American Sports Values

Most Americans love watching sports whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, etc. The United States is one of the biggest nations when it comes to the love of sports. Sports are basically a key part in American culture, even though they haven’t always been around. I personally love sports but will I spend majority of my time ranting and raving about a certain sport or sports team? Probably not. People of America are serious about their sports, maybe too serious. People in today’s day have been likely to skip work or missing other obligations just to watch a game. I’m not saying it is a bad thing to have love for a certain team or sport but when that sport and/or team becomes to the point where that person forgets about everything else

In our society sports are a very important social construction. As sports continue to grow, they are becoming more integrated into the major spheres of social life. Sports have become an entity, due to the fact that they not only create entertainment and jobs; sports have become a huge platform for various causes. Sports are extremely important to our society and have very powerful influences. Though experiences vary from person to person, most people have some sort of experience with sports. I personally have experienced sports more from the spectator and participant stance, and have been impacted from each perspective a great deal. Compared to sophomore safety, Jamal Adams my sports experience has been very different from impact and perspective.

Throughout American history, sports has always been a big topic. Many Americans view sports as a part of their culture and an influence in their lives. There are many opportunities to play sports such as basketball, football, golf, baseball, ect. However, not everybody had equal opportunities to play sports before there were major changes in sports history. One of these major changes included other ethnicity groups and skin colored people to be allowed to play sports. African American athletes were one of the main groups of people that changed this view. They were not allowed or qualified to play sports because of their skin color and background. Since the 1800’s, African Americans the views of the people in the United States of blacks in sports

In the book “Winning Is the Only Thing”, Randy Roberts and James Olsen unravel the true origins of sports and the post war effects on American sports. The book reveals the social, economic, racial, and worldly affairs that shaped sports in the U.S. Roberts and Olsen also explain how sports went from fun and games to winning being the only importance. The book begins with the cold war and its effects on the Olympic Games, demonstrating how the games were politicized. It then transitions with racial integration becoming a thing of the past, to the modernization of sports through mass media and technology. “Winning is the Only Thing” offers a variety of the historical stories, giving the readers factual insight on the controversial and scandalous sides behind the transformation of American sports. The book was informative and quickly covered the historical and evolutionary aspects of sports, keeping the book short, sweet and easy to read.

However, like most things in this world, if there is a positive side to an issue, there is usually a negative lingering in the shadows. When taking performance-enhancing drugs, the user will receive great rewards, but at high risks. There are major mental and physical risks involved when taking a performance-enhancing drug, especially anabolic steroids. According to the Mayo clinical staff, “Men may develop breasts, shrunken testicles, and infertility. Women may develop a deeper voice, an enlarged clitoris, and increased body hair. Both might experience rage, severe acne, infections, and other health issues,” (Clincal Staff, Mayo). It is evident that there are high risks when taking a performance-enhancing drug. These risks come in various forms, from being mild to

Culture can arguable be the thing that is impacted the most from the use of performance-enhancing drugs. People in the everyday society look to the countries greatest pasttime for inspiration and an escape from their everyday life. “Few sports-related events have garnered as much interest and as much cynicism as the steroid scandal in baseball.” (Ringeret al 91) It’s damage crushed the spirit of many individuals, “[b]oth ardent fans and casual observers wonder why proffessional baseball players would choose to use such substances when their use is viewed as outside the bounds of fair play.” (Ringeret al 91) There may not be a true reasoning, unflawed, as to why PED’s were thought acceptable to players, but research shows that values and norms in the culture of competitive sports often differ from commonly held social norms about what is fair and what is not.

How did attitudes towards Jesse Owens, as well as his successes, and struggles affect the status quo of race in sports. That is the question that this essay attempts to answer, by exploring Owens' early life, to his first success in 1933, to his record setting eight individual NCAA championships, four each in 1935 and 1936, to one of his greatest achievements on May 25, 1935 during the Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he set three world records and tied a fourth. Then moving to arguably some of his most important victories in 1936 when Jesse Owens represented the United States of America in the Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany. It is there that he defied the odds by winning 4 gold medals as well as

Second stage diabetes and bone degeneration can form over time losing strength as the athlete continues to age (“Performance-Enhancement Drugs Are Dangerous 3”). This evidence proves the risks and affects you deal with when dealing with performance-enhancement drugs. Athletes tend to have a change in behavior and start to feel untouchable after taking the performance enhancement supplements (Ungerleider 2). This evidence shows how the drugs can emotionally change the persona of an athlete. These are all ways of how performance-enhancement drugs can be dangerous.

