Are Professional Athletes Human?

One of the rare phenomenon in today's day and age is that of the humanity of professional athletes. We see them on the news, see them during games, and read about them in the paper, but rarely do people actually meet players face to face for extended periods of time. That lack of face to face interaction and the digital world of seeing and hearing them through TVs, computers, and phones, has dulled us to the fact that these are actual people out there. Zirin liked to point out that things such as fantasy sports have also dehumanized athletes in our minds. Our perception of athletes have shown through a large variety of ways.

One way fans have shown disregard for the human aspects of athletes are in the form of social media threats, hate speech, and antagonization. Recently, Packers TE Brandon Bostick, who let the game sealing onside kick slide through his arms, was attacked. This attack took place over social media, letters to his house, and through text messages and emails. These threats were threats on his and his family's life...for dropping a ball...in a football game...that wasn't even the Super Bowl. Not to mention there is no guarantee they would have won that game even if he had recovered it.

Another example is that of former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs. Before a game, a fantasy football player who had Jacobs on his team threatened to kill him and his family if he didn't run for 50 yards and two touchdowns. After the game, which he was forced to miss due to a hamstring injury, another fan tweeted at him calling him names and obscenities for being the reason why he lost that week in fantasy football. Brandon Jacobs simply responded: "F**k you and your fantasy team. This is my real life."

We wear their jerseys, scream their names, and play them in video games, but rarely do people take into account that playing football is their job, a job that has serious effects on their lives. When a player is traded they have to worry about their family, finding a new place to live, different taxes, new people you are working with. When a player is hurt, is it really worthwhile to endure the pain and possible further damage in order to appease some fat guy still wearing jerseys at the age of 45? We don't see athletes as people. We seem them as objects.

What is Justice in the NFL?

2014-2015 has been a tumultuous season for the NFL off the field. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy. High profile players that were involved in sexual or domestic violence cases. Ray Rice hit his wife, knocking her out, and then dragged her out of an elevator after kicking her to see if she was conscious. Adrian Peterson hit his son with a switch, a whip-like tree branch, that caused severe cuts and bruises to the three year old in his crotch and elsewhere on his body. Greg Hardy allegedly hit and threw his girlfriend onto a bed that was covered in weapons, and threatened to kill her. Clear as day unlawful acts of egregious violence. Should have been pretty obvious what should happen right? Jail time, community service, and psychiatric evaluation and treatment should have all been given to each. Unfortunately, only Hardy was sentenced to jail. But what did the NFL do?

The NFL screwed up. Prior to the Ray Rice case, the NFL's domestic violence rules and penalties were grossly out of date and unjust. The penalty was a two game suspension without pay. That is what the NFL handled to Rice when things first got started. Then the video of the incident got out. People were outraged. The league then suspended Rice indefinitely. Then Ray Rice got lawyers involved. This is where the NFL screwed up with Rice. They thought they would play this by their standard, and would blow over in time. When people saw what really happened, the NFL got thrown into a firestorm of outrage. They responded by suspending him indefinitely. This was also unjust, not because it wasn't the right thing to do, but because they had handed Rice a sentence and then expanded it once they realized they screwed it up. Rice would eventually win his lawsuit against the NFL, and be reinstated to be signed to another team. Thankfully, no NFL team thought his acts were worth overlooking for his skills. And Rice was a good player.

Then came Hardy and Peterson. The NFL decided to "create" a designation called the Commissioner's Exempt List, which essentially meant that the player couldn't play, but would still get paid his normal salary until the Commissioner deemed him able to return. So Hardy and Peterson did not play a single game once they were placed on this list, but they were still getting paid as if they were. Adrian Peterson was the highest paid running back in the league, and Greg Hardy was playing under the franchise tag, meaning he was earning the average of the top five players at his position. Hardly a punishment. In the meantime, the NFL was working on revising their rules and punishments for domestic and sexual violence. Eventually, the NFL group lead by several female executives came up with a new standard six game punishment for the first instance of sexual/domestic violence, and an indefinite ban for the second occurrence.

Just in the last few days, Adrian Peterson had taken his case to court and won against the NFL. Peterson's argument was that he had already served his six game suspension due to being on the Commissioner's Exempt List, and should not be further punished. The legal system agreed with him, and Peterson's suspension was removed, but he was quickly placed back on the Exempt List by the NFL. The NFL plans on appealing the court's decision. Hardy is still on the Exempt list, and in a matter of days, once the new league year starts on March 10th, will no longer be on an NFL team. 

