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    Ethical Dilemmas in American Sport

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    182 VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY Ethical Dilemmas In American Sport THE DARK SIDE OF COMPETITION Address by D. STANLEY EITZEN, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University Delivered to the symposium, ”s port And American Values, Angelo State University San Angelo, Texas October 31, 1995 ues, Lam going to focus on the consequences of the two that I consider the most central — achievement and competition. We Americans glorify individual achievement in competitive situations. A recent book, The Winner-Take-All Society, shows how we heap incredible rewards on winners and barely reward others in a number of markets including sport. The values we promote throughout American society are believed to be good. They motivate. They promote excel- ‘make individuals and society productive. They fit ism. And, they make life interesting, We believe that sports participation for children and youth prepares them for success in a competitive society. According ‘to folk wisdom, these young people will take on a number of desirable character traits from sport. They will learn to perse- vere, to sacrifice, to work hard, to follow orders, to work t0- gether with others, and to be self-disciplined, Assuming that these traits are learned through sport, what else is learned through the sports experience? This is the central question 1 wish fo discuss, I will focus on the dark side of competition, emphasizing ethical dilemmas, Now I want you to know that while Iam going to be critical ‘of sport, much ofthe time I celebrate sport. 1 was an athlete in high school and college. I have coached youth sports and sev- ‘eral high school sports. My children paticipated from youth sports through college sport. The last 25 years I have been an active researcher and teacher in the sociology of sport. 1 am energized by sport. Going to sports events and watching them on television adds zest to my existence. | savor the great mo- ‘ments of sport, when my favorite team and athletes overcome great odds to defeat superior opponents. Lam transfixed by the excellence of athletes. am moved by the genuine eamarade- rie among teammates. Of course, I suffer when these same athletes make mistakes and fall short of expectations. The key is that | genuinely love sport. I want you to place my critical analysis of sport within the context of my great affection for sport. [love sport, and in criticizing it, I hope to improve it Sport has a darkside. Itis plagued with problems. Bigtime sport has corrupted academe. Coaches sometimes engage in ‘outrageous behaviors but if they win, they are rewarded hand- somely, Gratuitous violence is glorified in the media. Some athletes take drugs. Some athletes are found guilty of 5 rape and spouse abuse, Many athletes cheat to achieve a com- petitive edge. Sports organizations take advantage of athletes. Inthe view of many, these problems result from bad people. | believe that stems from a morally distorted sports world — a ‘world where winning supersedes all ther considerations, where moral values have become confused withthe bottom line, And winning-at-any price has become the prevailing eode of con- duct in much of sport This address is divided into three parts: (1) A brief exami- nation of the high value placed on success in sport; (2) The ‘ethical dilemmas in sport that can be traced to this emphasis on ck nit en Ae success; and (3) the consequences of unethical practices in sport. SUCCESS: WINNING IS EVERYTHING My thesis is that American values are responsible for many ofthe ethical problems found in sport. We glorify winners and forget losers, As Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts ‘comic strip, pus it: “Nobody remembers who came in second.” Let me quote a few famous coaches on the importance of win- ning: inning isn’t everything, itis the only thing.” (Vince Lombardi) Defeat is worse than death because you have to live with defeat.” (Bill Musselman) *“In our society, in my profession, there is only fone measure of success, and that is winning. Not just any game, not just the big game, but the last ‘one.” (John Madden) **There are only two things in this league, win- ning and misery.” (Pat Riley) **Our expectations are to play for and win the national championship every year .. second, third, fourth, and fifth don’t do you any good in this busi- ness.” (Dennis Erickson, when he was head foot ball coach at the University of Miami) Americans want winners, whether winning isin school or in business or in polities or in sport. In sport, we demand wi ners. Coaches are fired if they are not successful; teams are booed if they play for ties. The team that does not win the Super Bow! in a given year is a loser. My team, the Denver Broncos has made it to the Super Bow! three times and lost that big game each time. In the minds of the Bronco coaches, play: ers, fans, as well as others across the United States, the Bron- ‘cos were losers in each of those years even though they were second out of twenty-eight teams, which, if you think about it, is not too shabby an