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The role of sports in society
The role of sports in society
Role of sports in society
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All over America, friends and families join together on Friday nights in order to watch their hometown’s high school football game. However, many of the spectators do not go to just watch the game. As suggested by Lewis Lapham, the players play and the spectators spectate in order to feel a sense of various abstract things. There is much more to sports than the game itself. In Friday Night Lights, sports establish the illusions of both innocence and hope. Not only do sports offer many opportunities, but they also create an “illusion of innocence.” On the field, the players are the stars of the show. They are the best. They are the role models. They are innocent. All the spectators look at these players as if they are superheroes when they are …show more content…
She agreed that the players did not care about their school work whatsoever. They did not care for their future. They only looked at what was right ahead of them: parties. For instance, Billingsley lived his life by a certain motto: “I'm gonna party, see how intoxicated I can get and how many rules I can flaunt” (135). Billingsley, and many others on his team, partied day and night. They only cared to have fun. Partying is not a crime, however, underage drinking/doing drugs is. These players are perceived as so innocent by so many people when they clearly are not. Every night, they are going against the law. Furthermore, football stars Derric Evans and Gary Edwards, were known to be the Carter Cowboys football heroes. They were the best on the team and had many opportunities lined up ahead of them. They were perceived as innocent when on the field by the spectators. Many admired them. Many looked up to the star players. They believed that these football players could do no wrong. Nonetheless, on May 18, 1989, Derric and Gary “committed their first armed robbery together” (341). …show more content…
The feeling of hope is just an illusion. In Friday Night Lights, Odessa High and many others were very conceited teams. They believed that no one could beat them. Odessa High had extremely high hopes during the season. The players worked extremely hard, Coach Gaines constantly gave the team speeches, the audience was always cheering the team on and pressuring the team to do better. Odessa High had a great game record, ultimately allowing them to make it to the State Championship where they played The Carter Cowboys. After a terrible loss by Odessa, the players were destroyed. Their hopes were too high, causing the Odessa players to be oblivious upon how to react. After the loss of the State game, “there were teenage boys in tears, their great, compelling belief in themselves punctured” (335). The boys lost all sense of hope in themselves. They were too cocky from the start. They thought they would never lose. The “hope” that they had only tore them down. In addition, Boobie Miles hoped to become a professional football player. Being in the pros is all Boobie strived for in his life. He upheld the “blameless expectations of a child.” Consequently, after a blow to his knee, Boobie was torn. He could no longer play football anymore. Boobie stated, “‘If I had a good job and stuff, I still wouldn’t be happy. I want to go pro. That’s my dream’” (56). Because Boobie only relied on
African-American players are often negatively affected due to the prevalence of racism in the town. Ivory Christian, for instance, is a born-again Christian with aspirations to be a famous evangelist, but he is unable to pursue his dream due to his commitment to the football team. Because of this, the townspeople have unrealistic expectations of him and assume that he will put all his time and energy into football. Furthermore, there is a greater pressure on him to succeed...
This research paper will determine whether professional athletes deserve a second chance to play in professional sports after inappropriate behaviors. Professional athletes are considered idols and are often held to higher standards. Society has become concerned with so many of today’s athletes making the evening news for their unsuitable behaviors.
Some small towns take great pride in a singular activity that the community excels in. The fictional town of Messina, featured in John Grisham’s novel Bleachers, is radical even among that group. American football is a primary focus of many of the inhabitants’ lives, dominating conversation and their free time. With conversation comes gossip and rumors, amplified by the small town atmosphere where everyone knows many details of the lives of the other citizens. This train of thought brings one to the point where these are not people that are being talked about but rather a figure for entertainment. Messina is a town filled with many local celebrities: the players that bring glory to the town, and the one that trained them all, Coach Eddie Rake. Is it responsible for the population to expect so much from their own children?
Even though football players are aware of the dangers the game can bring upon them, they take part despite it. The passion, the joy it creates; for professionals it’s also the devoted fans and compensation they receive is what keeps the players motivated. Today players are much bigger, faster, smarter, bigger, better. The game is more physical. The sport has never been so competitive. The popularity has reached new peaks, as much that the NFL has thoughts of moving a team to London, England. Additionally, Super Bowl XLVII (47) was one of the most watched television events of all time; an astonishing 108.4 million viewers (The Associated Press). Fans worship their teams and love to see big hits. Football is a contact sport; injuries are no doubtingly part of it. Concussions are one of the many detriments caused by the ruthlessness, but one of the few with perpetual effects: consequence of the brutality.
