"Darwin's Athletes": Sports & Ethnicity

In African American culture sport is highly looked upon. Many people in this culture look at sport as a way out of the "projects", and as a great opportunity to achieve higher education along with their goals and dreams. Sport has a positive impact on the African American culture. Sport for them can keep them out of trouble, and give them class mobility. Sport plays a big role in their culture, and gives their future generations more hope and more opportunities. 
 
However, in Hollywood films this culture tends to support more of the stereotype of African Americans athletes. Hollywood usually portrays these athletes as the under dogs who reach salvation,  they tend to come from  the rough part of town, and when they become successful they become flashy, and spend all their money. This all may have some truth to some situations, but it surely is not the case for all. In Hoop Dreams it does portray some of these aspects. William and Arthur did come from rough parts of towns, and had to over come difficult situations. However, both boys reached some part of their goal, and they ended up achieving a high education because of their sport. 

The Hollywood film, Coach Carter, is some what similar to Hoop Dreams in the aspect of education, and over coming adversity. The basketball team at Richmond High School  was coached by Kent Carter. These boys were from a rough part of town, and struggled just to stay in school. The coach turned this group of boys around with the game of basketball. He showed them how to work hard, and to come together as a team to be successful. This coach also, pushed them to do well in school if they wanted to reach that next level of basketball; which William and Arthur had to do as well. The ending of this movie resulted in them losing the championship game. However, multiple players received scholarships to play in college, just  like William and Arther had. Both movies are true stories ; the Hollywood film in just more dramatic and not in the form of a documentary.

 I do not think that sport is damaging the African American race. I think the race it is portrayed  poorly as any race is at times depending on the situation,but overall I think sport is bringing a lot of opportunity to them. Like I stated before I believe sport has a positive impact on this culture. 

Real Women

This Avis commercial with Gabby Reece is promoting Avis, the rental car system. The commercial starts off with her being viewed as a "professional" working woman. This shows the gender message that both men and women are capable of having  professional careers. This commercial does a great job showing a woman athlete as a strong independent woman, that still looks feminine. The Avis commercial seems to go against the gender roles because Gabby Reece is seen as doing what a man would be doing. She is not participating in stereotypical women gender roles such as, being in the kitchen, or dealing with children. This commercial strictly shows her being a professional women with a career. Also, the gender relations this commercial contains is that men and women are similar in the work force. In the commercial she is dressed professionally, and drives a masculine car (Chevrolet Suburban). However, all this is contradicted at the end of the commercial. It shows Gabby arriving at the beach to teach yoga, and as she gets out she talks about how large the car is that she could change into a "tight little number"in it . This now puts the gender message back to females representing sex symbols to sell something, or to get men interested by using their sex appeal. This could send the wrong message to young girls by showing them that to be successful you have to use your sex appeal. Women can be powerful, and just as successful as men. However,  in order to do so they must be attractive, and use their sex appeal. I don't think society is ever going to allow this to change.

References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEgkgdQmug8

"Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender/race representation in Sports Illustrated"

There seems to be a pattern of the covers in Sports Illustrated during the year of 2013. Over the year there was 102 magazine covers done, and with that their was no covers featured with an Asian female or male athletes. There were numerous covers done of white and African- American male athletes, but then again no females. The only covers that featured women were the swimsuit edition, and one with Kate Upton with two baseball players from the Braves.

However, in 2003 Yao Ming was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The real question is why has it been 11 years since an Asian athlete has been featured on the cover? Some studies showed that for a long time there were not many Asian children involved in sports. Nevertheless, in 2001in larger cities such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago, were where there was evidence that more Asian children participated in sports. More Asian children started participating in sports later on because they finally saw adults on Sports Center that looked like them.

 So, is it just that there is not a significant amount of professional Asian athletes that participate in the "big 3 sports" , meaning baseball, basketball, or football that Sports Illustrated can feature in their cover? If this is the case, why can't Sports Illustrated widen  their horizons on sports. Why can't they feature lacrosse, water polo, or even ice skating? If they featured ice skating they could definitely feature a  professional Asian, male ice skater, but more then likely they won't because it doesn't fit the masculine appearance of the male athletes they feature in their magazine.

I think in order for Sports Illustrated to eliminate discrimination between races there needs to be an equal number of covers of each race. No matter the variation of sports at which the different races partake in they should be recognized to eliminate the favoritism of  one race over the other.  If they do not do this the Asian professional athletes will never get the same recognition as the other professional athletes do.


References:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/photos/1305/si-covers-2013/3/
http://www.asian-nation.org/sports.shtml

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

The argument for whether Division one basketball and football players should get paid could go either way. Both of these sports popularity have grown larger throughout the years. They bring in millions of dollars a year through ticket sales, booster donations, and cable deals as one of the articles stated (NYT Sports Economy 3). These universities also pay millions of dollars for the best coach. For example Ohio State pays their football coach $4million a year (4). So the question is if these universities are making large amounts of money, and can afford to pay their coaches millions of dollars, why not pay the athletes? The athletes are the ones that cause the wins, and sacrifice their bodies to play. However, the counter argument for this is that college athletes are at the university to get an education as well, but most player's don't tend to think this way. Studies have shown the better the team is doing the more the student athlete's study less, they consume more alcohol, and party more. They are not focused on their academics, and by paying them could just cause this to worsen. I think that people tend to forget the real reason athletes go to college and play is to get an education, so that way if they don't make it to the pros they have something to fall back on. However, at the same time college sports brings school spirit amongst the students, and becomes a big part of college. So maybe the athletes should get rewarded by all that they do for the university. Like I said the argument can go either way; there are pros and cons on both sides. 

