Violence in Sports1
"...Steeler running back Rocky Bleier, whose war time experiences, not so oddly, offer some insights. To Bleier, there are interesting parallels between survival in war and survival in the NFL. 'The experiences with war injuries and football injuries are quite the same,' he said." (Casay) The injuries that are accumulated during sports are rapidly increasing to the point that there are injured players on every team in each game that is played. This is especially true in the most physical professional sports, i.e., NFL and the NHL. Most of these injuries are directly related to the increasing violent nature of pro athletes. "`The cost of the aggression -- the punishment -- has to be greater than the benefits,' said Dr. Brenda Bredemeier, sports psychology consultant at the University of California-Berkley. The latest outbreak of violence occurred in Bredemeier's back yard, Oakland, where (Latrell) Sprewell attacked Coach P.J. Carlesimo during practice and, according to published reports, threatened to kill him if he wasn't traded."(Detroit Press) Pro athletes are committing criminal acts and the law for the most part is letting them get away with crimes. Another case of violence by a pro athlete happ
These high salaries are beneficial in making the athletes more violent. The theories of sport mirroring society, violence as a result of economic incentive, and the influence of the crowd behavior are the theories that I feel are responsible for the increasing violence in sports. "Bryant and Zillman report that television viewers enjoy NFL plays more when they are rough and violent" (McPherson 294). Players no longer play simply for the love of the game, but rather play for the tremendous amount of wealth that can be attained by winning. We want to make sure we get what we need before we get out of the league. (Westpoint, London) 24 July 1996 SIRS CD-ROM2. The signification of the relation between violence in pro sports and the money the athletes make is summed up in this quote: "The economic incentive to win forces players to develop a win at all cost attitude. Professional athletes have a tremendous amount of determination and competitiveness about them that is rarely seen anywhere else, but they are becoming less and less of role models because of their violent nature while they are playing their sport and the crimes that are being committed away from the sport. The Cincinnati Bengals were playing the Denver Broncos, and a player from Denver struck a player from Cincinnati in the back of the neck.
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Acceptance Essays