accomplishment. ‘One other example shows how we exalt first place and de~ base second place. A football team, composed of fifth graders were undefeated going into the Florida state championship game. They lost that game in a close contest. Ata banquet for these boys following that season, each player was given a plaque on which was inscribed a quote from Vince Lombardi “There is no room for second place. I have fini twice at Green Bay and I never want to finish se There is a second place bowl game but itis a game for losers played by losers. Itis and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do and to win and to win and to win.” In other words, the parents and coaches of these boys wanted them to not be satisfied with being second. Second is losing. The only acceptable placement is first. If second is unacceptable and all the rewards go to the win- ners, then some will do whatever it takes to be first. It may require using steroids, or trying to injure a competitor, or alter- ing the transcript of a recruit so that he or she can play ille- ally. These, of course, are unethical practices in sport, the D. STANLEY EITZEN topic of this paper. ETHICAL DILEMMAS This section points to some questionable practices in sport that need to be examined more closely for their ethical mean- ing and consequences. The culture of certain sports. The essence of sportis com petition. The goal isto win. But to be ethical this quest to win ‘must be done ina spirit of faimess. Faimess tends to prevail in certain sports such as golf and tennis but in other sports the prevalent mood is to achieve an unfair advantage over an op- ponent, Getting such a competitive edge unfairly is viewed by ‘many in these sports as “strategy” rather than cheating. In these sports some illegal acts are accepted as part of the game. Coaches encourage them or look the other way, as in the case of steroid use, Rule enforcers such as referees and league com- missioners rarely discourage them, impose minimal penalties, or ignore them altogether. The forms of normative cheating are interesting and impor- tant to consider because they are more widespread and they clearly violate ethical principles. Nevertheless, they are ac- cepted by many. In basketball, for example, itis common for a player to pretend to be fouled in order to receive an undeserved free throw and give the opponent an undeserved foul. In foot- ball players are typically coached to use illegal techniques to hold or trip opponents without detection. The practice is eom- ‘mon in baseball for the home team to “doctor” its field to suit its strengths and minimize the strengths of a particular oppo- nent, A fast eam can be neutralized, for example, by slowing down the basepaths with water or sand. Home teams have been known to gain an edge by increas- ing the heat by several degrees from normal in the Visitors dress- ing room to make the athletes sluggish. At my school the vis- iting football team’s dressing room is painted pink. This upset the coach of Hawaii because the color pink, he argued, reduces strength and makes people less aggressive. Let's look at sportpersonship in spor, using three examples. First, in a state championship basketball game in Colorado, ‘Agate was playing Stratton. Agate because of a mixup over keys could not dress in time, ‘The referees called a technical foul, allowing Stration to begin the game with two free throws. ‘The Stratton coach, however, told his player to miss the shots, A second example involves a football game between Dartmouth and Cornell a number of years ago, with Dartmouth winning. Later, after reviewing the films, it was established that Dartmouth had received a fifth down on its winning drive. ‘The Dartmouth president forfeited the win, Asa third example, consider the case of a basketball team in ‘Alabama a few years ago that won the state championship — the first ever for the school. A month or so later, the coach found that he had unknowingly used an ineligible player. No tone else knew of the problem, Moreover, the player in ques tion was in the game only a minute or two and had not scored The coach notified the state high school activities association and, as a result, the only state championship in the school's history was forfeited. Each of these examples has an unusual resolution. They represent acts of true sportspersonship. Usually, we hear of the opposite situations, a team scoring with a fifth down as the University of Colorado did to defeat Missouri in the year Colo- rado won the national championship but refused to forfeit (not only did this school accept the victory, $0, too, dd its coac the very religious Bill McCartney). Last year, Stanford and 183 Northwestern played to 041-41 tie, After reviewing the films, the referees admitted that they gave Stanford an undeserved touchdown, yet Stanford did not forfeit. What did the fans of these offending schools say? What did the media outlets say? ‘What did the school administrations say? At my school, Colo- rado State, the football team upset LSU in 1992, On CSU's ‘winning drive there was a fumble. A LSU player fell on the ball, bt in the ensuing pile up, a CSU player ended up with the ball illegally. The player, Geoft Grenier, was