Deviance in Sport

This picture shows the New Orleans Saints during their bounty hunting.

On October 31st, 2013, my American Sport in the 21st Century class discussed the topic of deviance in sport today. We talked about how the United States jail system is becoming overpopulated and crowded and the crime rate since 1960 has increased by 560%. It is also ironic that our nations favorite sport, football, is also the most violent sport. We as a society want to see the violent tackles, but without the injuries. With the size, strength, and speed of players now days injuries are prone to happen. This is why the NFL has tried so hard to enforce no helmet-to-helmet collisions, and head shots. During class we discussed that in football the rate of getting a disabling injury is over three times greater than working in high-risk construction jobs. We also talked about how former players have sued the NFL because of their permanent brain damage sustained from playing in the league which includes suicide thoughts, depression, and memory loss.

Examples of Deviance in Society

1. Underage alcohol consumption
2. Illegal substance use
3. Stealing/ robbing a bank
4. Violet crimes- murder/rape/abuse/battery
5. Vandalizing

Barry Bonds comparison, did he take performance enhancing drugs?

Examples of Deviance in Sport
1. Fighting
2. Bounty hunting
3. Academic cheating
4. Performance enhancing drugs- worst, biggest threat to sports
5. Gambling
6. Illegal recruiting practices



According to Coakley's text on page 157, he states "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" (Coakley 2010 p. 157).Which I agree with and feel that athletes do most of their acts of deviance when they are under a great deal of pressure. This can range from pressure to perform well in order to get a new contract signed or the pressure to win a championship to solidify their career to make the hall of fame. Athletes are constantly under a great deal of pressure, but then again that's why they get paid the outrageous amounts of money they do.

 

 

 

This article called Changing the Culture of Sports Deviance, written by Jill Weinberg on Thursday, February 28th, 2013. Summarizing the article, it goes on to talk about the incident with Lance Armstrong and his story of taking performance enhancing drugs. The story also mentions the goal of hitting 75 home runs in a season, but is tempted to take performance enhancing drugs. They don't name a specific person, but in my eyes I would assume they are referring to Barry Bonds. They also mention the illegal hits in football, which may take the penalty if it gives them an advantage in the playoffs. If we want to change the culture of sports deviance the best way would be to start at the roots. Children are exposed to numerous acts of violence daily, especially in the media and video games. Video games such as NHL promote fighting and in the MLB games the pitchers can hit batters which generally results in a bench clearing brawl. Then the whole series of Grand Theft Auto games is based around committing acts of violence. If we are ever going to change the crime rates and attempt to reduce sports deviance it will have to start from the bottom.

For the full article follow this link: Changing the Culture of Sports Deviance