Sports and Punishment

Man, two pretty serious criminal siutations involving sports.

The backup punter who stabbed the starter in the leg faces attempted murder charges and up to 48 years in the can.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AuuQbjlw.foRYA0i4BtDgR05nYcB?slug=ap-ncolorado-punterattacked&prov=ap&type=lgns


And Sebastian Telfair's beign investigated in a shooting because his chain hang low, well actually got ripped off.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2632410


Tell me this kind of thing is way worse than it used to be in the good ol' days in mind. And if so, why?

 

Ah, my pet issue.

Ever read Sperber's Beer and Circus? Or going back to the 70s, how about Isaac's Jock Culture, U.S.A.?

If you read Isaacs, it was bad then and it's still bad. Hell, even ESPN had a movie about the whole Army cadets cheating on tests thing, and the hard-as-nails early Paul Bear Bryant.

So the real question is: Does athletics really instill values, character, leadership skills, coping skills and prepare young people for adulthood?

My answer would be: not any more or less than anything else.

Sperber and Isaacs would argue that, given our culture, sports subverts values and traditional morality, impedes the development of character and retards young people's coping skills. They'd also say that athletics helps people figure out how to win at all costs.

 

Yeah, sure. Sports are the problem.
A half-dozen years ago, Enron, WorldCom and Tyco happened.
Last month, we had the Foley scandal break.
The Church still is having pedophiles rooted from its ranks.
We read about another teacher having sex with his/her female/male students just about every month.
So far, I've covered business, politics, religion and education.
It's all corrupt, I suppose. There's no hope.
But at the root of it all, sports are to blame because Sebastian Telfair got his chain ripped off.