ASSIGNMENT

Deviance in Contemporary Sports



Deviance in Contemporary Sports

Introduction

Ideally, sport promotes many of society's desirable character traits, including fair play, sportsmanship, obedience to authority, hard work and dedication toward a desired goal, and a commitment to excellence. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The everyday makeup of contemporary sport is increasingly characterised by a perceived explosion of 'deviance' - violence, drug taking, racism, homophobia, misogyny, corruption and excesses (Sugden 2006 479-482). Whereas once these behaviours may have been subject to the moral judgments of authority, in the face of dramatic socio-cultural change they become more a matter of populist consumer gaze. Most definitions include the basic idea that deviance entails any behavior that violates cultural norms and that such violations may lead to punishment. Since the mid-1970s the media have frequently reported cases of deviance among those connected with sports. Exposes on sport often infer that deviance is pervasive and that it is grounded in widespread disregard or rejection of norms by coaches and athletes in highly visible or revenue producing sports, who underconform to commonly held rules of conduct. Since popular beliefs have traditionally emphasized the positive consequences of sports participation, the seemingly unending lenity of publicized cases of deviance in sport has shock and disappointed many people. In their disappointment, some have concluded that deviance is simply proof that the moral basis of society is eroding. Many have called for new selection standards to keep 'trouble makers' out of sport, tougher methods of rule enforcement and stronger sanctions.

Sport deviance in light of Sociological theories

Often overlooked in the calls for more rigid external systems of social control is the fact that deviant behavior among athletes is a complex, diversified phenomenon, and that athletes' lives are already controlled through often repressive systems of social control. we argue that a significant portion of deviance among athletes does not involve disregarding or rejecting commonly accepted cultural goals or means to those goals, nor does it result from alienation from society (Lauderdale 1976 660-676). Instead, it is grounded in athletes' uncritical acceptance of and commitment to what they have been told by important people in their lives ever since they began participating in competitive programs; in a real sense, it is the result of being too committed to the goals and norms of sport. Throughout their lives, athletes have heard again and again of the need to be dedicated, to set goals, to persevere until goals are achieved, to define adversity as a challenge, and to be willing to make sacrifices and subjugate other experiences generally associated with "growing up” all for the sake of their quest to become all they can be in sport (Horne, Tomlinson & Whannel1999 35-42). Coaches have emphasized the need to “pay the price.” to 'play wth pain.” and to "shoo for the top.” These messages have been and continue to be repeated in the words of sport commentators who praise those who play with injuries as “courageous and those who return to play after serious injuries as ...