"Darwin's Athletes": Sports and Ethnicity

Sport has become an integral part of African American culture. Sports provide an opportunity for poor children to go to school and get out of low income areas. Many inner city African American children wouldn't be able to afford to go to school without scholarship funds. Sports are also a way to make copious amounts of money so they can support themselves and give back to their families. Without the structure of sports, many African American children turn to less productive activities due to the confines of poverty.

Hollywood films like The Blind Side, Coach Carter, and Glory Road tell uplifting stories of unprivileged African American young overcoming diversity to be successful in sports. While these movies might be based around true stories, they do not really accurately epitomize the role of sports in African American culture. Hoop Dreams depicts the daily struggle of living in less affluent locations while trying to achieve the ultimate dream of going to the NBA. In reality, the majority of children aren't good enough in their given sport to use it as an outlet. The athletes that are good enough often face pressures from their community and family that are too overwhelming to handle. Pressure of that magnitude can be damaging to a young, fragile mind.

While I believe sport is a great way for unprivileged children to succeed in life, I think too many kids rely on sport. I understand many low income areas don't have the funding for school, but I think their needs to be a bigger emphasis put on education as a means of overcoming adversity. If African American children think the only way out is through sport or music, they have no reason to make education important.

Sports, women, and gender order

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhkFcuZcsk0

This Go Daddy commercial begins with an attractive blonde female getting out of a car holding a beaver. Paparazzi are rapidly taking pictures of her saying, "Is that her beaver?" Then Danica Patrick gets out of a car dressed in a long sleeved outfit, showing no skin. The paparazzi quickly stop taking pictures of her because she is not showing her "beaver."

This commercial pretty much sums up how women athletes are sexualized and exploited primarily for their marketability as sex symbols. The fact that the paparazzi didn't think it was worth it to take pictures of Danica Patrick because she wasn't showing skin or being "sexy" epitomizes how female athletes' actual skill or ability hold little esteem in the media. Danica Patrick is an extremely accomplished nascar driver and the only female in her sport, yet photographers don't care because she isn't following the traditional gender role of female athletes as sex symbols. While Danica displays strength in the commercial by not conforming to expected gender roles, the message in the commercial is actually quite dangerous for young female athletes. It suggests that no matter how hard you work or how successful you are in your given sport, the media will not pay attention to you unless you are willing to comply to their sexualized perspectives. That kind of message can not only prevent young people from participating in sports, but it can also cause them to approach sports the wrong way. It saddens me that women don't get the attention or respect they deserve for their abilities and successes in sports.

Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender representation in ESPN the Body Issue

The 2013 ESPN body issue actually did an excellent job diversifying the photographed athletes. Not only did ESPN equally represent both genders, but they also adequately captured almost every race including athletes of all ages, shapes, and sizes. For example, they took pictures of a 77-year-old male golfer and a 50-year-old female golfer. They even photographed a pregnant Kerri Walsh.

ESPN is traditionally associated with many sexist tendencies. The network airs drastically more male sporting events than female sporting events. Also, announcers are typically male while sideline reporters are attractive females, exploited for their looks. Considering the sexist tendencies of the ESPN network, it's quite surprising how diverse the body issue is.

No matter the gender, race, age, sport, or body type the ESPN body issue depicts the athletes in similar fashions. All the athletes had multiple pictures in the magazine. Each had an action shot and also a leisure shot that attempted to make them seem alluring. The one exception to the action shots was Kerri Walsh, which I think can be excused considering how weird it would have been for a pregnant woman to be in an action shot of her sport.

Unfortunately the ESPN body issue is not indicative of the diversity in the rest of the sports media world. Women are constantly underrepresented in the media and when they are represented, they are typically shown in ways to exploit their looks rather than their abilities in sports. If other media outlets follow the body issue's template for diversity, maybe women will finally receive the credit they deserve as exceptional athletes.

Jake Packman

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid?

The debate over whether college athletes should be paid has gone on and will go on for years. There is reasoning supporting both sides of the argument. According to the USNews article "Should NCAA athletes be paid?", the NCAA makes roughly $6 billion annually (http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-ncaa-athletes-be-paid). Between ticket sales, merchandise, and television rights, universities generate tens to hundreds of millions of dollars between their football and basketball teams. They exploit the famous players by selling jerseys with their numbers. The athletes are risking possible career ending injuries, yet receive no reward for their risks. If the athletes are the reason people are purchasing tickets and merchandise and why people are watching the games on t.v., why shouldn't the athletes be paid? With the exception of paying the coaches, the schools receive all of the profits from the teams. College is incredibly expensive and even with scholarships, many athletes struggle to afford the expenses associated with college. Receiving a salary for playing would undoubtedly help athletes.

