Although I didn't use it in my blog I enjoyed reading it.  Making sports gay-friendly for athletes

Sports Pages #13: Friday Night Lights

Countless times in movies, hollywood and so many national depictions the significance of sport in African American culture has been so important.  Many times this depiction of the lives of African Americans displays their lives in ways that it seems that the only thing African Americans can do is sports.  In no way do I agree with the previous observation, however there are several real life stories like we saw in Hoop Dreams where young African American's only chance at a better life is to succeed in sports and receive scholarships.  In those cases where young African Americans use sports to get out of there rough home life and childhood, sports are incredibly important and play a significant role in their lives.  

In the film Friday Night Lights, the story follows the world of high school football in a small town, Odessa, Texas.  The film follows the high school football team through the entire season until the state championship game, which they lose (sorry for the spoiler if you haven't seen it).  The team's star running back who 'carries' the team, Booby Miles, tears his ACL in the first game of the season.  Booby then spends the rest of the movie trying to cope with his injury and trying to keep his numerous Division I scholarships.  This is very similar to the story we saw in Hoop Dreams with William Gates.  Just as William struggles with getting good grades in school to be able to get into college we see the same thing in a powerful scene in Friday Night Lights in which Booby breaks down in the car with his uncle and cries and repeats that all he wants to do is play football and the only thing he can do is play football. 

Personally, I don't think sports are ruining African Americans, in most cases I think sports create a vast amount of advantages just as they do to other athletes.  This idea of sports ruining African Americans is rooted in the idea of the lack of advantages they have in other aspects of life.  If we really want to change this idea and not make sports such a focus maybe there should be more advocating for educational and real-world advantages to African Americans.  As far as this idea preserving race, I don't agree at all.  However, if we are going to acknowledge this and say maybe it is preserving race, then there are countless other things present in today's society that are preserving race as well.  Race is always going to be present, its not going away.  What can go away is choosing to judge, stereotype, deny, and overall let it affect the way we interact with people on a daily basis.  If we could act this way it wouldn't matter if race was preserved or not because at the end of the day disparities among races wouldn't be anything like they were fifty years ago, or eventually the way they are today.  

Gendered Sports: Football Cops Commercial

This commercial aired about a year and a half ago for Directv that I think was exclusively aired on their on demand channels.  Personally, I think this commercial is hilarious and I was dying laughing so hard the first time I saw it.  Especially Peyton Manning's line at the end when he says "He knows what it means!"  Obviously, that it was the commercial is going for, a funny commercial with two professional quarterbacks that aren't known for their acting talents.  A deeper meaning behind this commercial shows gender roles and also the fame that the American society holds professional athlete to.  Although Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are playing fake cops there still is some resemblance to the way these two men represent and stand for the city they play in.  These men and especially professional athletes in general are more popular and famed than actual police officers that protect the city.  Furthermore, there are also no women athletes in these commercials, which shows the gross inequality of men over women athletes in media.  In almost every women sport played, especially in the US, women sports continue to stay in the shadows of male sports (Rodriguez).  The only time we are likely to see women in the media with commercials and advertisements come from sexualized ads where the females exposed their bodies for whatever the product is even if it has nothing to with a person's body.  On an obscure level this commercial with the women in distress being saved by the Mannings is sort of related to the way men's sports is viewed as the savior of sports within American society.  Women's sport is viewed as this lesser form of sport and not equal to the level of play within men's sports.  Therefore, American society reinforces gender roles by men being this being made for sport and physical activity while women are seen as mere sex symbolic rather than actual superior athletes.  This may be an extreme classification of of men and women's sports, however at one time in history society was truly viewed this way.  Today I think women have made great strides in being viewed as equals and I think things are continually getting better.

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football Players Get Paid?

This idea of Pay-for-Play for college athletes has been widely debated on both sides of the spectrum.  Many of the arguments I have seen and read that actually bring up valid points and hold some weight are the ones advocating for not paying the players.  On the positive side of paying players people refute allowing it because the athletes are already getting a scholarship of somewhere around $100,000 and they don't need to be greedy and getting more (Hartnett, 2013).  In a New York Times article by Tyson Hartnett in October of last year he points out three reasons of why it is unfair to not pay the athletes: first, many coaches of these athletes are making $100k+ a year and if their team makes it the playoffs they get bonuses; second, the "non-profit" NCAA signs multi-billion dollar contracts with TV companies; third, the athletic programs bring hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.  These back-up Hartnett's argument by showing that the coaches are making an incredible amount of money with bonuses on top and what do the players get in return for making the playoffs, nothing.  Furthermore, if the NCAA is supposed to be non-profit and be for the benefit of the athletes then shouldn't some of these billion dollar contracts be going back to the athletes.

