Violence in Sports

685 Words2 Pages

Many news stories that write about sports highlight amazing victories,underdog comebacks or shocking defeats. Sometimes these stories even praise the actions of the players, but overall they rarely report the severe violence that occurs on the field and in the stands. The following essay will discuss the impact of violence on professional players,violence that occurs amongst the fans, and how violence has shaped professional sports.

Sports has been part of society for as long as time,such as the Mayan Ball Game which was the first team sport in human history and was played for over 3000 years, it was a test of physical ability and mental toughness. Sports was a way to prove that you or your team was the best, and was going to lay it out all on the field. Some sports have brought people together such as soccer being a world wide sport with almost every country participating in it. However, sports can also create bitter rivals and make a game mean something more than just a game, it means war. With more rivals this creates a warrior mentality and can lead to the mind set of completely destroying the opponent whatever the cost.

This cost can result in serious injuries. An article called “For too long, sports journalist glossed over football’s violence. I was one of them.” by Leonard Shapiro said that,

An investigation on the NFL’s longtime mishandling of concussions shows how the league for many years would not admit that on field concussions could lead to harmful consequences for players both during their football careers and afterward… many of the players listed in a lawsuit or their dependents said the former players are suffering from dementia, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological ailments (Shapiro 2013).

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...ots in the streets because the lost or win of their favorite team and can harm other fans of the opposing team just because they wore the wrong kind of jersey. A writer named Mike Lopresti wrote an article called “Violence at American sports stadiums becoming all too common” which was about a Raiders and 49ers exhibition game and said “ The final statistics from the Raiders-49ers game included two shootings in the parking lot, and one severe beating in a restroom. Speculation is, the teams’ heated neighborhood rivalry might be a factor” (Lopresti 2011). These altercations amongst the fans over a game that is meaningless is shocking. Someone could have been killed given the circumstances, and this violence among the fans is not only limited to American football games, but also professional soccer games and violence with these fans can result in greater consequences.

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