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My perception of us sport was that Americans love sport more than almost anything. I knew that sport was a massive money making business. I was aware that there were many issues within sport but this class has definitely enlightened me. I am an athlete and even I did not understand all of the emotional and physiological difficulties that go along with sport. This class has taught me that many people have to act a certain way to be a part of the team or to seem like they belong on the field. I have been able to explain things within my own sporting life that I was not able to explain before. For example why I play hurt or why I strive to be the best. The topics that stood out to me the most were the difficulties that LGB athletes have to go through. That how athletes minds work when, specifically why they want to be the best. Yes I will start to ask more critical questions. I will also be able to answer questions about sport that I wouldn’t have been able to before. I will be able to bring the understanding of all people that I have learned in this class. There are always things going on with people and this class has helped me to understand that. Yes I would recommend this class. It was very fun and interesting.

sexual bodies

Sport is not a safe place for l LGB. It is beginning to become safer for them but there are still many issues that need to be dealt with. An espn poll showed that Forty-four of the 51 foot ballplayers polled (86.3 percent) responded false when asked if a teammate’s sexual orientation mattered to them. This is a very good number but could still be higher. We also need to take into account the fact that it was only 51 players that were polled. Im guessing that number would be much lower if a larger number of people were polled. Women’s sports tend to be more accepting of LGB. Many female athletes are lesbians or bisexuals. The reason that it is not accepting in male sports is because our society has said that being gay is feminine and in male sports you cannot be that way. They have to be the most manly they can be. I would personally try and educate athletes on the LGB culture and explain that there is nothing wrong with it.  

http://tracking.si.com/2014/02/17/espn-survey-eighty-six-percent-of-nfl-players-ok-with-gay-teammate/

sp #13

Sport is very important in the lives of African Americans. For many of them it gives them dreams to aspire to. It gives them hope of getting out of their poor neighborhoods if they live there. Many young African Americans look up to sports stars and wish to be like them. Being on the football team I can tell you that many of the African Americans see sports as a way to support their family. For many troubled African Americans, sports give them something good to do. The first sports movie that comes to mind is blind side. In both movies the main characters are show as poor, troubled, and unintelligent individuals. Both movies shown an individual making it out of the hood to peruse their dreams that were only capable through sport. Sport has damaged African Americans because now African Americans are associated with sports in a way that no other race is. Hollywood portrays African Americans as poor unintelligent members of society who’s only way to be successful is through sports.

 

gender equality

I chose to write my gender equality commercial sports page on the famous Bo knows commercial. In this commercial Nike is advertising their new shoes. In the video Bo Jackson is seen as the ultimate athlete and can play basically every sport in these shoes. Within the commercial, many famous athletes say that “Bo knows” about a particular sport. For example, Michael Jordan says Bo knows basketball and then it show Bo dunking a football. It also shows a women runner and several women bikers saying Bo knows. In my opinion this commercial shows woman and men as equals. There are however many more men than women but the women are show as equals to Bo. The commercial shows the women bikers and runner as the best in their field. In this video women and men are both seen as athletes. They show Bo as the supreme athlete of all of them. Woman are underrepresented but when they are shown they are equals.

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

Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender representation in espn

after watching ESPN this week i have found that most of the stories shown are about male athletes. very seldom is a woman shown. i have watched ESPN almost every day for a very long time and it has always been that women are almost never shown. every once and a while you will get a short discussion on women s basketball but other than that there is almost nothing. the past week or two has been a little different because of the Olympics. women have been shown more but still not nearly as much as men. the men athletes are the topics of the large discussions and women are much less talked about. when ESPN shows pictures of women, they are usually just a picture of them not in an action shot but men are almost always shown in an action shot. women have never received the same amount of TV time as men. it is very troubling to see that both genders are not equally represented. this is a reason that womens sports are not as popular. they simply do not get the publicity that male sports get. even if it is the exact same sport they still receive less spotlight. according to Valarie Hanson, a professor at st. john fisher college, women have been unfairly portrayed in sports and have never received the same type of publicity that men have. there are many articles that say the exact same thing yet our society still refuses to do anything about this inequality.
sources
http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=ur

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

the topic of paying athletes has been a large argument. university and other types of companies are making millions of dollars off of students athletes. the athlete receives no money from their athletic play. Athletes do receive scholarship money but this money does not cover all of there expenses. the athletes cannot get jobs because practices take up all of their time. many athletes come from families of low income and just a little more money would go a long way. we see athletes getting in trouble because they need ways to get money. A few years ago, several Ohio state football players got in serious trouble for selling some memorabilia. they did this because they had no other way of getting money. many people do not want to give money because it would ruin the amateurism of the sport. another issue is that it is unfair to sports that are less popular. these sports bring in almost no revenue, so the colleges would be loosing money. colleges with already low incomes would not be able to pay their players thus giving top schools more of an advantage.
i think athletes should be payed more. they work extremely hard and they have no other way of receiving money. they have no time to work because of their practices. these athletes bring in millions of dollars to the school and because of this the players should receive some money for their hard work. they deserve more money because what they get now dose not pay for everything. i would know because i am an athlete and i struggle to pay for everything with the money they give us.
sources
http://www.youniversitytv.com/news-sports/5704-the-pros-and-cons-of-paying-college-athletes
https://learn.colorado.edu/d2l/le/content/59211/viewContent/1457475/View
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/

once the cheering stops: the life of a retired pro-athlete

many athletes have a very difficult time with money once they stop playing their sport. pro players are used to having a very large amount of money come in all the time. but once they stop playing they stop getting that money but their spending habits don't change. for some athletes the retired life is very difficult. most players don't save their money like they should but rather they continue to spend their money until they have no more. there are many examples of these types of players. Mike Tyson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, and Rulon Gardner to name a few. all of these players filed for bankruptcy. they were not taught how to save their money but rather they spent it all. they could not control themselves once they had a a taste of the good life and this ultimately led to their down fall. us culture tells us that we should spend money and buy things. the "cool" people buy all types of luxurious things. it is not "cool" to save your money but rather spent it. this is why athletes struggle so much when done with their sport. another reason is that many athletes grew up impoverished so once they finally got some money they wanted to spend it. they were never taught how to conserve money because as a kid they never had money to spend. my opinion is that the sports teams need to do a better job of educating the rookies about the financial life. every year we hear of some player falling asleep in the financial meetings. they need to change the meetings so that players will be interested and actually think about their money. athletes need to understand that they will not be playing their sport for very long. the average years played in the NFL is 3.5 years. the players need to use this money to jump start themselves into the business world where they have their real job. i was aware that pro athletes struggled with money. our football coach has told us many times that pro player's have money issues.

sources:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/lists/Athletes-who-went-bankrupt#photo-title=Rulon+Gardner&photo=31327506

http://nflcommunications.com/2011/04/18/what-is-average-nfl-player%E2%80%99s-career-length-longer-than-you-might-think-commissioner-goodell-says/

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