Conformity And Over Deviance In Sports

Competitive and professional sports is a cardinal fixture in the lives of billions all across the globe. Sport is cherished and idolized by many as it gives the viewers loads of entertainment as well as a sense of pride. Sport has the ability to unite entire nations as there is a mutual sentiment attached to the desire of wanting your team to outperform the rest, it is all based on the notion that an athlete or team is representing you as an individual and an entire country. Professional athletes often have a certain stigma attached to them - they make tons of money, drive exotic sports cars, live in fancy houses, travel all over the world, they have achieved this by doing what they love day in and day out – by playing sport.

Every sports team seems to have that one person that has to be the best, and will go to the extreme to make themselves better. Especially the guys that are a little old and feel as if their training is not good enough to keep up with the youngsters. When I say “extreme” I am talking about steroids. Once the Russian weightlifters introduced this performance enhancing tool to the U.S, some players in almost all major sports, any age, any gender, and any race just cannot get enough of it. Watching ESPN, I see that there is no sign of Athletes slowing down even with a chance of having bad health conditions, being penalized by getting fined, and hurting the team by getting suspended for a certain amount of days; showing that taking steroids and

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.

In “We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals,” William Moller strongly criticizes the “. . . self-righteous media types who make a living by drumming up indignation from the masses” (Moller 548). In addition to criticizing the media, Moller also condemns the general public for demonizing professional athletes because “. . . the reason [insert name of professional athlete] did [or does] steroids is you and me” (Moller 547). In other words, he claims that society is to blame for athletes’ usage of performance enhancing drugs because “[w]e, the public, place the best athletes on pedestals, gods on high” (Moller 547-48). Therefore, Moller argues that you and I are hypocrites because at some point in our lives, we all cheat and do wrong, yet we expect athletes to be superhuman without the aid of banned substances. While I agree with Moller’s assertions, his explanations as to why athletes use PED’s are limited, thus lacking the oomph necessary to propel his argument to a new dimension. Ultimately, fame and fortune, pressure from fans, and the human nature to perform as best you can are all factors that cause athletes to use illegal stimulants.

In the Journal “Sport and Society: Annual Review of Sociology” written by Robert E. Washington and David Karen they talk about gender and sports in one section of their Journal. In this section the author addresses masculinity in sports and the attempts of Title IX to try and make sports equal in the sense that if women make up 40% of the athlete population they should receive 40% of the resources. However, this is not the case “The most recent data (Suggs 2000) reveal that in 1998–1999 women made up 42% of Division I athletes, received 42% of scholarship monies, 31% of recruiting budgets, 34% of coaching-salary budgets, and 33% of total operating expenses. According to Andrew Zimbalist (2000:B9), women “still play in inferior facilities, stay in lower-caliber hotels on the road, eat in cheaper restaurants, benefit from smaller promotional budgets, and have fewer assistant coaches.” (Washington and Karen, 2001) This long quote showcases that although women are starting to get what they deserve when it comes to a the percentage of Athletics that they comprise it is still not up to par. Although it is not technically salary, the gap in scholarship money and money spent of faculty for female athletes showcases how money it’s sports always goes to the male athletes no matter at what level. In a more recent example that further pushes the points that were made in Washington and Karen’s journal would be the U.S. Women’s Soccer team compared to the U.S. Men’s Soccer team. Both

PEDs aren't ruining sports or American culture as many people would like to believe. In reality, because PEDs in sports has become commonplace over the years, revenues have increased in the trillions of dollars (Adams et al 2004). The one thing that all the trillion plus dollar major sports have realized is that fans want to see larger than life people doing larger than life things. Fans want to see 40-yard dash times shattered each year at football combines. They want their linemen all to bench press over 500 pounds (Adams et al

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.

In the world of sports it is a competitive place where athletes lay everything they have worked for their whole lives to win the game. Now these athletes have been striving for greatness and dedicating so much of their lives to getting bigger faster and stronger to be able to win some games and ultimately move up in their careers and possibly make a living out of the sport they love to play. Sports rewards players who are motivated and works harder than the other team and stay focused and just dedicate so much to the sport. Now there are shortcuts to becoming bigger and faster and stronger. While some athletes bleed sweat and work as hard as they can and sometimes get changes slowly and far between some athletes will take performance enhancing drugs which will help these athletes take a shortcut and beat out the others who strive to get better. There in my opinion is nothing wrong with athletes wanting to get an upper edge on opponents by getting bigger and stronger but when the athlete uses performance enhancing drugs to get an upper edge I do not agree with this and feel like those athletes should receive some type of punishment.