However, some consider scholarships as a form of payment. Division 1 schools are expensive to attend, especially if a player is going to an out-of-state school. So, in a way, players are getting a top notch education for free by receiving an athletic scholarship. Also, paying athletes would give a distinct advantage to bigger schools who generate more money from their teams. For example, according to the "Shame of College Sports" article, big schools like Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State generate between $40 million and $80 million per year. Compare that to schools like Kansas and Missouri who generate roughly $15 million annually and the profit gap becomes apparent. If athletes were paid in college, decisions to attend which school would be based on who could pay the most. This would make the level of competition even more lopsided than it already is.

I'm somewhat torn on this topic. I feel it's wrong that schools get to exploit the talents of college athletes to make millions of dollars. Considering all the hard work players put in and the risk of injury they face, I feel athletes should be compensated. However, for the sake of college athletics, I think paying athletes would be detrimental for many reasons. Firstly, players would start picking schools for the wrong reason. Education level wouldn't matter as much, which is an underrated aspect of choosing a school for athletes in my opinion. Also, big schools who can pay the most would get all the best players, giving small schools basically no chance of winning. One of the reason March Madness is so appealing is that year in and year out a small school underdog makes a cinderella run. If athletes were to be paid, I fear this would be nearly impossible.


Jake Packman

Once the Cheering Stops: The life of a retired pro athlete

During their playing careers, athletes live the life. They play the games many people participate in for fun as a living. Not only are their jobs considered hobbies for most, they receive millions of dollars to play them and obtain unfathomable fame throughout the world. Many of these athletes are younger than I am right now and are easily less mature, as well. I'm not sure what I would do if I were given several million dollars every year, but I know I would make my fair share of immature purchases and be less than conservative with my money. So I don't necessarily blame athletes for the ridiculous spending on cars, homes, and accessories that the majority of athletes make during their playing careers. However, this spending is often detrimental to athletes once they retire.

Upon retiring, athletes typically become so accustomed to the fame and fortune of their playing days that they don't know how to transition. The pay checks stop coming in,  but the expenditures and purchases remain sky high because they don't know any other way to live. Many athletes grew up poor and began spending fruitfully when they received their multimillion dollar salaries as a 20-year-old or so. After retiring, many athletes can't, or won't, go back to spending less, so many eventually go broke. Athletes like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger Woods will never go broke due to endorsements and the eternal fame associated with being one of the greatest of all time. Standard, less successful athletes aren't as fortunate.

A lot of athletes are undereducated due to going straight to the pros out of high school or leaving college early to join the professional ranks. This lack of education adds to the immense spending because athletes aren't taught how to save or invest their money. Also, the lack of a degree makes it difficult for players to get a job after retiring. I realize it is somewhat unconstitutional to prevent players from playing professionally before graduating college, so I won't suggest that as a solution. However, I feel like if professional sports made it a requirement to hire a financial advisor, players would be better suited to transition into retired life.

Jake Packman

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

The 1936 Olympic games, held in Berlin, Germany, were viewed by Adolf Hitler as an opportunity to express the ideals of the Nazi party to the world. In the attempt to further impose the racial supremacist nature of the Nazi party, Hitler banned Jews and African Americans from the games. However, boycott threats from several nations caused Hitler to remove the ban and allow Jewish and Black people to participate in the games. With the exception of Helene Mayer, a german Jewish woman, Jewish and black athletes were still not allowed to participate on the German team.

The 1936 games clearly fall under the "Sport as a Propaganda Vehicle" in Sage and Eitzen's five political uses of sport. Hitler used the games to show the world the superiority of the german people under the Nazi party's control. In his book The Nazi Olympics, Richard Mandall said, "The festival planned for these games was a shrewdly propagandistic and brilliantly conceived charade that reinforced and mobilized the hysterical patriotism of the German masses." Germany's success and medal count in the games verified Nazi superiority in Hitler's eyes.

The statement "sport is pure and devoid of political interference" is absolutely not true. Politics have played a role in nearly ever olympic games, whether it be the Nazi games, the Black Power games in Mexico City, the Munich Massacre in 1972, and the list goes on. Politics in sport goes beyond the Olympic games, as well. The military uses the NFL as propaganda when it equates football to a battle, or war. Referring to football as war desensitizes the public to the violence and injustice of war and strengthens public support of war through the popularity of the NFL.

Jake Packman

London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

As with most decisions made by NFL executives, the reasoning behind the desire to move the NFL outside the USA revolves around increasing revenue. Europe provides a new market for ticket sales, but also, more importantly, a new area to sell T.V. rights to view games. London makes sense for the ideal expansion site. For one, it's an English speaking country, so announcers and other small aspects of the game could be easily transferred. London also contains Wembley Stadium, which would be an ideal location for games for both capacity and accessibility reasons.

