Final Reflections

Final Reflections

Before entering this class I was very aware of the importance of US sport on all aspects of our culture whether that is politics, economics etc. Sports are a spectacle that Millions of Americans watch and obsess over 365 days a year. Sports in the United States are so influential in several aspects of society which I knew but not in such detail like I do now. My thoughts on sport has changed especially after learning about sporting bodies, gender in sports, disabilities in sports, and history of sports (origins). I did not know that sports affect male and female body image in our culture so directly. Females are supposed to be skilled but sexy, muscular but skinny etc. which are almost oxymorons. Also learning about the ever evolving spectrum of sports and disabilities opened my eyes to ways that handicapped and other disabled persons can participate in competitive sports. The discussion of paying NCAA athletes really opened my eyes to how harshly these athletes are being exploited at universities across the U.S. The paper I wrote on this topic allowed me to research several scholarly articles that provided facts and statistics that were shocking. The amount of money that is made off of college athletes (in particular basketball and football players).  there are so many beneficiaries gaining so much money solely from the skill and the performance of athletes, these include T.V. stations, apparel companies, the NCAA and other major corporations. Once I move on from this class I will definitely take a more in-depth look at the sports I pay attention too. Rather than just watching the game I can pick up on certain critical aspects of the United States sports culture from game to game. I think that a lot of what we learned in this class is tolerance and adapting the change. Both are skills that I hope to embody throughout my professional career. One of the main ideas of the class is the rapid change and evolution of our society which in turn affects sports, affects identities in sport, and also the way we talk about sport. Adapting to change like this is important for everybody. I definitely would recommend this class to a friend because it takes a look at sports in a way that many people do not often do. it goes deeper than that entertainment value of sports and takes an in-depth look at sports influence and affects on politicals, social structures, economics, education etc.

Sport is very important in African American culture. for many African Americans that cannot afford college it gives them an opportunity to attend college. Also Athletes are role models for African American children when they are growing up. They see these athletes as kids and dream big. also sports are extremely popular for any ethnicity in the United States.sports is extremely relevant in American culture as a whole, whites and African Americans do not differ on their passion and participation in sports. Also like depicted in the movie Hoop Dreams, many families and individual African American athletes are depending on athletic success for their future whether that is educationally or economically. I would like to compare this to the movie The Blindside. The Blindside is a disney movie. taking that into account it is easy to see why everything is so exaggerated and disneyfied. I believe Jonathan Orr was quoted as saying the story in the movie was far too glorified and he wasn't sure he enjoyed the film. However this movie has been seen by millions and it is probably a lasting image for many sports fans. A troubled African American Youth, rescued by a rich white suburbam family who ends up receiving a football scholarship at a prestigious SEC school. Jonathan Orr is also portrayed as having not played football in his entire life before trying our for his new rich private school team...yea right.

I do not think that sport is damaging Black America. It is still such a positive thing in many peoples lives. Although there are some negatives involved with black culture and sports it still provides opportunities. There are deeper problems than sport in Black America and our culture and society as a whole must change in several other ways to improve Black America before we start changing sport.

Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender/race representation in ESPN

I chose ESPN because it is my main source for sports news and I thought it would be interesting to examine the gender inequalities evident in the media especially ESPN. I will explore the number of articles written about women and women's sports. ESPN is far ahead of other media outlets when it comes to coverage of female sports. ESPN has set up a site called ESPNW which covers several news stories and major events in female sports. However this ESPNW pales in comparison to regular ESPN which basically strictly covers male sport and male athletes. To keep it simple I chose this past week, (from Monday until today--Friday). I could not come up with an exact number but through a compare and contrast the amount of articles written about men and women differ significantly. Despite ESPN's efforts to create a parallel female site to the original there is just simply way more media covering males than females.

