Sports Media: Reporting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In the early twentieth century, media coverage of professional sports was substantially different than what it is today. New technologies such as the television and the internet have altered the way sports are presented to the global community. For example, the media has developed new means of providing stats, gossip, and other sports-related news. While in the past, the newspaper and the radio were the main sources of sports information, fans today have more resources available, such as twenty-four hour sports television channels (like ESPNEWS) and sports blogs (like Chris' Sports Blog). However, the increased access to athletes and other prominent figures in sports has been problematic because there has been an increase in inappropriate behavior in the media by those individuals. An example of the negative effects of the new structure of sports journalism is the recent turmoil in Los Angeles over Kobe Bryant (seen with his daughter in the image to the right), as described in a recent ESPN.com article. Bryant’s time as a Laker has had its ups and downs; since the franchise traded Shaquille O’Neal, the team has not won a championship, and Bryant himself has struggled, personally and professionally. In the wake of this history, Los Angeles Lakers' Coach Phil Jackson publicly questioned Bryant’s commitment to the team, and Bryant felt obligated to respond to the personal attacks on his work ethic. Luckily, all parties involved in the Bryant saga remained level-headed, and the comments did not lead to a physical confrontation or other improper actions.

Another problem with the increased presence of sports coverage in the media is that there have been many instances of athletes making crude statements to the media that have no social value. For example, John Rocker’s legacy has nothing to do with his pitching career, but rather focuses on racist statements he made in a 1999 interview with Jeff Pearlman in Sports Illustrated. Rocker’s outlandish opinions included a diatribe on New York Mets' fans: ''‘I talked about what degenerates they were, and they proved me right. Just by saying something, I could make them mad enough to go home and slap their moms.’" Another example of professional athletes wasting time venting private business in the media comes from a recent Los Angeles Times article by Sam Farmer, in which he discusses how National Football League athletes Adalius Thomas and Ray Lewis have been trading insults back and forth in the media, serving no other purpose beyond providing fodder for the media to discuss. These types of statements pose a problem for our society because these athletes, role models for many children worldwide, are using their fame to air their private business publicly. If a person chooses to live his life in the public domain, he has to accept all of the responsibilities that come with being a prominent public figure. For an athlete, one of those responsibilities is to behave appropriately and not ignore their duty as a role model.

In order to address this problem, there are two critical groups that need to respond. Firstly, adults need to step up and state that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. While the media has the obligation to report the news, adults have the right to state that they will not support franchises that allow their athletes and coaches to air their grievances through the media. Adults need to become proactive in protecting those who cannot defend themselves – the children – by refusing to purchase tickets to sporting events and sports merchandise and memorabilia until the sports industry enforces proper social standards. Additionally, professional athletes need to accept the importance of their function as role models: children who look up to them. It is unacceptable for professional athletes to follow the example of National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Charles Barkley (see the image to the left), who refuted the notion of athletes as role models. While parents and teachers do have a more hands-on role in child development, professional athletes need to accept all the responsibilities that come with earning a living playing sports. Therefore, professional athletes must recognize the repercussions of their words and their actions, and regulate how they behave in a public forum.

Sports Gambling: A Risky Business

American sports face a variety of problems, including illegal drug use and the spread of infectious diseases. Although not discussed as often as necessary, the sporting world has another significant issue - gambling. While the legality of how a person places a bet is often questionable, the more important issue is the act of betting. In August 2007, HR.com cited a passage from the California Employment Law Letter containing alarming evidence, such as the statistic that over fifty-percent of employees participate in football pools for the regular season and the Super Bowl. Gambling’s dramatic effects in the workplace is supported by a 2005 CNNMoney.com article that noted a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The study concluded that interest in the NCAA’s March Madness (see an example of a bracket used for gambling in the image to the left) would cost employers almost $900 million, over $100 million more than the prior year. Earlier this year, Greg Levine of CNBC.com noted another study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which discovered that distractions due to the 2007 Super Bowl would cost employers about $800 million. Clearly, the fact that these two sporting events could cost employers almost $2 billion in productivity shows that gambling is a significant problem in the United States. Gambling’s negative financial impact is not limited to employers only, as Mark Lange of the Christian Science Monitor noted last May that Americans lost $84 billion gambling in 2006. Lange says that gamblers, “…lost more than they spent on movie tickets, recorded music, spectator sports, video games, and theme parks combined”.