On the other side of this argument Darren Rovell wrote an article on ESPN.com about the reasons why we should not pay the athletes.  In Rovell's article he quotes NCAA president Mark Emmert saying "The reality is schools are spending between $100,000-$250,000 on each student-athlete."  This side of the argument really tries to bring in this idea of college athletes and especially football and basketball athletes are exploited labor within in college athletics. Emmert mentions that many people have suggested that players should be able to sell their own autographed memorabilia and market themselves while playing in college.  However, he refutes that point because the popularity and greatness of some athletes is higher than others so the range of money athletes would be receiving would be based on their playing and skill level.  This, Emmert says sounds a lot like paying for play which is what the NCAA is trying to stay away from and to keep the amateur sanctity of college athletes.

This is something that I have thought about and have many times fallen into this gray area between both arguments.  On one hand I feel college athletes receive a lot of benefits from college athletics as far as a scholarship, gear, clothes, and shoes that are considered absolutely necessary for the athletes to perform.  So, in this argument I don't think the athletes should be paid at all and they receive enough benefits for it to be worthwhile.  However, I also believe that college athletics is comparable to a full-time job and that these athletes are giving up so much of their time to perform for the university that they should be paid for the everything they do.  This argument will linger on for a long time so I think I have some time to make my final decision.

High School Sport

During the time of high school sports and when they emerged social conditions looked very sexist and racist.  This is why today we see some of the women's sports in high school looked at as activities and not actual sports.  They were more sports to cheer on the men to play.  Also there are perverse race distinctions of the sports and when they emerged a lot of them were made up of white men.  As this has actually changed over time there is still some of the lingering effects that started with the creation years ago.  In the actual study from Doug Foley done in a small high school in he Texas he quotes "As in most pep raffles, on the Friday I am describing, the cheerleaders were in front of the crowd on the gym floor doing dance and jumping routines in unison and shouting patriotic cheers to whip up enthusiasm for the team. The cheerleaders were acknowledged as some of the prettiest young women in the school and they aroused the envy of nobodies and nerds. Male students incessantly gossiped and fantasized about these young women and their reputations."  This quote fully puts into perspective the type of role girls played in high school 'sports'.

Jay Coakley wrote about high school sports were supposed to embody this idea that by putting kids and young adults through sports would build character.  And not just an athlete character but one that was considered to be successful in every aspect of his (mainly) life.  He further addresses that was no need for research into actually seeing what these athletes became and what type of character they have because of this idealized quote of "sports make what I am today."  High school sports are supposed to build character and personal traits that are to set a person up for the rest of their life and in whatever they do in life, because of sport they will be successful.  However, from many scenarios we have seen about athletes that sports have built them to be such an incredible athlete that once it is all gone they have no character outside of sports.  Also, high school sports have classified the athletes as  better people than the kids who choose not to compete in sports and take part in other activities.  One part of Foley's study that the did he talks about the treatment of band members in which he entitles "The Marching Band and The Band Fags" which just about sums up what the entire section is about.  High school sports in some instances have built kids in to great young adults with lots of character and in other instances it has led to perverse socialization of athletes over non-athletes.  

Currently the status of interscholastic sports is two sided debate between the necessity of high school and/or college sports.  Some people argue that interscholastic sport is taking away from what sport is meant to be and that it also takes away from the important things in school.  On the other side of the argument are the people saying that student athletes actually do better in school and more often they graduate from high school and go to college.  

Some problems with interscholastic sport is that it changes the student culture within the school, often giving popularity and fame to athletes.  This then tends to glorify the athletes and puts all other students not in sports as the other and they don't fit in.  This type of behavior is what starts what was previously mentioned about the marching band being called band fags.  Not only does this create a hierarchy among the activities students participate in, but it also creates a hierarchy in gender, orientation, class, race, and ethnicity.  These are the problems that people emphasize that are wrong with interscholastic sports.

I think one solution to one of these problems is that schools and especially coaches and anyone or anything reinforcing these sports as better than any other interscholastic activities needs to stop that and actually do the opposite.  These people and institutions that are in charge need to a better job making all interscholastic activities as important as the next.  There is no reason why football needs to be placed as a superior sport or activity to band or anything else.  I think helping this equality of activities will also help to slightly get rid of the sexual orientation put-downs that we hear so much.  There are any problems with interscholastic sports, but there are also a lot of the great things that sport has done for students and I don't think those need to be overlooked either.