Anabolic steroid abuse has become a huge concern among high school athletes. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of athletes using performance enhancing drugs in high school, almost double the number since the 1980's. Student athletes feel that steroids give them a competitive edge that they think they need to boost themselves past competition. Athletes, whether they are young or old, professional or amateur, are always looking to gain an advantage over their opponents to come away with the biggest win, our society views winning as something more important than the game itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today's athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, today student athletes are getting caught up in this competition frenzy and because of this, teenage use of performance enhancing drugs is growing to be very popular. At all levels of play, from peewee wrestling to professional football. Successful athletes rely on skill, practice, and hard work to increase their speed, power, and ability. Today, high school and even middle school students are using steroids illegally. The United Institute of Health reported that 2.9% of twelve graders in high school have used anabolic steroids. These drugs may also have been called: roids, juice, gym candy, pumpers, stackers, balls or bulls, arnies, or anabolics. High School students of our

Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others. Racism occurs much more than we like to admit. In sports, racism is happening more often and becoming a much bigger problem. Most agree that sports are a reflection of society. What this means is that sports often act as a small-scale version of society and thus, racial problems in sports have been, and continue to be, brushed away as nothing unique. It takes outrageous conduct for the reality of racism in sports to come to the forefront. When comparing a minority athlete to a non-minority athlete, we can see they both are victims of discrimination because of their race. However, the type of discrimination is very different, and the effects are very different. To a lot of people, the sports world is a place in which none of the normal problems of the “real” world could possibly exist. Racism has had an impact on student athletes of all ages and race, in both their personal life and outside their personal life. The racism that some American minority and non-minority student athletes face has long-running effects on the athletes’ education and career opportunities. The racial issues in sports can be addressed better when exposed and talked about.

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

Sports as an industry is quickly evolving into a grand, formless entity with many avenues, opportunities for scholar-practitioners, and segments that have prolonged the business of sports like never before. But, not quite in the racial area of the sports world, whether it is in the media or through personal experiences, Racism has always been a part of history, but today, it seems as if theirs have been modestly an acceptance of racism. As the industry expands a growing blend between the worlds of sports and entertainment has also formed, linking the two together, and bringing entertainment to the forefront in sports in terms of sponsorships, marketing, athlete representation, team ownership and sports law have effected. Professional American athletes should be against prejudice and racism in sports because it created prejudice and unequal right for speech and protest while amplifying prejudice in professional sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL.

Today in the athletic community, young and old, everybody is trying to trump their competitors by getting the edge over them wether its running faster, jumping higher, lifting more weight, or just simply performing better overall. However some of these athletes are after the same end goal but they are taking a different path to get there. Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) are becoming more and more common among younger athletes these days. There has been much talk with doctors, coaches and parents about the controversy and misconceptions about these drugs and how more athletes are taking these performance enhancing drugs and how they can have many side affects, positive and negative. The goal of this paper is to state that the negative side affects out weigh the potential benefits of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS).

Athletes have used performance enhancing drugs(PED) throughout history to increase personal performance and recover quicker. Although, there are many PEDs athletes use, two are used commonly among several athletes in many different professions of sports. Steroids and Human Growth Hormones are those two. Professional teams have specific tests for these two drugs, and the consequences can be severe if an athlete is caught using these substances illegally. The mix of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, which makes up steroids, cause significant weight gains, but consequently steroids are very harmful to the liver and can cause permanent damage “Anadrol 50”. Human Growth Hormones is a over the counter drug athletes use to recover faster, and to make strength gains rapidly “Haley Simon Human Growth Hormone”. Both of these performance enhancing drugs are a

PED’s, also known as “performance-enhancement drugs” can stunt the natural growth of an individual and even cause psychological issues. PED’s have a tendency to disarrange a person’s mind and could cause aggressiveness, depression, and even suicide. The constant pressure to succeed in order to perform to the standards of college athletics has left competitors tragically searching for a way in. An article written by writer K. Nolte constructs a personal insight on the reason for enhancement drugs in sports. It displays the attributes and beliefs of these well-known prohibited substances and analyzes the reason for their widespread effect across the world. Nolte supplies various studies and scrutiny of the probable causes as to why athletes begin taking these performance drugs in the first place. Many people have put the act of competing over their own health and as a result it has distressed their mind and body. Amphetamines are a central nervous system stimulant that were first used for the treatment of narcolepsy and obesity, but have progressed over time into performance