quoted in the newspaper that he elbowed and kicked a player in the ple to et the ball, The referees did not see this action and awarded the ball to CSU. CSUs coach, Earle Bruce, said: “One player ‘who should get eredit for the victory is Geoff Grenier. If we hhad lost the ball, the game was over. Geoff found a way to get the bal.” The point: the coaches, players, and fans ofthe “win- ning” teams accepted these ill gotten gains as victories, Isn't this strange behavior in an activity that pretends to be built on ‘foundation of rules and sportspersonship. To the contrary Such activities involve “normative cheating” — acts to achieve an unfair advantage that are accepted as part ofthe game, The culture of most sports is to get a competitive advantage over the opponent even ifit means taking an unfairadvantage. When this occurs, 1 argue, then sport is sending a message — win- ning is more important than being fair. In this way, sport is @ microcosm of society where the bottom line is more important than how you got there. That my friends, is « consequence of the huge importance we put on success in our society Violence. Another area of ethical concer has to do with normative violence in sport. Many popular sports encourage player aggression, These sports demand body checking, block- ing, and tackling, But the culture of these sports sometimes ‘goes beyond what is needed. Players are taught to deliver a blow to the opponent, not just to block or tackle him. They are {aught to gang tackle, to make the ball carrier “pay the price.” ‘The assumption is that physically punishing the other player will inerease the probability of the opponent fumbling, losing his concentration and executing poorly the next time, or hav- ing to be replaced by a less talented substitute. Coaches often reward athletes for extra hard hits. In tis regard, let me cite several examples from a few years ago’ At the University of Florida a football player received a “dead roach” decal for his helmet when he hit an opponent so hard that he lay prone with his leas and arms up in the air * Similarly, University of Miami football players were awarded a “slobber knocker” decal for their helmets if they hit an opposing player so hard that itknocked the slobber out of his mouth, ‘The Denver Broncos coaching staff, similar to ‘other NFL teams yet contrary to league rules, gave monetary awards each week to the players who hit their opponents the hardest To show the assumption of unethical violence by opponents in football, in a 1993 playoff game, a player from the Buffalo Bills put a splint on the outside of his good leg so that oppo- nents would concentrate on that ley rather than on his bad leg, This emphasis on intimidating violence is almost univer- sally held among football and hockey coaches, their players, and thei fans. The object is not to just hit, but to hit to punish, and even to injure. The unfortunate result is a much higher injury rate than necessary. Clearly, these behaviors are unethi- eal. John Underwood, a writer for Sports Illustrated has said 184 this about these practices: “Brutality is its own fertilizer. From “get by with what you can’ itis a short hop to the deviations that poison sport ... But itis not just the acts that border on criminal that are intolerable, itis the permissive atmosphere they spring from. The ‘lesser’ evils that are given tacit ap- proval as “techniques” of the game, even within the rules.” Player behavior. Players engage in a number of acts that are unethical but are considered part of their sport. These in- clude: (a) acts of intimidation (physical aggression, verbal ag- ‘eression such as taunting and “trash talking,” physical threats, and racial insults); (b) use of drugs to enhance performance {teroids, amplaetamines, blood doping); (c) use of illegal equip- ment (changing a baseball with a“foreign’” substance, oro ing one side), a “corked” bat, and a hockey stick curved be- yond the legal limits); and (4) use of unethical tactics (e. ga punter acting as if he had been hit by a defender), The behavior of coaches, Coaches are rewarded hand somely if they win. In addition to generous salary raises suc~ ceessfll college coaches receive lucrative contracts from shoe ‘companies and for other endorsements, media deals, summer ‘camps, speaking engagements, country club memberships, surance annuities, and the like. With potential income of col- lege coaches approaching $1 million at the highest levels, the temptations are great to offer illegal inducements to prospec: tive athletes or to find illicit ways to keep them eligible (phan- tom courses, surrogate test takers, altered transcripts). Because winning is so important, some coaches drive their athletes too hard, take them out of the classroom too much, and encourage them to use performance-enhancing drugs. They may also abuse their athletes physically. Verbal assaults by coaches are rou- tine. ‘Coaches may encourage violence in their players, Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach, once said, “that to play this game, you have to have that fire within you, and nothing stokes that fire like hate.” Let me cite two examples of how coaches have tried to whip their players intoa frenzy that could