The Great American Football Ritual:
Reproducing Race, Class, and
Gender Inequality 

Once the cheering stops: The life of a retired pro-athlete

A majority of the time the life of a retired athlete is not pretty at all it usually this struggle of running out of money and finding a job that they can actually make a living with the skills they have outside of the playing field.  Athletes have a very difficult time trying to find a job when they leave the league because most of the time they haven't made any connections during their sports career that could set them up with an actual career.  They also see a lot of difficulty in being able to save money during their career with fraudulent investments that actually hurt them in the long then actually setting them up with a stable financial future.  Like quoted in the ESPN 30-for-30 the men often talked about the constant spending on cars and luxury items that they didn't really need and eventually it hurt them.

These men also face a lot of problems when they transfer from playing into a retired life because they don't have any real world work experience that is actually valued in the workforce or business world. Like the New York Times article Eric Knott had talked about how people saw baseball on his resume and they though of it as a career gap and that he didn't have any experience.  Most of the time this is the kinda thing that the athletes face of not having any help in their transition to a whole new life.  A lot of this comes from no successful organizations or incentives that come from the respective sports leagues foe the players.  Although, this maybe seems to be changing with a couple business and entrepreneurial classes former players can take that was brought up in the New York Times article, there is still a big gap that players are trying to make it through.

Furthermore, I think the athletes are struggling so much because some of them only see a few years of college, if any, depending on the sport, which in turn causes them to have no real world skills that are applicable in the business world.  Also, I think there needs to be a lot more help coming from the leagues themselves.  Even relating to the previous sports pages post, maybe Roger Goodell could focus a little less on spending millions of dollars on a foreign football team or more foreign football games and focus more on the retired players who sacrifices themselves for the leagues that are now having a hard time raise their families because of their financial troubles.  This side of sport cultures I think is considered the dark side.  This is the side of sports that people 'like to forget' because people want to see professional sports and athletes as these superhuman people who give us this entertainment and live lavish fantastic lives.  However, that isn't the case these athletes maybe do live these lavish lives for a few years but there comes a point where they cannot play anymore and when that happens they are thrown into a world of unfamiliarity and a no-income lifestyle.  This harsh reality of retired athletes, beyond the medical issues of playing the game, is a dark side to sports and US sport culture that will never truly be better and perfect, but it can be improved with the right programs and help from the corresponding sport leagues and major actors within those leagues.

I have thought about this and a lot of what I feel was expressed in talking about the the dark side of retired athletes.  Retired athletes need more help and more programs that can set them up for their future.  Another harsh reality is that the American people would like to believe that every athlete would be as well off as Michael Jordan with his enormous shoe contract that has made him more money since he's retired than ever did when he was still in the league.  So many people before have compared sport to war and athletes to soldiers and in all honesty this connection of the players retiring and finding a job and soldier coming back from war trying to find a job might be the closest one yet.  Many soldiers have gone to serve before college or served as their college and service is much appreciated but anther harsh reality is that there are so many veterans that struggle everyday when they come back from war.  This all sounds to similar to athletes, maybe there is a program that can help both.

Sports, Politics and the Olympics

The 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico is widely known for the student massacre and the racial protest from some of the athletes.  Many athletic events happened that are still remembered to this day as their records still stand or the results were so shocking the will always be remembered.  One of the biggest events was the Student massacre at Tlateloco Plaza in which student protested the incarceration of the leaders of the National Student Strike Committee as well as the PRI's lavish expenditures on the Olympic Games.  The students were murdered in cold blood by white-gloved paramilitary forces and army platoons.  At this time there were many opposing reports so the actual number of deaths vary, but a good estimate was 337 students.

http://www.olympic.org/photos/yaaat005

From Sage and Eitzen's Chapter their idea of Sport as a Vehicle of Change in Society seems to have a to of similarities with the 1968 games.  The reason I think this is because that is partially what the leading political party in  Mexico (PRI) was trying to do.  They wanted to show the rest of the world that they were emerging and that it was time to get rid of that third world title that had been associated with them for so long.  However, the students and people in opposition to the PRI believed there were many other welfare issues that should be addressed long before they bring the Olympic Games to Mexico City.  I also think the Sport and Nationalism idea by Sage and Eitzen was comparable to the '68 games because it was actually the reverse of what was in the chapter.  Essentially after the massacre there was a lessened sense of nationalism from the people of Mexico and especially students and people that disliked the PRI, which actually grew into more opposed political parties after the massacre and the games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute

