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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/

http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/wenn27339121423__oPt.jpg

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

The 1936 Olympics was a perfect example of politics in sports. The games were hosted by a Nazi Germany lead by Hitler. Hitler wanted to promote his views of the superiority of the Aryan race. He was going to do this by showing Nazi propaganda on the closed circuit television system and radio. This system would reach 41 countries and Hitler saw this as the perfect way to spread his propaganda. At first Hitler wanted to make a rule that Jews and blacks would not be able to participate in the games but he reversed that rule in fear of countries boycotting the games. In a way to "clean up" Berlin, Hitler had all the gypsies arrested and taken to a concentration camp. We can see that Hitler used the Olympics to promote his propaganda. Everyone in the world knew that Hitler was against the Jews and nothing showed this better than his actions at these games. 

One of sage and Eitzens 5 political uses of sport is being a vehicle for propaganda. The Nazis very much so used the games as a vehicle  At first they wanted to ban all Jews and blacks and show antisemitic views on the television circuit. They had put up signs all around the Olympics saying no Jews wanted. they were trying to spread their views all around the world and they were using sports to do this.
Unfortunately sport is not devoid of political interference. Politics are all around sports as as shown by the 1936 Olympics  Even today there are political views around sports. the film that we watched in class showed us that there are military all around sports and that gives a political view. Even at last years super bowl, a commentator came on at half time and told the nation that we should have gun control. sports are very full of political interference. 
sources
http://www.bl.uk/sportandsociety/exploresocsci/politics/articles/melbourne.pdf
http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2000/08/30/spor/spo00.html

London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

The NFL has begun to branch out to Europe, specifically London, because of one reason, money. The NFL can see that there is a market in Europe and they are trying to exploit it. there are many pros and cons to bringing the game to London. The NFL can make lots of money by taping into Europe. The football games that have been played there were very successful and now the NFL is looking to capitalize on this with more games. Another reason is that some NFL teams are not making as much money as they could and by bringing those teams to play in London they are making more money. There are a few downsides to bringing the game to Europe. For one the time difference is difficult to overcome. Americans want to watch the game but because of the time difference it would be very difficult. That would hurt the ratings in America which the NFL does not want to do. Another issue is travel for the players. This is not as bad for the teams on the east coast but the teams on the west coast would have very long flights. Making the players tired would have them not preforming at their best. London is a great site for the football games because it already has large soccer stadiums, a well done infrastructure, large fan base, and wealthy inhabitants. Europeans will pay a lot of money to see these games because it is new to them. Next year there are 3 games scheduled to be played in london and all 3 are already sold out. There is a very high demand for these games and the NFL will take advantage of this.
sources
   London Calling
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/31/nfls-2014-london-games-sold-out-eight-months-advance-goodell

sport society and me

sports have been an extremely large part of my life. i have been playing from a very young age and i have played many different sports. i have played football, basketball, baseball, track and filed, lacrosse, and wrestling. i have always excelled at these sports and i have always enjoyed them. in high school i excelled at football and was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to play for the university. sports mean more to me than most because it is how i am getting my education. sports have completely opened up the world for me. i have made many connections because of sports and i will continue to do so. through all the hard work and dedication i have been given many doorways that i can go through. my father and grandfather also played football in college so i had always had the dream of playing myself.
sports plays a very large role in our society and it can be both positive and negative. it is positive in that it promotes competition and teaches people many life lessons. it is negative in that some people become obsessed with sports and only focus on them. there are both positive and negative role models that sports have given us. we need to make sure that we follow the correct people in order to get the most out of out sports life. sports are extremely important in american society. it makes us billions of dollars and entertains the people.
sources
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/sports-society

sports ehtic

Sports ethic is the concept to represent the core norms used by athletes to assess identity and group membership in high performance sport cultures. 
The four dimensions of this concept are as follows.

1. Being an athlete involves making sacrifices for the game

2. Being an athlete involves striving for distinction 

3. Being an athlete involves accepting risks and playing through pain 

4. Being an athlete involves refusing to accept limits in the pursuit of possibilities

Athletes follow these rules because they have been taught them at a young age. in order to be like all other athletes they follow these laws. These laws allow the athletes to have the most success possible. these laws become a norm and the athletes follow them on instinct  Athletes have seen their peers operate by these laws time and time again so without thinking they do the same. everyone wants to fit in and if an athlete was to not operate by these laws they would be seen as different and not welcomed by the team.

I have experienced all 4 of these rules. i currently play football for the university and i go through this almost daily. I have made many sacrifices  i have never gone out on a Thursday night and partied with my friends because i have football every Friday morning. i continue to work to get better everyday at practice so that i can help my team win. almost every game i will jam a finger our get a cleat to the shin, it is my job to fight through that pain and continue to play. i always believe that my team can win a game. it dose not matter if we are playing Oregon  we believe that we can beat them.

sources
http://www.academia.edu/3289397/THE_SPORT_ETHIC_-_A_Definition

sports in the usa

Sports are an extremely popular in the us. Billions of dollars are made from sports and millions of people watch them. America loves its sports almost more than anything. Many children will begin playing sports starting at a very young age. they will continue to play sports for a very long time. We can even have our college payed for if we are good enough to play in college. In the us, the most popular sports are played with a ball, like football, baseball, and basketball. However the us plays many different other types of sports and is ijn fact very diverse when it comes to sports. Many call football, basketball, and baseball the big three because these are the most popular sports. on game day many Americans will sit in from of their televisions with large amounts of food and watch the game. no other sport event represents this better than the super bowl. many Americans will BBQ and throw parties in order to watch the super bowl. people will buy large amounts of food and drink to watch the game. its basically a national holiday for us. in order to be successful in sports a player must produce. fans don't seem to care if the player is a bad person or not but they want to see big plays happen at whatever the cost. many times fans like to see players that talk trash and insult other players. the us fans just want to be entertained.

sources
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/11/sport-in-america-our-defining-stories-where-sports-family-and-america-meet.html

Sociogenesis of football

Football was a sport that was taken from rugby. The rules of rugby were changed in order to give us the sport we call football today. Its origins can be traced back to great Britain in the 19th century. Walter camp is considered to be the father of football. it was him who made the most notable rule changes from rugby. The rules of lines of scrimmage and down and distance rules were the first major rules. Soon after a group of four men created the forward pass and gave football its true defining rule. Football began to grow exponential and soon became the top sport in America in the first half of the 20th century. Since the start of the game many changes have been made especially in the form of uniforms.

This is a picture of walter camp wearing one of the first uniforms.
 
This is a picture of a modern day player wearing a helmet and pads.
Football had been a very popular sport collegiality but in 1920's it went pro. In 1951 the first championship game was televised. From then there have been 47 super bowls and football remains the most watched and grossing sport in America. Football is a very important sport to American culture but is is coming under fire because of all the recent injuries associated with the sport. Many rules are being made and the game is changing.
sources
http://www.shmoop.com/nfl-history/timeline.html
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/01/super_bowl_2014_broncos_seahawks_meh_on_new_jersey.html