Professional Sports

Nathan Mascolino

      Description      

      There is no debate that there is violence in the media today. There is also no debate that violence should be limited, for those times when kids are most likely to be exposed. There is however a fairly extensive debate about weather violence should be used as entertainment. Should acts of violence be shown on TV, or the Internet, for the sole purpose of being entertaining? Regardless of who you ask the answer this question will almost always come back with a NO. Where you get a little more interesting of an answer is when you ask people what they think violence is? Comes down to that old saying I know what it is; I just can't describe it. What we will be looking at is violence in sports.
      Are professional sporting events considered entertainment? Absolutely, people pay a lot of money to go to professional game, and television networks pay a lot of money to broadcast games to our living rooms. The question comes up, is all this money going towards bringing violence into our homes? This article will look at only a small sampling of sports. It is true and safe to say that the majority of professional sports are non-violent. Non violent in the respect that there are not physical conflicts, but one team/person trying to beat another. Weather it be with fists and feet or in some sporting manner. Couldn't that be seen as violence?
      This article specifically investigates professional football, professional hockey, and professional baseball. These three sports represent a wide spectrum of perceived violence.

      Analysis      

      So what is the common perception, what do most people think? Are athletic events considered violent? A survey was distributed to a random sampling of Clarkson University students. The question stated, "do you find any of the following professional sporting events to be violent?" and below that were football, hockey, and baseball. The results came back with hockey getting the most votes as being violent, (just over 80%) with football receiving a violent rating of 70% and less than 5% considered baseball to be violent.
      These results were interesting, historical statistical data shows that there is on average more injures in one football game than there are in a hockey game. The games are both exactly 60 minuets long. There are more injures in a football game, but people see hockey as a more violent game.
      Most people believe that baseball is a peaceful game, but is it? The way that baseball works today is that teams pay the best players a lot of money, in some cases hundreds of millions of dollars. These teams get the best players, so they can win the most games. Because if you are on a team that wins a lot of games that team makes more money, so in turn you will make more money as a player. So the players practice, work out, and try to become better, so they can beat the other teams, and get more money. One lesson the youth of our nation could take away from this is. Work as hard as you can at something so that you can get better and beat out other people, and then you will be better off and get paid more than those other people. Not really grooming social workers are we?
      The same argument can be made when thinking about football and hockey. The difference being that in the course of these games there is actual physical confrontation. There are grown men on a field or ice rink essentially beating each other up. Ultimately they are after the same goal as a baseball player is. They are out to win, and in order to win you need to be physically strong. If you are not as physically strong as your apponnett then you are in danger of getting hurt. That most certainly can be conceived as a form of violence.
      On the other hand there are a lot of strong arguments that can be made for showing these professional events on TV. It is true that the objective is to win, it is also true that player's work extremely hard to make that happen. But it must be kept in mind that the people out there on the field, or on the ice are not everyday normal people that you see walking the sidewalks. They are in fact professional athletes. They work full time year round insuring that they are up the demanding schedule they must keep during the season. We only see them when they are in action, what we don't see is the 6 hours a day they spend working out. We don't see them working through practice every day. These are professionals and it is there job to do what they do. They are not out there with the intent to hurt anyone. They are just there to do what they love to do, and what their job requires; they are there to play the game.

      Interpretation      

      As with anything in life there is an argument to be made for both sides of this issue. Are professional sports to be depicted as games for entertainment, or are they acts of violence that we pay to watch.
      It is true; there are acts of violence played out on an ice rink during a hockey game. And if you were to walk up to someone on the street or at a park and tackle them to the ground, you would probably be arrested. What we are seeing when watching a game on TV can be considered violence. However it needs to be taken in context. The men who participate are highly trained individuals, with a vast knowledge of the game they play and supeier skills. They know exactly what they are doing and they know the danger they face. They're never blindsided. They work hard every day of their lives to get to the level they are at. I for one respect someone who would work so hard for a game they love. For every one professional athlete in the United States, there are more than 50 people who gave up on their dream. Those who didn't deserve our respect.

      Evaluation      

      Can professional sporting events be called violent? Yes. Should they be shown on TV? Will they continue to be shown? Yes, there is nothing that will stop the public from wanting to see professional sports. When you watch people playing the game that they love, it brings it back. It brings back the memories of when you were doing something that you loved. It gives you a two-hour break from you life. You can sit back and enjoy who you are and what you are doing. That is what life is all about.

Resources

CNNSI.COM

NFL.COM

NHL.COM

 

 

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This page was last updated on:   November 25, 2001