Racial and Gender Report Cards in Sport

Combining both class discussion on race and ethnicity and women in sports, this article from ESPNW breaks down the 2016 WNBA racial and gender report card.  As mentioned in class on November 15^th, the WNBA has the best racial and gender hiring practices out of all professional leagues.  This article, also written by Richard Lapchick, confirms that the WNBA continues to have diverse leaders and employees within its organization.

With African Americans dominating most professional sports, racial hiring practices have improved, yet gender hiring practices still suffer except for the WNBA.  Women’s sports have grown recently and because of that, job opportunities have also grown.  Many think that the WNBA has an A for gender hiring because it’s a women’s league, however more than 60% of women’s college teams are coached by men.

bleacherreport.com 

Opportunities for women in sport have grown exponentially thanks to Title IX, yet the NFL, MLB and college sports all received a C for their gender hiring process.  Agents like school and the media only hurt the chance for women and people of color to hold positions within professional sport teams, and many teams should look to the WNBA and reevaluate their own racial and gender hiring practices.  What do you think contributes to the poor racial and gender hiring practices of most professional leagues?  What should be done to change this trend?

http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/17954833/study-shows-wnba-leads-all-major-leagues-racial-gender-hiring

Speak Up or Sit Down

realclimatescience.com

Who knew taking a seat could cause so much controversy?  It was the topic of discussion for much of the beginning of the NFL season when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Col  Many disagreed with the movement, while other players in the league joined Kaepernick and took a knee. 

in Kaepernick sat during the National Anthem to protest the oppression of people of color in our country.

This became a hot-button issue and made others question the coverage of other forms of deviance within the sport industry.  Our class discussions between November 8^th and 10^th focused on deviance in sport, and while it is a clear problem in society many athletes would rather stay quiet.  Sitting for the National Anthem seemed to bring strong reactions out of players across the league… but why didn’t we see the same reactions after the multiple domestic violence issues within the NFL?

democratandchronical.com

In class we discussed how felony rates among adult athletes are a problem, especially domestic violence.  NFL players arrest rates relative to the national average for men ages 25-29 for domestic violence is at 55%, yet this article from ESPNW explains how players tend to keep quiet on this issue.   Sarah Spain writes about how players job security plays a big part in why players don’t take an action against domestic violence, however many players were quick to make a statement about Kaepernick’s movement. 

The more players that decide not to talk about the domestic violence problem in America, the more deviance we will see in sports today.  This issue has been haunting the NFL for far too long and it’s about time that players speak up, rather than take a knee.

http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/article/17424136/said-sarah-spain-importance-speaking-out

When Will The Deviance Decrease?

Whether it is performance enhancing drugs, fighting or illegal recruitment practices, deviance in sports can be found at any level and sometimes too often.  Class discussion on November 8^th and 10^th revolved around the behaviors that coaches and players partake in within the sport industry and how it effects the integrity of the game.  In this article from Sport Business Journal, Richard E. Lapchick writes about everything from PEDs to sport stories related to human trafficking.

www.smh.com.au 

The most interesting part about this article is the fact that Lapchick himself teaches an ethics in sports class at the University of Central Florida.  It makes it clear that deviance is a major problem in sports and is an important topic that is covered by sport management programs all over the country.  Lapchick also serves as director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the university and also touches on our class discussions related to diversity.   

From May 2016 alone, Lapchick talks about the Russian doping scandal before the 2016 Rio Summer Games, as well as the 23 American athletes (at the time) that would possible miss out on the chance to compete.  Next, the article covers how sports often come before academics in higher education, and highlight the illegal recruitment practices we discussed in regard to both deviance in sports as well as interscholastic sports earlier in the semester.  Lapchick ends the article with additional issues in sport like concussions as well as sexism in sport which we discussed during our sexist advertisement activity in class.  These trends continue to grow within the industry, so what can sport organizations do to decrease these deviances?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/06/13/Opinion/Richard-Lapchick.aspx?hl=performance%20enhancing%20drugs&sc=0

Professional Athlete or Politician?

sfgate.com

If you were a professional athlete would you be ‘brave’ enough to endorse a presidential candidiate?  Some would be hesitant, but this article from Sports Business Journal focuses current and retired athletes being more likely to express their political beliefs or even take office themselves.  Our October 11 class session highlighted the connection between politics and sport.  We discussed how athletes like Jesse Ventura, Lynn Swann, Bill Bradley and Tom Osborn have used their past accomplishments to enter the political realm.  This is based on Q-rating, or a measurement of how well-known celebrities and athletes are and how that helps ‘springboard’ into political positions.  The article highlights how that has been a theme in the sport industry and how the impact of endorsements tend to hinder current athletes from taking a political stand. 

dailymail.co.uk

For example, former Boston Red Sox pitcher was fired from ESPN after publicly endorsing George W. Bush during the 2004 presidential election.  Not good, right?  However, using sport to connect to the public and can helping candidates sway votes in in an election.  Good for the candidate, but what about the athlete?  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar noted that his political endorsements did not effect his endorsements and proudly expresses his political views.  The strong connection between government and sport is clearly visible in this article written just months before the 2016 presidential election.  Do you think athletes should be less scrutinized because of their political views? Or should they stick to what they know?    

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/08/01/Law-and-Politics/Athletes.aspx?hl=politics&sc=0#.V__FTCN95QQ.email