Foul Play
Dear Members of the Board of the National Collegiate Association of America:
Since the beginning of collegiate athletics, there have been student-athletes whose actions are considered disproportionately deviant. College athletes have defied the rules and regulations set forth by the National Collegiate Association of America by such acts as accepting stipends, committing date rape, abusing drugs, and even committing homicide. For some reason, college athletes believe they are above the law and should not have to abide by the same set of rules as a normal student, because of their athletic talent. As a former NCAA Division II football player, I can attest to the feeling athletes have that they deserve special treatment because of their status. There are some people who believe that college athletics is above reproach, but the purpose of this essay is to assert the statement that college athletics is corrupt.
Year after year, college athletes make the headlines of newspapers and magazines across the country, not only for their accomplishments on the field, but more for their antics off the field. College athletes sacrifice their bodies, integrity, and character to gain an advantage over their opponent. Athletes give up the very things that make them who they are to feel appreciated by their coaches, teammates, and fans. Players cheat by taking anabolic steroids and other banned substances that give them a chemically induced physical advantage (Eitzen 3). Athletes desire to be identified with a team that works and sacrifices together to reach a common goal. The guestion we should ask ourselves is: Why? Why do individuals give up so much to be a part of a team? The answer lies within the organization of how big-time college sport exists. Fans are drawn to big sporting events such as the Super Bowl and the World Series. College athletes want to be in that spotlight, and they sacrifice everything to gain that status. Fans are consumed by sports. USA Today, the most widely read newspaper in the United States, devotes one-fourth of its space to sport (14). Fans know every detail about their beloved sports team. Not only the latest box scores, but also the win-loss record, point spread, current statistics, play-off probabilities, and biographical information about athletes and coaches (16). College sports appeal to the general public, young and old.
At a very young age, aspiring college athletes are taught the principles of sport and how much winning really means.
In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.
I wonder what it was like to witness the Vietnam War firsthand in combat. Well, in the short story, “The Things they Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, the theme was portrayed as the physical and emotional burdens that soldiers had to deal with during the Vietnam War.
John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.
College recruiting is something that was created for the good of college sports, but is often used for such unethical actions that will make anyone with a soul cringe. In 2004, University of Colorado’s athletic department used alcohol, drugs, and sex to lure recruits during official campus visits (Gerdy). These actions are immoral on a number of levels, and should not be tolerated. If this type of behavior continues to be seen in college sports, then serious changes need to be made. Illegal recruiting that takes place in NCAA athletics is unethical, gives colleges unfair advantages, and jeopardizes player’s eligibility.
In my previous two speeches I explored the issue of paying college athletes and the ethical and moral implications it has. In this paper I will formally address the issue using historical background, and, after showing both sides of the argument, I will convince you, the reader, that paying college athletes is a moral justice through the ethical theories of Deontology.
Throughout the country young men and women are losing their priority for an education. To attend a university should be a highly cherished privilege, and it should be an even greater honor to play athletics for the university. Therefore, the writer supports the decision that the “student” comes before “athlete” in student-athlete. Playing for pay should be considered a job for “professionals”. In the rulebook, the NCAA views college athletes as armatures. This statement sums it up best. When athletes go to college, not all of them go in with the mindset that athletics is going to be their future job....
"College Athletic Programs Undermine Academics." Student Life. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 July 2011.