As far as the statement regarding sports as being completely devoid of politics, I do not agree nor do i completely disagree.  I think that little league and the lower levels of sports that essentially don't involve the sport as an occupation are the purest, nonpolitical forms of sport.  However, keeping in line with the Olympics I believe that these glorified higher levels of sports revolve around politics.  For example, In a Scholarly Article by Andris Zimelis title Let the Games Begin, in the 1968 Olympic Games were one vote shy of being canceled because of the massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico City that were politically revolting against the Olympic Games.  Although the games were a success, there was still a lot of domestic political unrest in Mexico City because sport.

London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

The NFL is keen to expand overseas because sports and especially in America are all moving towards this idea of Globalization of the sports world.  Sports nowadays are hugely dependent and focused on money and viewership.  As much as it bothers me to say it, it seems that all the people in the sports world care about is making money.  I think the NFL chose London for several reasons.  One being that Wembley stadium houses enough fans and is a good location geographically for the NFL.  Also, London has a big concentration (from the recent popularity and attendance at the last games) and in terms of money it has been successful for the NFL, which is why some people think it should be a permanent thing.  The previously mentioned aspects are factors that are facilitating the NFL overseas and for good reason.  However, I think social media is also playing a big part in the increased amount of NFL fans and popularity in London.  One London newspaper writes about how Facebook, Twitter, and Google all have offices in Shoreditch and are helping the popularity of American Football.  One blogger in London Jamie Cutteridge and his friend David Dickson started an NFL blog called Any Given Sunday Night that was originally planned to just give people information about the game and what was going on in general.  However, the blog spiraled out of control and is now one of the main sources for fans to find out instantaneous scores, highlights, and updates.  The blog and much social media in and around London has this mentality of "no fan gets left out".  This is the type of snowball effect that has been happening since 2007 when the games started in London.  Some drawbacks to the expansion to London were brought up perfectly in the article by Bill Barnwell in which he brought up everything from travel time, affects on the players from traveling, players not wanting to live abroad, the cost of living abroad, should the teams abroad be allotted more cap room, should players get cost of living pay, players refusing to play for teams abroad, and will they even sell out the stadium eight times a year?  All these points are very valid and I think most of them are too important to try and make adjustments.  And if these adjustments were done then the game would change radically and personally I would be disappointed with Goodell and the NFL.  This dark-side aspect of the game that has been brought up before, is really apparent in the expansion talks.  This league is called the National Football League for a reason, it is an American game in which American teams play each other.  The NFL has really seen ultimate low for me personally with trying to put a team in London.  The reason this is a low is because it is another reminder that the NFL is really all about money.  And not for that love of the game that most of experienced when we were little.  The game is supposed to be pure and in the greatest sense a form of art.  The game now in the NFL is so much about money and expanding and making it so extraordinary and amazing.  However, I think the game itself is both extraordinary and amazing but its hidden behind the shadows of money, expansion, and greed.

How Social Media is Helping the NFL Grow in London

The Sociogenesis of Cricket

The first documented cricket information was approximately somewhere around 1550 in Guildford, Surrey.  Without actual documentation it is assumed that cricket started somewhere in northern England sometime after the Dark Ages.  From the research I couldn't find one specific person or group of people responsible for the start of cricket.  However, I did find a couple cricket clubs that were supposed to be at least partly responsible; they were The Hambledon Club and the Merlebone Cricket Club (MCC) (Brittanica).  Earliest records of cricket have exclusively men playing the game and specifically aristocrats and business men.  Cricket diffused to North America through the English colonies in the 17th century.  Cricket later diffused to West Indies, Austrailia, New Zealand, and South Africa then followed by the rest of the world by the beginning of the 19th century.  The first recorded rules came from The Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick in 1728 were known as the Articles of Agreement.  In 1774 the rules were amended things like the maximum bat width, middle stump, and giving authority of in-game decisions to the two 'umpires'.  The amendments were done by the Star and Garter Club which were made up of the same men who started the MCC.  The original equipment was a bat that was usually a sturdy curved tree branch that resembled modern day hockey sticks.  The ball that was used was usually a roundish rock that wasn't too heavy to break the branch.  The equipment slowly evolved to more handcrafted elegant bats and balls.

http://neweraofsports.blogspot.com/2013/06/history-of-cricket-starting-of-new-era.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GandM_Purist-Grace_match_cricket_balls.jpg

http://hockeygods.com/hockeys/15-Bandy

1844 First official international match: Canada v United States.

1853 First mention of a champion county: Nottinghamshire.

1873 WG Grace becomes the first player to record 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season.
First regulations restricting county qualifications, often regarded as the official start of the County Championship.