One of the main factors playing into whether to actually permanently move a team to London is whether the team could obtain a consistent fan base. When the NFL plays their annual game in London, the fans come from all over Europe, not necessarily from London or even England for that matter. Also, most of the fans are already die-hard NFL fans who hold devotion to a particular team already. It's difficult to determine whether moving an NFL team to London would create a new fan base at all. It's also difficult to determine whether fans in England would shift their devotion to a new team just because it was in London or whether they would remain faithful to their previous team.

If a team were to become successful in London in terms of marketing and increased revenue, it would also present several problems within the league. Firstly, traveling that distance is hard on the body and NFL players have a tough time keeping their bodies healthy as it is now. Teams from the west coast would have a particularly hard time dealing with jet lag and time change. Regardless of the effects on the body, the travel circumstances would provide a distinct advantage to the team in London. Between extended travel time and adjustment time, the London team would have considerably more time to prepare for the incoming team.

Jake Packman

Sport in the Ancient World

In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome they participated in the sprint, javelin toss, disc toss, wrestling, and long jump. These sports were the precursor to many olympic events, which athletes still participate in the olympics today. The winner of any of these events would receive not only money, but also olive branch crowns, beautiful pots, jars of olives, and would be allowed to choose who they wanted to marry. These original events differed from the current style of play in many regards. For instance, mishaps or losers were often treated by being beaten and ties were often decided by wrestling or fighting to the death. 

Only men, particularly those who were in good shape, participated in sports. In the case of the Roman gladiators, many of the participants were slaves. Sports were largely regarded as entertainment, even the fights to the death to resolve ties and gladiator battles. However, sports were also heavily religious. The athletes prayed to and worshipped the gods both before and after the sports. Those who won were considered to be favored by God. 

Jake Packman

Sociogenesis of Basketball

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith. Although born Canadian, Naismith invented basketball at the International YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. He originally included 13 rules and the first game consisted of two teams of nine as opposed to the current five versus five format. The first games of basketball were played with a soccer ball and an actual peach basket, hence the name basketball, so each time a point was scored the game came to a stop as a janitor retrieved the ball out of the basket. Eventually holes were cut through the bottom of the peach baskets and metal hoops, nets, and backboards, as well as a Spalding basketball, were finally implemented in 1906, which are still used today.

The YMCA and American colleges were largely responsible for the development and spreading of basketball through the United States and world. The first public YMCA basketball game was held in 1892 and by 1893 the first organized college basketball games were being played. By 1910 the NCAA was invented, but a National champion was not implemented until 1939. While the YMCA and American universities were primarily responsible for growing popularity in the United States, World War I played a huge role in spreading basketball overseas. Many of the troops were physical education teachers or YMCA members who knew how to play basketball. During down time, many of the troops would play basketball, which introduced many Europeans to the game.

Basketball was originally played by almost all white males since the invention of the game came before the civil rights movement or the implementation of Title IX. African-Americans began forming amateur teams and leagues as early as 1906, but the first professional African-American team was not founded until 1922. Despite successes of these African-American teams, the NBA didn't being integration of African-American players until 1950.

The NBA was founded in 1946 and remains the most popular basketball league in the world. The current rulebook of the NBA contains some similar, more complex versions of the original 1891 rules, but also many differences. The original 13 rules made by James Naismith contained some of the basics of basketball like traveling, goaltending, fouls, five-second out of bounds, and delay of game. The current NBA rulebook has been condensed to 12 rules, however, each of these rules has been divided into tens of subcategories. Some of the major changes to the original rules include fix fouls before fouling out instead of two and four 12-minutes quarters instead of two 15-minute halves. Another major change to the rules came when the three-point shot was adopted in 1976 when the NBA and ABA, a rival league founded in 1967, merged.

Uniforms were not introduced until the 1920s and originally consisted of padded shorts and wool jerseys. Modern jersey material was then introduced in the 1930s. Shorts were traditionally short up until the 1990s, when Michael Jordan and the University of Michigan basketball team helped popularize longer shorts. Jerseys have been traditionally tank tops, but in the last year the first sleeved jerseys have been introduced in the NBA.

While there are few challenges facing basketball today, there were many problems of the past. The first challenge came from racial integration as documented previously. Also, in the 1970s and 1980s the NBA had a drug problem, primarily revolving around players' abuse of cocaine. Commissioner David Stern successfully eradicated the drug problem. The main challenge facing basketball today is to continue to try to spread the popularity of the sport in foreign nations.