H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights brings to mind the cold, autumn nights of 1988 where a town, just like any other rural town in America, was brought together in such a raw and emotional way. From the rise and fall of Boobie Miles to the push for the playoffs, it is clear that 1988 Odessa was swept up in the glory of football to replace the grandeur of the 1950s, which seemed to deteriorate throughout that hectic decade. While a modern reader may view Bissinger’s masterpiece as a tale from a dated and faraway place, several factors have kept it in the public’s eye. What is it about Friday Night Lights that still resonates today? The answer can still be found in the same rural towns of America. Though it may seem incredible, Texas is still football crazy, and it may be fairly concluded that emotions have only slightly receded from the obsession they once held towards high school football. People’s inability to analyze themselves, the impact a community can have on younger generations, and the way priorities can easily be warped all struck me as subjects that have stayed true in Texas culture over the past 26 years. I will be discussing these topics throughout this dissection of Friday Night Lights.
One significance of football that is apparent throughout this movie is bringing not only the students together but also
Statsky also makes another faulty assumption, which is that competition is an adult imposition on the world of children’s play. She says in her article, “The primary goal of a professional athlete – winning – is not appropriate for children” (629). Children compete to win in the same way that adults do, and they do so on their own without any adult pressure. Common playground gam...
In Jessica Statsky’s article, “Children Need to Play, Not Compete’’ points out how competitive sports are not fit for children from ages 8-12,due to the fact that it could trigger both their physical and mental health. First,Statsky elaborates on the idea of children faking an injury due to the fear of getting hurt.She cites a mother of an eight-year-old Peewee Football player,who says “The kids get so scared. They get hit once and they don’t want anything to do with football anymore. They’ll sit on the bench and pretend their leg hurts…” (qtd in Tosches). Some children are driven to even more desperate measures. For example, in one Peewee Football game, a reporter watched the following scene as a player took himself out of the game:“Coach,
Every Sunday afternoon at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys football game, my dad and I strolled outside and threw the football around. Together, we would run all of the different patterns that we had just finished watching on television. I shared a bond with my dad that no one else shared with me, and that was the intense love of the game of football.
Sports can be the greatest thing in the world or they can be the most embarrassing display of human interactions. Humans are one of the most amazing creatures on the planet. One of our greatest features is being respectful. Most of us are raised to respect someone, whether it be your parent or everyone, we will show respect. There is no greater place to show respect than on a sports field. On a sports field, stress levels are high and everyone is watching. It is very easy to lose your cool but a great athlete can keep their cool. Win or lose, the athlete will always show respect to the opponent. Not only is it good because it’s right but just think, athletes are on national television. Who watches sports? Everyone, including kids, watch sports.
Youth sport programs try their hardest to portray and mirror professional sports organizations and teams in skills, looks, and status. Although sports can assist in building character, self- esteem, and health, it can also plant the seed of cruelty, greed, and dishonesty. At some point in many sports winning becomes the single most important factor in maintaining a winner status, no matter the cost. With this being the ultimate goal for coaches and parents it then eliminates the fun aspect most children play for from the start. When coaches and parents all have different agendas and goals of how the sport should be played, the child is then put in the middle of something called “crossfire”, which can evolve into much unneeded stress put on the young athlete. With confusion and large amounts of pressure put on the child to win, we then see there is a conflict of understanding ‘personal victory’ vs ‘team victory’. This can cause low self-esteem, extra stress, or fear towards losing if the expectation of the parents and coaches are not delivered by the
Fans might now that athletes on and of the field participate in all kinds of illegal and immoral activity, but overall perception of athletes representing goodness reigns as a supreme myth” (Whitt & Perlich, 2014,
Eitzen, D. Stanley. (1999). "Sport Is Fair, Sport Is Foul." Fir and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport.
In the players’ lives, success could be seen in their basketball state champion title. In the assistant coach, Shooter’s, life, success could be seen in Shooter going to rehab and defeating his alcohol addiction. The success story that stuck out the most to me, however, was the Coach Norman Dale’s success story. When the coach first stepped foot into the little town of Hickory, the basketball enthusiasts wanted him to follow their lead. They had done the same style of ball play since forever, and they did not plan on changing anything. So, when the coach stepped in and started to change things up a bit, the town voted him out of his coaching position. Before the voting, coach did not change his ideals, even though he knew that the people in Hickory wanted him to change. He stuck with what he believed because he had faith in his set up, faith in his players, and he trusted that it would all work out. The coach asked for patience, and patience is all he needed from the little town to show what he really had potential for. His intent was not to win, but it was to see improvements in his player’s attitudes and his assistant coach’s life choices. Once coach had started seeing these types of changes, he was thrilled and his excitement was very obvious. Before his team had even won the state championship, the coach had already deemed the season a success. Upon seeing how the coach had
Team sports are played worldwide, contribute to health benefits, build teamwork, and sportsmanship. However, with a record of sexual assault, domestic violence, injuries, amount of fouls, and number of penalties, it is easy to believe that contact team sports can promote violence on and off the field. Hockey, soccer, rugby, lacrosse, basketball and football are all team sports that incorporate sliding, tackling, and body checking. Contact team sports promote violence on-the-field but there is still question is if contact team sports promote violence off-the-field? In this essay I will be discussing the off-the-field violence that is seen in sport worldwide, as well as aspects of promotion of violence on-the-field.