Sports in Pop Culture

Sports are integrated into people’s lives. They have a great influence on human society, not only for people’s health but also for cultural development. Different countries like and are good at different sports. For example, when people hear about China, people will think of ping-pong. When people hear about Brazil, people will think of soccer. Currently, the United States is the most powerful country in the world. What type of sports are the Americans good at or like? It must be the American football. In the United States, what professional American football event is the most watched? People have to say that it must be The Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is so really popular in America that the Sunday of The Super Bowl has become compared to a national festival. Every single year, lots of popular singers and musicians give people a big show during the halftime of the game. Thanksgiving day is the first-largest food consumption day in the United States, and which day is the second? Of course be The Super Bowl Sunday. (TicketCity). The Super Bowl has a great impact on many aspects of Americans.

For the past years the media has had a big effect on society. Many people rely on the media for news or sports coverage but they don’t realize that the media may influence people’s beliefs or way of behaving. The media covers sports in order to provide information to the fans but they also can create fake news to spark controversy in sports. The world of sports is largely affected by the media as they are a big topic to talk about throughout all kinds of media. Although the media can provide information of sports to fans, it can also create positive and negative conditions for the athletes. The media’s portrayal of sports creates rivalries between teams and players which increases competitiveness, damages professional relationships, and

     The story "Friday Night Lights", written by H.G. Bissinger, gives examples of bad sportsmanship, like the Youth Sportsman Institute suggests. "Friday Night Lights" is a story about a football-obsessed town in Odessa, Texas. The whole story expresses winning or losing the game as a life or death situation. In Odessa, bad sportsmanship isn't just a problem for the athletes; it is a town-wide disease. The coaches talk bad behind their player's backs, while the fans litter the head coaches yard with for-sale signs, blaming him for losing the big game.

The NFL benefits from having football being a common conversation point in schools and workplaces. From fantasy football leagues to highly intricate betting in Las Vegas. There is not just passion, but dollars and time being invested by the end consumer. The NFL saturates Thanksgiving television, it’s players are often celebrities, its story lines are on the tip the American male. Knowing the game of football is often a rite of passage. Football is American tradition. The NFL clearly has it’s place in American culture. It is evident in the outpouring of corporate sponsors into the league. Companies recognize the visibility NFL players offer to their products and the NFL leverages that back into its brand. All aspects surrounding the sport are sponsored. From the sports drink the players slurp then dump on their coaches after victories—to the on-the-field tablets branded with the iconic window for drawing up plays. The jerseys, cleats, gloves, hats, helmets, pads—and that is just on the field. There’s food, cars, watches, headphones—it seems everything that scrapes past the NFL becomes sponsored in some way. Backing from the NFL appears to currently have exponential upside increasing brand awareness.

Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the

This Article, is from the Sociology of Sport Journal, title “Learning Lessons in Tee Ball”: “The Reinforcement of Gender and Status in Kindergarten Sport”. The article was written by Melissa A. Landers and Gary Alan Fine University of Georgia (1996). The article describes how “status and gender roles can become reinforced at the earliest stage of organized sports” (Landers & Fine 1996). The data collected was done “through field notes that the authors took during participation” (Landers & Fine). The children that were being observed were “between the ages of 5 and 6”. There was a total of 24 children “13 Caucasian boys”, “6 Caucasian girls”. “4 African American boys”, and “1 Asian-American boy” all this children were from “working-class and middle class families” (Landers & Fine 1996).

To start things off, Football is known to be a popular American sport, As Nina Burleigh states in her essay “Would Football without Concussions Still Be Football?” That “Professional football is currently the most popular spectator sport in the United States” (610). Burleigh also mentioned “Currently the super bowl is the most watched sporting event in the United States, and it is also seen by millions of people around the world” (610). This goes to show you that Men, kids and even women enjoy watching the game whether its attending a little league football game every Saturday, A high school game every Friday or watching the NFL every Sunday on ESPN. “Such is the glory and delirium of American football – invigorating autumn air, the crack of a beer at the tailgate, the snuggling team logo sweat shirts” (Burleigh 611). Burleigh describes a day of feeling relaxed in which almost every American can enjoy while watching or attending a