1900 Six-ball over becomes the norm, instead of five.

1910 Six runs given for any hit over the boundary, instead of only for a hit out of the ground.

1971 First one-day international: Australia v England at Melbourne.
1975 First World Cup: West Indies beat Australia in final at Lord's.
1976 First women's match at Lord's, England v Australia.

2005 The ICC introduces Powerplays and Supersubs in ODIs, and hosts the inaugural Superseries.

The sport now faces current issues of dealing with serious misconduct like Pakistan a few years ago being accused of ball tampering.  There are also some problems with getting an international league and regular season system that we see in so many other sports.  It also faces trouble with making sure that women's cricket is seen as just as important as men's on national levels as well as internationally.

History of Cricket

Cricket Encyclopedia

ESPN History of Cricket

Sport in the Ancient World

Coakley addressed a few games that were especially popular at the time, wrestling, boxing, javelin, discus throwing, foot racing, archery, and long jumping were all popular in Ancient Greece.  The most popular ones were especially wrestling and foot racing as we saw in the YouTube videos for Ancient Greece.  However in Ancient Rome, the games were more used for training soldiers that doubled as spectacle for the Roman people.  There was a big focus on creating and honing individual skills that would be used in battle, according to Coakley.  As far as the characteristics, the Greeks were very particular about the time and place of the olympiad games.  The games had to take place after the third or fourth full moon after the summer solstice.  Modern sports are often controlled by some sort of bureaucracy that makes the rules and any changes to the game or the rules. In ancient times it is best to look at the Greek games in which they had what they called a 'gymnasiarc' that was in control of each gymnasium in each Greek city.  These gymnasiarcs would act as the bureaucracy and adjudicate the rules and the games.  In Roman sports they an official governing body known as the guild of athletes that adjudicated the rules of the game and even established what tools would be used in each game or what the the athletes would wear. In the beginning the games took place for a single race, as years went on they got more and more elaborate to more chariot races and even to boxing and wrestling (Guttman).  The games started and ended with elaborate festivals to celebrate the games and the athletes and especially the athletes that won.  Based on the explanation you can infer that these games often played a role more in the lines of entertainment than some religious ceremonies at all.  The entertainment was generally for the upper class while the lower class men would compete.
The Roman games however mocked the Greek games because they took place, as previously mentioned, as a preparation to war or to train warriors.  In Roman society gawking over Greek games was considered agains the views of the nobility (Guttman).  As far as sport as religion, in comparison to modern sport the Roman model is more akin to the sports we now see (Guttman).  The Romans even saw their games a possible ulterior to war.  The Greek olympiad games and the Roman war training games were often seen as games for lower class.  There were certain games that were more aristocratic, such as tennis and bowling.  From the Guttman reading in Greek games like tennis and bowling the government ruled them as only available to aristocrats and nobleman.  These games were considered for such nobility that gender did not matter anymore.  Furthermore, there were many women that were actually considered to be far superior than some men at the game.  These were really the only games that women could participate in, most games in Greek and Roman cultures were exclusively created by and played by men.  Considering specialization/professionalism of the athletes it was highly recommended and pushed for in Greek sports.  However, in Roman sports they thought professionalism in a sport dampened the building of an all-around person.

Sport, Society & Me

Sports, for me, have always been the one I can turn to or focus on when other things weren't going the way they were supposed to.  Other than the deep meaning of escaping problems sports are something that relieves stress and eventual relaxes me.  I started sports very young and being in a family where sports are important gave me a competitive side very early.  I was never a kid with a lot of video games so I was always outside playing street football, baseball, or basketball.  I admit now that sports are not as prevalent in my life today as they were four or five years ago.  However, when I can find the time I never turn down a fun pick-up game or time to the throw the baseball or football.  This connection started young and will never really be out of my life.