Almost no one outside of the NFL feels like justice was served, by either the league or the justice system. So does that make this issue more than just a problem in the NFL? Or is our culture part of the problem?

Deflated Sense of Media Morality

I have a personal beef with this topic. It took the honor of my favorite team, and spat on it. People tore them apart without any proof or evidence. People took the headlines as facts, didn't read the actual content, and allowed biased opinions to shape their own. I am talking about the witch hunt that was Deflate Gate.

It all started when Bob Kravitz forged a story, creating a narrative that a player felt that a football was under inflated, and then told the officials. That player would go on to say that he never felt any difference in the ball and he never told anyone otherwise. Then, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that "11 of 12 footballs were significantly deflated". This is when the shit hit the fan. Not only was the report wrong, it allowed anyone and everyone to jump on the issue because "ESPN reported it, it has to be true". Reports later that came that only one ball was even close to significantly deflated (the ball that a former Jets front office executive got his hands on before turning it over to the officials), and the other ten were barely deflated below the 12.5 minimum. On top of that, the officials measured 24 footballs, not the 11 of 12.  More and more reports came out as things died down. Jay Glazer attempted to drum up a story by saying "the investigation has focused on a ball boy attendant who took the balls after the officials measured them". Want more pathetic reporting? The ball boy took them from the officials' room to the bathroom for 90 seconds, and then took them to the field. The Patriots themselves turned in that video to the NFL. The guy went to the bathroom to take a piss, not to "deflate 11 of 12 footballs" in under 90 seconds. Various other reports have come out that the officials never measured the footballs, and that the didn't even measure them at halftime when they were reinflated, so whatever "evidence" they may have had no longer exists. 

Now to where it hits on my studies: how people took it and ran. Speculation and assumptions ran rampant. ESPN went as far as having three former anti-Patriots-biased panelists call Tom Brady a liar on national TV. We had established sports writers call for the NFL to suspend Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. We had famous former players call the Patriots cheaters and demand punishment. ALL BASED OFF OF NO EVIDENCE OR PROOF. I'm sorry, but doesn't our legal system state that people are "innocent until proven guilty". Yet people based their opinions and stances off of misunderstanding and misinformation, all starting from individuals fueled by anger, hatred, and resentment. 

Bias played far too much into this story, and the fact that major news organizations wanted and allowed this to happen is beyond frustrating and annoying. Several news journalists were recorded as saying that their articles or news stories were removed due to being fair and not controversial on this issue. People took another sensationalized story in Spy Gate, where I could write a whole other blog post on that and why that was a ridiculous story, and used it to fuel this "cheating" narrative. Had people taken an unbiased approach to the story, and instead of delving into the hysteria went into the facts and information, then maybe this story would have taken a much more appropriate, and less hate fueled, approach to how it was covered.

Some people called it like they saw it. Some people took the unbiased approach. Some people did the research to clarify statements. Unfortunately, it wasn't everyone.

When Sports Defeat Alienation

Danny Keefe being interviewed.

In today's American society, sports are one of the most influential forms of activity for youth. One child, Danny Keefe, unable to participate in sports, was able to use a position as a “water coach” to gain the respect of fellow children to support him despite him being picked on for having apraxia, which affects the way he speaks. Danny was also made fun of for the way he dressed: a full suit and tie at the age of seven.

An assumption that conflict theory suggests is that sport generates alienation. This can be seen in school social settings. In school, it is a normal scene to see football players hanging around other football players, cheerleaders with cheerleaders, so on and so forth. It is difficult for individuals not in these sports to assimilate themselves into these social groups due to the exclusivity among these sports-based groups.

In the case of Danny, his love of football, and his brother being a member of the Bridgewater Badgers in Massachusetts, allowed him to become the “water coach” for his brother’s team. During school, his classmates would make fun of him for the way he talked and dressed because he didn’t have the friends to support him. Without an established social group Danny would struggle with the constant insults.

Danny with his football friends.

Eventually, Danny’s brother and his teammates decided to stick up for Danny by wearing suits and ties to school and getting the day to be declared Danny’s Day at the school. The entire football team rallied around him and brought him into the football group. Things started to change for Danny at school, and quickly became friends with all of the football players that he would keep hydrated at practice and games. His assimilation into the group allowed others to enter the group as well and break the norm of social sports alienation.

While it is common to see alienation in schools due to sports social groups, when that alienation can be broken, it can create positive results.

ESPN Story:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11937801 

NESN Story: 

http://nesn.com/2014/11/bridgewater-waterboy-danny-keefe-stars-in-touching-sportscenter-feature-video/