In the few chapters on the book Brian Bond talks about how Britain one the first war in the year 1914-1918. During that four year expend war, Most of the time people thought that world war one was a ‘’bad war’’ because of an assassination,innocent people dying, bombs everyone and later on Germany declaring war. During that time it seems like we’re almost having the similarities that happen hundred years ago but this time it isn’t with Germany it’s mostly with a group called Isis (islamic state). ‘’I have never been persuaded that such violence, whether of an angry black man or a hate-filled trooper or of a dutiful Air Force officer, was the result of some natural instinct. All of those incidents, as I thought about them later, were explainable by social circumstances’’ (Three Violence and Human Nature) This quote or statement of the article pretty much brings out about the book and the what 's happening right now. In small worlds that statement says that why do we need war? or have someone start a war, or why does it it have to be us and start another war and make the same history by repeating it
There has been a lot of athletic scandals in colleges in most parts of the world. These scandals have been as a result of the coaches and the directors of athletics in the colleges failing to take the full force of the law and giving their players freedom to do everything even if it is against the law. One of this fatal scandals is the Baylor university basketball scandal that occurred in the year 2003. This scandal involved the players and the coaches of the team. The scandal left one player dead and the other imprisoned for thirty five years. The team was subjected to a lot of punishment by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA is a non-profit organization comprised of 1281 institutions, organizations, individuals and conferences and that organizes the athletic programs of most of the colleges and universities in the United States and Canada (The New York Times, 2003).
College athletes are manipulated every day. Student athletes are working day in and day out to meet academic standards and to keep their level of play competitive. These athletes need to be rewarded and credited for their achievements. Not only are these athletes not being rewarded but they are also living with no money. Because the athletes are living off of no money they are very vulnerable to taking money from boosters and others that are willing to help them out. The problem with this is that the athletes are not only getting themselves in trouble but their athletic departments as well.
Student athletes should not be paid more than any other student at State University, because it implies that the focus of this university is that an extracurricular activity as a means of profit. Intercollegiate athletics is becoming the central focus of colleges and universities, the strife and the substantial sum of money are the most important factors of most university administration’s interest. Student athletes should be just as their title states, students. The normal college student is struggling to make ends meet just for attending college, so why should student athletes be exempt from that? College athletes should indeed have their scholarships cover what their talents not only athletically but also academically depict. Unfortunately, the disapproval resides when students who are making leaps academically are not being offered monetary congratulations in comparison to student athletes. If the hefty amount of revenue that colleges as a conglomerate are making is the main argument for why athletes should be paid, then what is to stop the National Clearinghouse from devising unjust standards? Eventually if these payments are to continue, coaches, organizations, and the NCAA Clearinghouse will begin to feel that “c...
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Between 1919 and 1925 Steinbeck was acknowledged as a special student at Stanford University. According to Peter Lisac, “Variously employed as a had-carrier, fruit-picker, apprentice printer, laboratory assistant, caretaker, surveyor, reporter, writer, and foreign correspondent let him acquire knowledge in many areas.” (1) Even in his youth, Steinbeck developed a love of the natural world and diverse cultures. Steinbeck produced two children from his second wife, Elaine Scott. The early 1930’s became a struggle for Steinbeck, both in his
The huge amount of money being made off college sports has led some to question whether student-athletes can be considered amateurs any longer, and whether they should, instead, be paid for their efforts, the argument can be made that the opportunity to both receive an education and get the exposure to win a major professional contract more than compensates NCAA athletes for their
Growing up in America sport is a vital part of everyday life. From childhood to adulthood some aspect of sport pertains to virtually everyone. As a child one is looking to find a hobby so they play sports. As a parent fathers look forward to coaching their child’s little league team. And as tens and young adults sports are an opportunity to become a “somebody” and do something amazing. The general perception in high school and college is that athletes have it all. If you’re good at sports then you don’t have to worry about schoolwork or popularity and essentially you have but not a care in the world; you are invincible. Although it is great to see some succeed and become professional athletes many others do not have the same fate. The fate of these athletes, which happens to be the majority, is what drives my opinion on college sport.
The purpose of the article, “The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence”, written by Nicholas L.Carnagey, Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman is to show the effect that video games has on physiological desensitization. Psychological Desensitization is defined as the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive or positive stimulus after repeated exposure to it. In other words the purpose of the article was to experiment whether or not people who played violent games were able to still be aware of the violence happening around them. The authors set up this study by having the participants report their media habits and then having them play one of eight violent or nonviolent games for a small period of time. Then the participants