lead to violence: (1) you'll likely remember that Jackie Sherrill, the coach at Mississippi State, at the end of the last practice before they were to play the Texas Longhorns, had a bull cas- trated in front of his players. (2) In a less celebrated case, a high school coach in lowa playing a team called the Eagles” spray-painted a chicken gold and had his players stomp itto death in the locker room before the contest. ‘Are these actions by coaches in educational settings appro- priate? What lesson is being taught to athletes when their coaches blatantly ask the players to cheat? Consider, for ex- ample, the situation when a high school football coach in Port- land sent a player into the game on a very foggy night. The player asked: “Who am I going in for?” “No one,” the coach replied, “the fog is so thick the ref will never notice you.” Is it alright for coaches fo crush the opposition. ‘This is the cease in college football this season, as it is imperative to be ranked in the top two at season’s end, so your team ean play in the Fiesta Bow! for the national championship and, by the way, ‘each team receives $12 million), But this happens at other levels as well. A Laramie, Wyoming girls junior high school basketball team won a game by a score of 81-1, using a full- ‘court press the entire game. Is that OK? In general it appears coaches condone cheating. whether it be an offensive lineman holding his opponent or pitcher load~ ing a baseball so that it is more difficult to hit. For example, ‘consider this statement by Sparky Anderson, the former man- VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY ager of Detroit Tigers: “I never teach cheating to any of my players but l admire the guy's who get away with it, The object ofthe game is to win and if you ean cheat and win, I give you all the eredit in the world.” Spectator behavior. Spectator behavior such as rioting and throwing objects at players and officials is excessive. The ques- tion is how are we to evaluate other common but unsportspersonlike practices? Spectators not only tolerate vio- lence, they sometimes encourage it. They do so, when they cheer an opponent's injury, or with bloodlust cheers such as Kill, Kill! Hate, Hate, Murder, Murder! Mutilate! ‘What about those unethical instances where fans try to dis- tract opponents by yelling racial slurs, or as in the ease of Ari- zona State fans several years ago chanting “P-L-0" to Arizona’s Steve Kerr, whose father had been killed by terrorists in Beirut? Athletic directors and other administrators. The admin- istrators of sport have the overall responsibility to see that the athletic programs abide by the spirit of the rules and that their ‘coaches behave ethically. They must provide safe conditions for play, properly maintained equipment, and appropriate medi- cal attention. Are they showing an adequate concern for their players, forexample, when they choose artificial turf over grass, Knowing that the rate and severity of injuries is higher with artificial turf? There are several other areas where athletic directors and administrators may be involved in questionable ethics. They are not ethical when they “drag their feet” in providing equal facilities, equipment, and budgets for women’s athletic pro- grams. Clearly, athletic directors are not ethical when they schedule teams that are an obvious mismatch, The especially strong often schedule the especially weak to enhance their record and maintain a high ranking while the weak are enticed toschedule the strong fora good pay day, a practice, I suggest, that is akin to prostitution. Finally, college administrators are not ethical when the ‘make decisions regarding the hiring and firing of coaches strictly ‘on the won-lost record. For the most part school administra- tors do not fire coaches guilty of shady transgressions if they ‘win. As John Underwood has characterized it, “We've told them it doesn’t matter how clean they keep their program. It doesn’t matter what percentage of their athletes graduate or take a useful place in society. It doesn't even matter how well the coaches teach the sport. All that matters are the flashing scoreboard lights.” The behavior of parents. Parents may push their children too far, too fast. Is it appropriate to involve children as young as five in triathalons, marathons, and tackle football?” Should ‘one year olds be trying to set records as was the case in 1972 when the national record for the mile run for a I-year old was set by Steve Parsons of Normal, Ilinois at 24:16.6 (one day short of his second birthday). 1s such a practice appropriate or is ita form of child abuse? Is it alright to send 10-year old children away from home to work out eight hours a day with a gymnastics coach in Houston, a swimming coach in Mission Viejo, California, or a tennis coach in Florida? Parents may encourage their child to use drugs (diuretics for weight control, drugs to retard puberty, growth hormones, or steroids) Parents sometimes are too critical of their children’s play, D. STANLEY EITZEN other players, coaches, and referees. Some parents are never satisfied. They may have unrealistic expectations for theirchil-

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