It is unethical for a “role-model” to display negative habits to children or fans who look up to them. For example, children and teens tend to do what they see. If a parent is an alcoholic and that is all they do; their children have a higher risk of becoming an alcoholic as well because that is what they learned. In the article titled “Performance-Enhancing Drugs Tarnish Athletics” from the European Commission, it states that “It cannot be right, though, to treat doping as respectable just because it is a common practice in the society we live in” (8). Simply put, this is saying that just because the social-norm of many professional athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs, does not mean it should be accepted. By engaging in PEDs, it gives a wrong impression to younger kids and teenagers. Also, it might crush children’s dreams knowing that the only reason their “role-models” are incredibly talented, it factors that do not involve their work ethic. Due to the fact of the negative influence to others and it is unethical, PEDs should not be allowed in

Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are known to be used widely throughout sports, and they have aided many famous players in their success. An example of this is at the time of the “steroid era” (1980s-2000s) in baseball, when well-known players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and many others used PEDs to hit a crazy amount of home runs that broke records (“The Steroid Era”). Some players feel as if they need to use PEDs in order to earn a spot on the team because of how much an advantage is gained by using them (Rosenberg). What I think about the controversial topic of whether PEDs should be legal is that the health risks, the bad example it shows, and it making sports unchallenging is enough to show that it should stay illegal.

Culture and norms, cohesiveness, and adaptability are what accounts for the “most efficient in U.S. pro sports” team (Ryan). Hendrick Motorsports' has dominated NASCAR for the last 30 years, “earning 11 titles in 30 Cup seasons” which puts the company statistically ahead of the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees, and other great teams. To build relationships, a driver and pit crew in NASCAR must develop rapport and a sense of community. Establishing a culture of being physically fit and mentally prepared for every race and pit stop are positive norms that lead to winning. The behavior of the driver and his adherence to the right norms has a tremendous ability to assist in winning races. It is the culmination of the whole team’s efforts, and

I think that deviance exists in sports as a fusion of both theories. From a biological perspective, aggression is high conserved across all vertebrates especially in mammals. Humans have used aggression as an important way to protect territories, mates, and food. Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee found that in response to an aggressive event, dopamine is involved. (Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that aids in controlling the brain’s reward and pleasure centers). As a result, the deviance found in sports elicits pleasurable sensations in some people.

When it comes to performance-enhancing drugs in athletics there are mixed views from whether or not it should be allowed. Cycling, athletics, weightlifting, and swimming have been regularly associated with athletes using PEDs, no sport is immuned. Throughout the years the world have seen big time athletes have so much fame to just in second their whole life drastically changes. There are the big time athletes that have been in the olympics or even in the finals of that sport, they have turned to PEDs to increase their chances on winning. Then when the world see those big time athletes crash just because they got caught. They go from being big time athletes to the lowest of the low in the matter of seconds. These infamous athletes were either

These so-called elite athletes are so ‘professional’, then why do we even have the need for drug testing? If elite athletes demonstrated an acceptable standard of professionalism, then there would be no need for this drug testing business because the athletes would be able to be trusted. As our first speaker has stated, elite athletes have a winning mindset. This could be one of the reasons they choose to use as an excuse for taking drugs and cheating, to be the best all the time, because that it how they were brought up. A study shows that doping prevalence may be as high as 48%. Even before elite level they take low level drugs such as: pre-workout drugs, Anabolic steroids, Androstenedione, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), Erythropoietin, Diuretics, Creatine and Stimulants. These drugs are so harmful, yet so many are constantly using them. What kind of imprint is this making on our youth, the young, impressionable minds of today, that look up to these elite athletes as their role models? This brings me on to my next point, regarding why athletes need the good behavioural contracts to stipulate their behaviour.

Sports fans, also called sports devotees, followers, or supporters, devote themselves to a particular athlete, organization or sport. They may show their enthusiasm by often attending sporting events or watch on television, being members of a fan club, follow athletic news through newspapers, online websites, and create fanzines. They show a certain behavior towards an organization. These behaviors manifest in different ways and show in different types of sports fans. Even though sports fanaticism exists on a spectrum, some forms stick out more than others. Individual types that stick out include the bandwagon, the coach, the trash talker, the blind follower, and the statistician.