These findings show me that we are still behind in times regarding gender equality, however male sports do have more fans and demand more media coverage than women's sports. The gesture of a female site is good for ESPN's face value and in gaining support from female consumers, but is it really just a lazy effort to give some female coverage and avoid being criticized for not having female coverage?
My findings do support other research on the matter of gender in sport. Female sport and media coverage have always been lesser than their male counterparts and the inequality still exists today. You rarely hear about the WNBA ever on national television until the last round of the playoffs begins. I also feel like during the Olympics I have seen more female names on the front page of ESPN than I ever have before, annual women's sports do not get nearly the same amount of attention.

The things I found regarding ESPN and gender are both encouraging and discouraging. The ESPNW website is great and provides solid coverage of almost every female sport followed in America. And the creation of that site is a step forward for women's sport in the media. On the other hand massive inequalities in the number of cover stories, interviews, and articles in general are still very apparent

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

This has been a hot topic for decades now, especially with all these new allegations coming up against Universities on an almost monthly basis. Recruitment and scouting has become so competitive that often times teams are breaking NCAA rules by offering monetary or other material rewards for choosing a certain University to play sports at. There are two sides to the argument with equally passionate and logical arguments. The figures who believe athletes should be paid are the ones who realize how commercial intercollegiate sport has become. The Universities make copious amounts of money through their college spots programs. Every time these players take the field or the court they are pouring money into the school and what is in it for them? a free or discounted education yes, but that compensation would be a decimal compared to how much money they are generating. The argument becomes "If these players are making the college millions of dollars shouldn't they share in some of the spoils?.
The argument against playing players adhered to NCAA rules. Players in this situation should not be manipulated by money. Yes they are helping generate money for the University but they are still college athletes not professional athletes. The rules have always been this way and things have been great. Yes corruption is a problem and schools are still breaking the rules but as long as the punishment stay hard then things will go as they always have.
My opinion is that players should not be payed. The argument for compensation is a stronger one and all arrows point to the fact that player truly should be paid, but it would just be such a drastic change and I do think it would change the game completely. the mentality, the competitiveness, and the overall purity of college sport. Often times when I ask a friend whether they like to watch profession or collegiate sport the answer is normally college. because there us more 'passion' they work harder and it is more exciting.

Sports, Politics and the Olympics

The Summer Olympics in 1964 were held in Tokyo, Japan. Japan which had been a country devoted to militarism and imperialism for decades was now hosting the Olympics. Japan, which had been responsible for starting the Pacific's World War II wanted to establish themselves as a peaceful country devoted to creating new strong foreign relations and a devotion to international sport. Another reason was to create pride in their Country. Japan had not always been interested in Sports as a mechanism for both foreign relations and national pride. Bringing the Olympics to their home country created more support and more interest in Sports.  Besides Japan's strategy at becoming more known as a peaceful country, South Africa was a nation banned because of their apartheid laws. Apartheid was still very much alive in South Africa and because of this they were banned from competing in the 1964 games. I believe that there are two of Sage & Eitzen's political uses of sport evident here. The first is using Sports as a vehicle for change in society. Banning South Africa from the Olympics exposed their out-dated and disgusting societal structure to the rest of the world and also put pressure on them to consider lifting the apartheid laws. And although the this might not have caused them to change the laws right away it began to show that the whole world was against them regarding apartheid. The second use I would consider as a part of this Olympic games would be 'Using sport as a propaganda vehicle". Most often the word propaganda has a negative undertone, however in Japans case I believe that the propaganda they used was very beneficiary both for Japan and the rest of the world. They proved themselves to be a country capable of hosting the rest of the world for a major event despite their image as enemies in the past. Also these games were an attempt to show the people of Japan the changes that has taken place and perhaps to create more pride in a country that had been so war torn recently.

"Sport is pure and devoid of political interference"
This quote is 100% untrue. Especially in modern day sports. There is no need to look far for research because Sage and Eitzen explain the connection of politics and sport. Throughout the past hundred or so years international sporting events have been used politically whether to make a change worldwide, to put pressure on enemies, to create national pride and even to make poorer citizens forget about their problems for a while. examples of Sage and Eitzen's political strategies can be seen across several olympics. sport has been used for societal changes very often with boycotts and statements being made by victorious athletes (black power symbol in mexico city etc.). Often times these sporting events promote peace, and politics is the number one tool for creating peace. Also when looking at the Communist and Nazi games we can see several example of political propaganda to represent the communist and Nazi values as acceptable and successful. even more evidence of Political presence in sport is the fact that there are so many stakeholders involved in America's major leagues today (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) that it seems as though it is more politics than pure sport.