Beyond the financial consequences, adults should feel obligated to forego gambling because of its addictive and reckless nature. These types of actions set a poor example for children, and research has shown that children will imitate the actions of the adults in their lives. Public concern with gambling needs to address the potential negative impact gambling adults can have on children, as gambling is not a social woe affecting only adults. Not only does gambling make children associate negative attributes to sports, such as cheating, it also harms children psychologically and physically. The National Council on Problem Gambling discusses some of the various ways minors are exposed to gambling; thus, adults must be aware that a single wager can have an impact on a child. Adults should eliminate gambling from their lives because the potential financial reward for gambling does not outweigh the likelihood of significant monetary loss. Another reason adults should not gamble is because children will learn to emulate the dangerous behavior. A surprising example of this trend comes from the University of Southern California’s student-run newspaper, the Daily Trojan. In a section only available in the print edition, five sports writers do not choose who will win, but rather if a team will cover the spread. One major problem with this situation: not all of the sports writers are old enough to legally gamble in the United States.

Sports gambling may seem to be a minor concern in the context of the many problems in the world today, but the importance of the debate must not be ignored. If gambling truly was a trivial matter, then online gambling companies such as Bookmaker.com would not need to locate their companies in places like Costa Rica, a country which CBSNews.com notes has laws that favor these types of businesses. In the wake of the recent developments like the NBA referee scandal (see the image of troubled referee Tim Donaghy to the left), gambling has developed into an increasingly significant issue in American society. Adult gambling can affect children in various ways; gambling can harm children physically, as this WBEN.com report shows, where a gambling-addicted parent left his child locked up in the car while he gambled. Gambling can also have significant psychological effects, as gambling is an addictive, risky activity that does impairs the development of important character traits like self-control and moderation. Seeing adults gamble, children learn that dangerous behaviors are acceptable. Fiscal responsibility and a non-addictive personality are important traits necessary for a productive life in our modern-day society. Adults who gamble hindering the ethical and psychological development of their children, and this behavior must change, for no one benefits from their mistakes except the bookies and the casinos.

Drugs in Sports: Understanding and Eliminating Their Presence

Professional sports have a major problem: drug use. From Roy Tarpley to Floyd Landis (seen in the image to the right), many athletes have been accused of using illegal substances. Recently, the media have focused on athletes such as Marion Jones and the issue of performance-enhancing drugs. Despite the fact that drug testing procedures have improved, with the aim of keeping sports clean, testing has been unable to maintain pace with drug creation and usage. To eliminate drug use, the sporting world needs a new generation of athletes with an improved set of morals. The future athletes must have a complete understanding of the power and effects of using performance-enhancing drugs, instead of only knowing what the media says about these substances, both positive and negative. After the future athletes are educated about the consequences of illegal supplements, they must live up to their obligations as heroes to children. This duty is important because role models can have a significant impact on youth, and can instill the desire in a child to live a substance-free life.

Young adults need to know more about substances that are often championed for their performance-enhancement potential, such as steroids and human growth hormone. Steroids are popular because they, “promote muscle growth and the development of male sexual characteristics,” according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. However, steroids are designed specifically for certain medical conditions; their use without a valid prescription is illegal. Human growth hormone (or HGH), the New York Times reports, “can be prescribed only to treat illnesses for which it has been specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” the only exception being people who are unable to produce a significant amount of HGH. Many believe that steroids and human growth hormone are useful supplements because of their ability to increase muscle mass and quicken recovery from injury. Despite potential benefits, these substances can cause significant bodily harm. Steroids can engender, among many side effects, “liver tumors and cancer,” while human growth hormone’s side effects include “alter[ing] the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, leading to blood-sugar imbalances and, in some cases, diabetes,” wrote Gretchen Reynolds in the New York Times. Due to their dangerous nature, the drugs must only be taken under doctor’s supervision for medical need, not for athletic success.

Today’s professional athletes have demonstrated a lack of concern for their bodies and for their obligations as role models in the quest for athletic success. Therefore, it appears that the only way for sports to rebuild its disgraced reputation is for a new generation of athletes to have a renewed sense of morality. Though it is absurd to say that an athlete should not be able to utilize medical advances to his or her benefit, for athletes to take medicine without conclusive scientific support is irresponsible and reckless (see examples of problems with steroids in the image to the left). Parents and role models ought to encourage young people not to take steroids and human growth hormone because drugs have not been conclusively proven to be worth the health risks. However, simply stating that using illegal drugs is wrong is unlikely to sway a young athlete facing intense pressure to succeed. Explaining to that child, on the other hand, that he may “experience shrinking of the testicles,” or that she might develop, “male-pattern baldness” provides a more powerful example than the stereotypical: “Because I said so.” Role models would be well advised to initiate discussions about the negatives of illegal drugs because modern-day athletes, whom many children admire, are often setting a poor example, and unwilling to acknowledge their mistakes.

