SPORTSMANSHIP CASE STUDY - 4By Jake Nardone

Sportsmanship

What is Sportsmanship? It should be about teaching kids fair play, integrity, how to win and lose

the right way, and should continue to be. In order to keep the integrity of Sports, and all the valuable

skills it teaches, we have to continue to have that attitude that most of the players and organizations

believe in Sportsmanship. These coaches and players have families they care about and kids learn the

basics of sportsmanship from the adults in their lives, especially their parents and their coaches. One

of the greatest rivalries in sports is the Red Sox vs Yankees – but below you see even the best

competitors can respect each other.

Section 2: Ethics--Owners and Coaches

If players are looked upon to be the face of the team or league, it also should fall to the owners and coaches to live by a higher standard. Yes, the players are in the spotlight and are looked up to by so many kids, but if the owners and coaches don’t behave the right way then why would the players. One of my favorite movies, Remember the Titans, has a great quote, “attitude reflects leadership”.

A coach often plays a mentor and father figure to many young players coming up through the system. They need to take responsibility for their athletes behavior especially if they are drafting them at younger ages.

A coach that engages in or knows about any kind of unethical behavior should be fired. An example is the New Orleans Saints bounties. This kind of behavior could have ended players careers.

Section 3: Ethics--Health and Safety

Players health seem to be 2nd to winning. There are many examples of teams putting a win over the best interest of the player. Examples like Jacoby Ellesbury’s broken ribs and the Red Sox, or Kerri Strug in the Olympics after a bad angle injury – her coach said “You can do it, you better do it.“

Below is NFL player Ronnie Lott who chose to amputate his finger so he could play in the playoffs.

At what point do players have the right to say no? They rely on the trainers to look out for their health, but when the Doctors and Trainers are on the team payroll its difficult for them to have the best interest in the player. They need to be treated by staff that is not impacted by the teams’ ownership.

Section 4: Ethics--Athletes and Community

Athletes should give back to their community whether its where they grew up or are currently playing. Many athletes struggled and sports was their way out. Giving back and showing underprivileged kids that if they work hard, they can achieve what they want too. Programs like the Boys and Girls clubs or Play 60 help kids learn about fair play, nutrition and good health. They make salaries that allow for them to donate money that can make a big difference in kids lives.

Athletes also have to be more aware at how much influence they have over kids and adults. Take the “hands up” stance or the take a knee during the national anthem that took over the national media last football season. This particular stance had people very divided. Taking a knee, I think, was disrespectful to the people that defend our country – our flag does not represent a race issue. Do the kids below really know what this gesture really means?

Section 5: Ethics--Fan Behavior

Fan behavior seems to get worse each year as people seem to get away with the bad behavior. No one pays attention to the no tolerance speeches and sometimes when fans are escorted out --- they actually raise their arms like it’s a proud moment. Stricter penalties or arrests should occur. Just because you are at a sports event doesn’t give you the right to assault someone, whether it’s another fan or player.

In almost every situation it involves alcohol or fans drinking too much alcohol. Teams should look into closing down serving earlier in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itB8TLf3ugM

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2015/04/watch_boston_red_sox_fan_throws_beer_in_face_of_ya.html

Conclusion:

Sports will and should continue to be a positive influence on kids. It plays an important part of teaching kids lessons they will need into adulthood. How to lose, how to win, how to stay in control, how to take disappointment are some of those lessons. Its also brings families together and helps to make life long friends. We hear a lot of the negative things that happen is sports today because its in peoples nature to talk more about bad things than good.

The teams, the media need to get more involved in spreading the good things the team and players are doing and not just when the camera is on.

Players and teams know the influence they have and they can continue to make a positive impact on society. Youth sports participation is down across the nation, its time to turn that around. “more kids than ever are not playing sports at all. Inactivity among children approached 20% in 2014, continuing a six-year upward trend. In the same age bracket, the average number of team sports played per participant has fallen 5.9% over the last five years”.

Conclusion

I chose this picture because it shows the beginning of kids playing sports because its fun. This is the little league world series, these kids practiced hard and gave up a lot of time to get there, but It doesn’t matter what team they are on or what race they are. Its just about playing the game. Kids learn from their parents and coaches. If they are displaying behavior towards an opponent – its because they were taught that, not because its their instinct.

Work Cited:

https://playyoursport.com/kerri-strug/, August, 2016, Abhinab Ghosh

SI Wire, Study shows major drop in American youth sports participationJeremy Woo, August 11, 2015.

NY Daily News, Roger Rubin, September 24, 2014