I think in American Society sport plays a very important role and I believe this role can be positive and negative.  There are many negative aspects to sports in society that come from steroid abuse and all the other aspects that were brought up in Eitzen's chapter.  I also believe there are positive aspects in sports in America, it can teach perseverance, strength, and character.  However, sports in America tend to get incredibly overly sensationalized and I think most people get caught up in the sensationalization that they forget what values we are actually supposed to get out of sports.  I believe sports are supposed to teach you something outside of the basics rather than how to abuse steroids and make the most money possible.  I think I came to this conclusion through the losses and disappointments in sports, a bad game, a bad play, not starting, and not making it to the next level.  These tough times taught me that sports aren't everything in life and even when the competition is over I had still learned valuable lessons and that I will always have that "love for the game" if you will.  Athletes in America are very respected, even more so the more popular or well known they are. The 'best' athletes are more respected, for example Peyton Manning is more respected than say a lower level of quarterback like Josh McCown.  However, if a quarterback like Josh McCown came to a high school clinic to coach some quarterbacks he would be very respected by those players are being coached by a player who made it to the highest level of the sport.  I know this because of my level of respect for lower level quarterbacks because of the coaching I have received from them.

The Sport Ethic

The Sport Ethic is this rough guideline of what it means to be a 'real' athlete.  Furthermore, it comes from the coaches and players that are closest to the game and knows what it means to make sport as important as it is.  There are four categories that describe the Sport Ethic.  The first is being an athlete means making sacrifices for the game, this basically means that athlete will do anything to keep up with the demands of the game and the competition.  The second is being an athlete involves striving for distinction, this means that athletes will do whatever they can to get better and get closer to perfection, winning and successes help immensely here but this is usually an ongoing battle.  The third is being an athlete involves accepting risks and playing through pain, this means the athlete plays through pain, risk, and fear, essentially an athlete will play through pain or make the play that has a lot of risk because it needs to be done for the team and to succeed.  The fourth is being an athlete involves refusing to accept limits in the pursuit of possibilities, which means that an athlete doesn't accept a situation without trying to change it.
Athletes conform to these beliefs because they crave the exhilaration of the sport and the positive reinforcement of succeeding from coaches or other players or fans or anyone who shows praise to an athlete.  I have encountered some of the criteria, the first criteria I did everything I could do to play football in high school and start on varsity.  I was trying to stick to a three to four thousand calorie diet with mass amounts of protein to put on weight.  On top of all that I was trying to get faster and throw harder and more accurate that I worked myself into lower back problems.  Which leads me to the third criteria of playing through pain.  My lower back pain came from scoliosis which from the doctors told me to fix it completely at that time would've meant sitting out my senior year, I decided to play through the risk and pain and finish my senior year.  Looking back on it now it sounds more dangerous than I thought at the time but I guess that is where the over conforming to these beliefs comes into play.

Sports In The USA

Here in America we have several popular sports which are American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, and Soccer.  One characteristic that all these sports have in common is that they all have some sort of professionalized level in which the best adults in each of these sports play for teams representing their respective states in the United States.  In general, each of these sports has different divisions within all the teams that divides them into two sides.  All the teams on one side play each other until the last two from each side are left to play to see who is the best out of the entire country.  This type of competition, for the most part, extends through all non-professional levels.  Furthermore, sports in America are obsessed with determining who is the best out of everyone.

A Typical Game Day:

AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

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This is probably what most people think of when they think of a game day.  Game day for fans of the popular sports in America usually means tailgating and grilling hot dogs and hamburgers on the back of their truck or SUV and drinking beer.  Of course not all people can go to the actual game so most people do the same sort of things just at their home.  Athletes in America however have their own unique rituals that "gets their head in the game" or in other words gets them focused on what they need to do to win.  This isn't something that can be boiled down to burgers and beer, each athlete or even coach has their own way of getting ready for the game. During the actual game athletes still have their own ways to stay focused on the entire game.  In America we are obsessed with the big hits, big plays, last minute scores, overtime games, and the most extravagant wins.  We place so much importance on the best that we even want to see the best games, which means close games that come down to the last minute.  We value competition over anything else, blowouts are not as valued as other close games.

As previously mentioned, in America we measure success by wins and by who is the best.  In America, winning means success, and the ultimate success is to win the final game or the championship.  As for the athletes we associate the characteristics such as the best, champion, or the person who overcame great lengths to win.  In America, we love to see a person overcome some great lengths or injuries to come back and win and be the best.  One of the biggest stories in America right now is about Peyton Manning and how he had several neck surgeries a couple years ago and sat out an entire year of football and everyone thought he wouldn't come back as good as he ever was.  Now, he is in the championship game and has had an incredible year.  These are the stories and values we use when we think about sports in America and being successful.