It is possible that the sporting world has not eliminated performance-enhancing drug use by players because of the significant profits being made in sports, due to ticket prices, jersey sales and other amenities. Another possibility is that progress is coming, albeit slowly, because change takes time to develop in large institutions common in the sporting industry. No matter what the reason, in order to create an even playing field, all must abide by the rules. Since a large number of sports figures seem not to care about those rules, it is up to the athletes of tomorrow to transform the sporting world. Competitors in future generations must build upon the mistakes of the past and present, using the knowledge gained to create a drug-free and healthier future.

Booing: How the Behavior of Sports Fans Impacts Children

To many people, sports and booing are as connected as McDonald’s and its famous Golden Arches logo—it would be inconceivable to imagine one without the other. While sports fans often boo, sometimes they have positive sentiments to offer athletes. For example, on BroncosFreak, a popular website for the Denver Broncos, the team’s fans showed deep concern for Kevin Everett, a Buffalo Bills tight end severely injured in a recent game. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the sporting world is filled with instances of fans booing inappropriately. A report by the Associated Press shows that even a life-threatening injury did not prevent Philadelphia Eagles’ supporters from making derogatory comments towards Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Michael Irvin, after he suffered a neck injury during a NFL 1999 game (see the image to the right). ESPN writer Bill Simmons takes a humorous approach to the issue of derisive fan noise in sports in his latest article. Although Simmons’ article provides an interesting viewpoint on the relationship between sports and booing, the column ignores the consequences of the disparaging remarks: the negative behaviors children are learning by listening to profane words and watching the rude actions of adults in their lives. As Melissa Balmain of Parenting magazine writes, children will often mimic the actions of their parents; accordingly, if role models behave rudely, then children will believe that type of behavior is socially acceptable. Federal law does allow people the right to speak as they please, but that does not mean that we should condone inappropriate behavior at sporting events. If there is no popular movement to address this problem, then the federal government should involve itself, as it has in other aspects of sports, like steroids, in order to provide a safe haven for all participants and fans.

Sports have changed significantly over the last few decades, with such factors as free agency and medical advances (both legal and illegal) creating stronger athletes and decreasing team loyalty, among many other developments. As Chris Jenkins of USA Today reported in 2005, even players agree that baseball has been impacted by steroids. Accordingly, some fans feel they have not just the right, but the duty, to boo. Oftentimes, fans feel justified to express their displeasure at the rising prices to attend a game, such as $8 for parking and up to $125 for a single ticket to a game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. According to Simmons, it is as if many fans feel that part of the ticket price includes the right to boo whomever and whenever they please. While the First Amendment certainly protects the right to freedom of speech, people should nonetheless exercise good judgment before speaking. Michael Bradley, in an editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, justifies unconstructive fan noise in Philadelphia by saying that, “Philadelphians have suffered more disappointment and heartache than citizens of any other city.” Bradley also argues that booing is how people “do it” in Philadelphia. He could not be more incorrect; this type of behavior is inappropriate.

Simmons, Bradley, and other writers have ignored the broader significance of booing in professional sports. Countless numbers of families bond over tailgating and then going to a football game, or over attending a basketball game on a special family pack, such as the one offered by the Indiana Fever of the WNBA. It would be naïve to dismiss the impact of adults’ behavior on children at these games. While it would also be inappropriate to limit the abilities of fans’ to express their opinions, is it truly necessary, for instance, to imbibe significant amounts of alcoholic beverages and use cuss words to address athletes? Or to throw items onto the playing surface? The answer to both of those questions, and all other examples of scathing remarks by fans, is no. Sometimes a child mimics an adult’s behavior in an endearing way, as this father suggests; other times, as former Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa can attest, a parent can lead a child to disastrous results. With regards to booing, the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do” will simply not suffice. A change of culture in the American sporting world is needed in order to present a more fitting example for the nation’s children, and all it takes is paying more attention to the appropriateness of one’s language and behavior. Although freedom of speech is an important right, children also have the right not to be bombarded with crude behavior in a public setting. American sports fans just need to ask themselves what is more important: making negative, hurtful remarks at sporting events (as seen in the image above) or raising their children properly? Maybe then the sporting world will take notice.