Sociogenesis of Soccer

Growing up I played every sport whether it was baseball, basketball, soccer, or football I was competing in it as a child. However when I moved to Europe and a young age I devoted most of my time to soccer because there were not as many opportunities to play football, baseball or basketball. I am a huge soccer fan and I still play competitively for CU's club and a Men's league based in Denver. I thought it would be interesting to follow the development of my favorite sport.

There are several examples of soccer-type sport throughout history Episkryos in Greece, and Harpastum a game played by the Roman's are close examples, however noth involved more handling of the ball than kicking. The japanese and Chinese also had similar games in both Kemari (Japan) and Cuju (China).
However the standardized game came into practice in the mid 19th century following efforts to create standard rules for the "Football" being played in English Public schools. And the first competitive match ever played is dated 19th of December 1863.
English men were responsible for the development of soccer after they worked to organize and standardize the game being played on school grounds all over England. These standard rules allowed for organized competitive matches to take place. The sport of Soccer or "Football" has its roots in many different games played throughout history, but the modern game was first played by Englishmen before spreading throughout Europe in south America before expanding all over the world. the sport has not diffused to anything

Obviously seeing as the sport was first played competitively in the mid 1800's equipment was much older and lacked the technology we have today.

Today we have much more efficient and innovative equipment allowing for better comfort, performance, durability, style and safety










There are several big events in each country. Many of the big leagues (Mostly in Europe) play out a season (Chanpionship) and it is a big deal to win every year. Other big events are the UEFA Champions League where all the best clubs in the Europe compete against one another. Also each continent holds a competition between each countries international squad every 4 years. But the biggest event of all, the one that has the whole world watching is the FIFA World Cup which takes place this summer in Brazil.

I cannot see many challenges facing the sport of soccer, all I can see is growth, it is already the most popular sport in the world even without a heavy interest from the United States, but interest is growing here in the U.S. and in several other countries around the globe.

Sport in the Ancient World

The first recorded sporting events in Greece were brief races between several naked men. However throughout the centuries sports began to be added for men, boys and horses. These events included the triple jump, the javelin, and the discus. There was also wrestling and chariot races as the event became bigger and bigger. Apart from these strength and skill competitions there were combat sports such as wrestling. The Romans on the other hand preferred there sport to be more about combat and often times death. Spectators would watch gladiators fight to the death. Most of these gladiators were either slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war. They were trained as gladiators before each would enter the Colosseum or whichever other stadium they were required to fight at.

The Greek sports were similar to the modern day Olympics. There were judges that would deliberate and choose a winner after every individual competition. The rules and regulations were much like they are today, and they even included opening and closing ceremonies like the modern day Olympic games, however unlike today, women were forbidden from both spectating and participating in the games. In Rome on the other hand sports had much less structured rules. Much of the spectator sports involved combat to the death in an arena with no rules. The object was to kill your opponent by any means possible.

Most of all these sports were meant to entertain the spectators. In Greece the games at Olympia were a huge deal. It was more than just sport, it was a huge celebration of the gods and of human athletes. In Rome Romans were obsessed with gladiator fights. The people of the republic loved to watch men duke it out and kill each other in the arena. Apart from entertainment purposes the games in Greece had religious purposes as well. These men were competing to please the gods with their human triumphs and accomplishments. The gods of Greece were one of the main reasons the games even began.

Sports have changed a lot over time. We no longer compete in the nude, nor do we spectate people killing each other and consider it a sport, however we have taken some aspects of these games and use them today. The arenas that were used for gladiator fights are the blueprint for several modern day stadiums. Many events from the Greek games at Olympia are still Olympic sports today and many of the rules and techniques have survived these thousands of years.