Jake Packman

Sport, Society & Me

From the moment I was born, sport has played a significant role in my life. The earliest pictures of my infancy consist of me holding a baseball while wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey. While my father was and is still heavily interested in sports, my brother is the one who really made sports an integral part of my life. My brother is nine years older than me and some of my most meaningful memories from my childhood revolve around me watching him pitch for his high school and college baseball teams. I think my brother's excellence during his playing days are what instilled the sport ethic dimension of distinction in me. He won the county player of the year in high school, received a full-ride scholarship to play at Sonoma State University, and would have been drafted into the MLB if he hadn't torn his rotator cuff and broken his wrist, which ultimately ended his career. So growing up watching him, my competitive nature forbids me to lose or let others outperform me. However, my brother was blessed with more natural talent and his work ethic was far less rigorous. I had to make far more sacrifices to achieve the level of success on my baseball and basketball teams. Although my playing days are over, sports still consume my life on an everyday basis. Ultimately, I hope to work in a profession revolving around sports.

Sports play both negative and positive roles in society. In some regards it gives people hope knowing that an underdog can defeat a powerhouse. It also instills a sense of strong work ethic, which can translate to any profession. However, I think it's wrong that athletes receive millions of dollars to play a game when teachers and other professions that are integral to the prospering of mankind are drastically underpaid. Athletes are clearly held in a high position in society, evident by their ridiculously high salaries and overall fame throughout the country. Most young children cite athletes as their role models and almost everyone would like an autograph from their favorite athletes.

Jake Packman

Sport(s) in the USA

There is a common misconception that the only popular sports in America are baseball, basketball, and football. While it may be true that these three are arguably the most popular, sports like Nascar, hockey, and soccer are growing in popularity and are widely viewed throughout the country. With the exception of Nascar, the other sports previously listed have many similarities. They all possess scoring systems using a ball or, in hockey's case, a puck. Once again with the exception of Nascar, each of the other sports are team-oriented. Professional sports in the USA are extremely profitable both for the individual athletes and the organizations as a whole.

Typical game days vary depending on the sport. Some sports like football, soccer, and golf are traditionally played during the day, while sports like baseball, basketball, and hockey are played at night. Regardless of the time of play, pre-gaming and tailgating are an integral part of a game day experience for fans. Success in sport can be measured in several different regards. However, it comes down to one thing for me: winning. Many fans consider an athlete successful if he puts up good statistics or breaks records. However, in my opinion those statistics and records mean nothing when not accompanied by a championship. One can argue that lack of championships for certain players could be a result of poor players surrounding him on his or her team. It's my belief that great players elevate the level of play of their teammates. The idea of championships as a measure of success amongst athletes is particularly evident in the NBA. When debating who is the best player of all time, fans always resort back to the amount of rings a player possesses. That's why Lebron James will never be considered the greatest of all time over Michael Jordan until he equals or eclipses Jordan's six championship rings. Maybe my opinion of winning as the only measure of success stems from my competitive nature and refusal to lose in anything.

The Sport Ethic

Hughes and Coakley refer to sport ethic as the necessary conformity that athletes must adhere to in order to be considered a "real athlete." However, in the attempt to become a "real athlete," sport ethic provides a platform for deviant behavior, such as performance enhancing drugs.

According to Hughes and Coakley, there are four dimensions of sport ethic. The first dimension revolves around sacrifice to the game. This sacrifice can take many forms. It can refer to sacrificing the body in the rigors of training and long season. It can also refer to sacrificing other hobbies and interests as they take a back seat to the attempt to perfect one's craft in sport. The second dimension pertains to seeking distinction. The sacrifices made to perfect one's craft are in an attempt to separate an athlete from his or her peers. Breaking records and winning championships are the ultimate goals for many athletes and achieving these goals makes athletes distinct from lesser competition. The third dimension speaks of taking risks and playing through pain. While physical injury and pain should be expected, mental toughness is arguably an equally important factor in defining a "real athlete." Athletes should always embrace the big moment and never shy away from the pressures associated with defining events. Lastly, the fourth dimension refers to athletes refusing to accept limits in the pursuit of possibilities. Professional sports are largely popular due to viewers admiration of athletes skill and ability. So, the saying "nothing is perfect" should never enter an athletes mind as they continue to strive for limitless perfection.

Humans are born with an innate sense of competition. This competitive drive causes athletes to adhere to these dimensions because winning fuels them. Losing is unacceptable, so sacrifices and distinction are mandatory. I've experienced all four dimensions of the sport ethic. I've lost friends because I put basketball first. I've last range of motion in my fingers because I played an entire season with three broken fingers. I've strived and achieved distinction and perfection when my team went undefeated my junior year.

Jake Packman