Ethical Issues In Professional Sports

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Introduction In 1998, the average NFL coaches averaged $134,000 (Weir, 2005). The average player salary was approximately $1.1 million dollars. Money was not a major contributor to whether coaches and athletes ethically played the game. Teams would compete to win the game with integrity. Nothing was worth winning, if it could not be done in a manner which brought positive publicity to a coach, player, or team. The average NFL salary for a head coach this past season was $3.25 million dollars, with Bill Belichick bringing in a whopping $7.5 million (Alley, 2015). The NFL is not the only professional or collegiate sport which has seen a significant rise in financial gain over the last twenty years. As the salary of coaches has continued to climb, …show more content…

The NCAA has had a myriad of scandals or incidents involving coaches or team staffs. The most recent incident occurred with the Louisville men’s basketball team. Katina Powell, a woman responsible for allegedly brining escorts and providing women for sexual acts, detailed in a book how she was able to link up with Andre McGee, an assistant coach for Louisville, in order to pleasure recruits, current, and former players (Associated Press, 2016). The University of Louisville announced last week they would impose a one year self ban from the postseason, or NCAA tournament. Providing sexual acts for recruits, thinking this would entice them to attend the university and hopefully increasing higher profile recruits is definitely an ethical violation of the university and NCAA. Coaches who partake in this behavior should not be allowed to coach anywhere. These incidents of trying to get high profile recruits and keep them eligible has been an issue due to the national attention for national signing day, and the importance of getting a high recruiting class. Legendary coach Jim Boeheim, also found himself in the middle of a scandal prior to the start of the NCAA basketball season. The charges against Boeheim range from academic misconduct, for playing Fab Melo while he was academically ineligible during the NCAA tournament, providing extra benefits to players, and finally failing to follow drug testing policy (NCAA penalizes Syracuse, Boeheim, 2015). These charges are inexcusable for any coach or program. The coach should know who is academically eligible and keep up with his player academic standing and performance. As far as providing extra benefits, the NCAA clearly outlines the services that can be provided to athletes, and these policies must be followed to a t. Not conducting drug tests as they should be conducted just proves the inability to control a program or ensure they

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