Professional athletes were paid less than average wages and would frequently work multiple jobs. The reason student athletes would play their sports was for the spirit of competition and the desire to be better than their rivals. However it wasn’t long before these friendly competitions became more and more heated and teams would do whatever they could to gain an advantage over their opponents. In 1840 “Harvard University sought to gain an undue advantage over its academic rival Yale by obtaining the services of a coxswain who was not a student.” (R. K. Smith, 11) It was at this time that some regulation to college athletics would have to be set in place. In the beginning college athletics were monitored by the faculty of the universities until 1905 when “over eighteen deaths and one hundred major injuries in intercollegiate football” occurred President Roosevelt called for the formation of what eventually would become the NCAA. (R. K. Smith, 12) The NCAA, the governing body behind all college athletics, is ultimately the deciding force behind not paying student athletes today. From humble beginnings the NCAA’s focus has been to preserve “the collegiate model of athletics in which students participate as an avocation, balancing their academic, social and athletics experiences.” (NCAA) In an attempt to preserve this core value the NCAA states in its rules that any student athlete is “not eligible for participation if [they] have ever taken pay, or the

The topic that I chose for this ethnographic interview was sports in American culture. Sports are popular in America, and are a big part of the culture in America. I would say most people in America have played sports, whether they played as kids, in high school, at the collegiate level, or even professional. A great deal of people also enjoy watching sporting events. The following were the questions asked during the interview. How have sports affected your life? Why do you think sports are so popular in America’s culture? How are sports a part of the culture in America? What do you think about the amount of money spent on spectator sports?

The scent of fried food and sugary cotton candy drifts through the sticky summer air. The crack of the ball against the bat rings through the stadium, as the crowd leaps from their seats. This barrage on the senses encapsulates the experience and feeling of a baseball game, a feeling that is nearly impossible to transfer onto the big screen. However, over the course of film’s short history, several pictures have stood out amongst the rest when depicting America’s favorite pastime. A great baseball film is measured in its critical and popular consensus, as well as its significance in pop culture. To stand out from the dozens of baseball films, a truly remarkable movie had to dazzle film buffs, captivate audiences, leave a mark on American culture, and encapsulate

In today’s world of big time professional sports there are the two major players and they are football represented by the National Football League (NFL) and baseball represented by Major League Baseball (MLB). Now there are other sports that the American public enjoys watching, however the argument generally boils down to which sport is the true favorite of the American people: baseball or football. In this paper I will attempt to examine both sports from several different angles to include attendance, television revenue, ticket costs, venues, salaries, entertainment value, and athlete perception. The goal of this exercise will be to determine, once and for all, which sport is the American

The sports world has been a new area where women are recognized. In previous times women’s sports were almost non-existent. In schools many girl teams did not receive adequate funds for uniforms and equipment. Boys sports were much more popular, such as football or basketball. If a girl wanted to play a guy sport she would be labeled as a

Professional athletes have become a major part of American popular culture. Athletes are idolized as heroes and legends that defy all odds and create history. Some of these athletes perform at such a high level that they are considered worthy of induction into the hall of fame for their sport. However, high performance is not the only criteria a professional athlete should have to meet in order to qualify for a spot in the hall of fame. A professional athlete should have been recognized as exhibiting an extraordinary level of performance, be a moral person who follows the rules of the game, and be retired from the sport in order to be inducted into a hall of fame. With these three methods of rating an athlete’s performance, a professional sports organization can deem whether or not the athlete deserves the high honor of becoming an inductee.

This study reveals much about the attitudes that persist in society today regarding sport and gender. Early on, sport was created to serve men, evolving as a celebration of maleness, valuing strength, power, and competition. It idealized, promoted, and rewarded successful, elite athletes, established “the dream” as a professional career in sports, and viewed mass participation in sport as a tool to weed out the weak (Hill, 1993). In contrast, women’s sports originated to “address the expressed need for healthful exercise” (Huckaby, 1994). Unlike the competitive warrior mode

Sport sociology examines sports as a part of cultural and social life, and adds a different dimension and perspective to the study of sport and exercise. More specifically, sport sociology examines the relationship between sports and society and seeks answers to many issues and questions regarding sport and culture. Sociology of sport poses critical and controversial issues; additionally, sports are considered a microcosm of society, the same social issues that exist in larger society also exist in sport culture. I have chosen eight peer-reviewed Sociological Journals to expand upon the understanding of this topic that I found to be the most relevant and offer diverse yet complete perspectives on sports.