High School Sport

High School sports have become a big part of school and society. They originally emerged in the 1900's , and was modeled on the English Public School System. High School sports have great objectives for the athletes that are participating in them; these objectives are perseverance, team work, determination, and responsibility. However, these athletes are not meeting all these objectives. Responsibility, is the main objective that is not being met with school work. High Schools have tried to solve the issue of the  student athletes lack of successful grades in classes by the eligibility rule. However, if these athletes are top athletes, and their teams are dong well that season teachers have the tendency to overlook their lack of effort and pass them, or give them the grade they need to be eligibly to compete. 

The American society does not help this issue; in fact if worsens it. These athletes are pressured to be the best and perform at high levels constantly that is forces them to prioritize their sport first instead of education. When in reality, if something were to happen and their sports career ended they need their education to fall back on. There are many more problems the pressure of high school sports  causes such as the use of performance- enhancing drugs, and social identity of a " student athlete". Although there is an imbalance in priorities, along with the other problems the pressure of the high school sports cause there is not one solution to solve these problems. In order for high school sports and the pressure involved with them it is the society that has got to change because the society expects the best. Which is why student athletes struggle with balancing their sport and education; they conform to the social identity of high school sports. 

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

The ESPN film about retired NFL players was interesting and very shocking. The fact that majority of NFL players go bankrupt after only a few years of starting their retirement is astonishing. The film talked about how these players become millionaires when they are in their early 20's. As a 20 year old, and not finishing college, it is no wonder they go through their money in the first couple of years of being a pro athlete. People that young, let alone young pro-athletes do not know how to spend wisely,and save money; or make investments for that matter. Realistically, going to the NFL at that young of age is a huge accomplishment, and who wouldn't want to spend their money how they wanted to, and purchasing everything they have ever wanted (which is exactly what they do). However, this is what really hurts them in the long run. Meanwhile, this is not the only thing that makes them go bankrupt later.

In the film, it also talked about how these pro-athlete's agents, and investment deals scam them just for agents to get more money out of them. Also, due to being famous, people know your salary, and  they know how much your endorsements are. This has caused people to break into player's homes; thinking they store all their money there( how ignorant). Not only do players, lose money from agents, investments, or people trying to steal it they also, spend it carelessly. One player in the film he dropped $500,000 on jewelry for his friends and family. Not only do they buy gifts for family and friends but the players all like to keep up with one another when it comes to money. Another, big spending problem was gambling. Another player in the film stated he lost $10 million dollars in gambling.

 These players have become introduced to this luxury life, but what they didn't understand was that the "more money they had, the more problems it created". The NFL players had huge taxes, they had periods on the off-season where they didn't get paid which caused them to live pay check to paycheck. Almost majority of the players financially supported multiple families and friends because they felt like they owed them for becoming so successful; a lot of them also had very high child supports to pay due to how many kids they had. In other words, they had a lot bills and expenses, and the careless spending only made them reach bankruptcy faster.

Numerous financial adviser, and coaches stated there that there was no way any of these athletes should have gone bankrupt. They all needed financial advisers. The athletes lived in the moment, and did not think of what could go wrong or what they had to pay for. Such expenses included divorces ( which were extremely) expensive, medical bills from all their injuries, and just life in general after not playing in the NFL anymore.

It was also, interesting to learn that the NFL is not considered a career because the players can get released at anytime. It is also shocking to find out this professional sport that has the lowest salaries, but has the most injuries. For how many injuries, and sacrifices the NFL players make you would think they would make more.

Hopefully, after seeing what these former NFL players have gone through, and seeing how after bankruptcy they had to start all over will help the current players make better decisions. Planning for retirement, saving for incidents that could occur, and sticking to a decent budget should help NFL players from have to claim bankruptcy.

Sport, Politics, & The Olympics

Prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, the people of the country were not content with what was going on in regards to the Olympics. They witnessed their government spending millions of dollars preparing for the Olympics, but left the people in suppression of independent labor unions, farmers, and economy. Students in Mexico City formed the Student Movement. The Student Movement was created to get students (high school and college) to stand up for their people, and to try show their government they wanted democracy. These living condition were not acceptable to the them, and they wanted a change. On October 2, (10 days before the Olympics), 10,000 students accumulated in the Plaza de las Tres Cultura in Tlatelolco for a "peaceful rally". They all started chanting " We don't want the Olympics, we want revolution". The government saw this as a threat, and ordered 5,000 soldiers, and 200 tankettes down to the plaza to break it up. This is when shots broke out, and 42 people were killed. After, this had happened the media and government stated that the "peaceful rally" was a riot, and that one of the rioter's started shooting first. Low and behold, later on the investigation relieved that the shooter was ordered by the government to go down to the plaza to start shooting the students. Numerous students witnessed a helicopter give a sign for the soldiers to start shooting as well. By the government, lying about what had happened just showed they wanted to cover it up, and show that the people were being chaotic. The massacre was the people's fault, and the government was just trying to keep the "problem under control" in the government's eyes. They also, didn't want this to have an effect on the Olympic Games.

To connect this event prior to the 1968 Olympics, with Sage and Eitzen's five political uses of sport would be with demonstration and violence. All these students wanted was to establish a democracy before the government spent a great deal of time preparing for the Olympics. The people and students were frustrated that the Olympic Games were more important than their needs as a country.These students and people were standing up for what they thought was right. They wanted a change, so they decided to do something about it. It is depressing to know that from everything in history leading up till now, people who want change, and stand up for what they believe in will always suffer for it.

In regards to the statement "Sport is pure and devoid of political interference" I strongly disagree. There is always going to be politics in sport whether we like it or not. What happens in the world is always going to have an impact on sports, and someone is always going to have a say about it. It is sad to say, but it seems it is something we are going to have to get used to and deal with.