Competitive Sports and Sports Violence
...eed to take responsibility for what they did. The parents don’t realize there has to be punishment in schools. Hazing problems have reached national attention like those at Vermont’s Norwich University in 1991, and South Carolina’s The Citadel in 1992. Another main problem is how the fans react. This is called spectator violence. Abul Hagg says, “that spectator violence reflects and incites in player violence. Spectators do take cues from the players, team, and also one another. This is not good for their kids because this is what their kid is growing up to and he will eventually think that is the right thing to do these things, which is not. One of the violent events that occurred in competitive sports was in New Jersey in 1993 when a youth football game was going on and it was a Championship game. This game went onto overtime. And it was a play where the little boy ran up the middle and if he scored they won. He broke loose from the line and the defensive backfield getting ready to score, and all of a sudden a parent from the opposing side ran across the field and tackled the kid aggressively to stop the kid from scoring. Both of the stands emptied and fight’s where everywhere. The kids where crying while their mothers held them trying to stop things. When something like this happens you know there are problems with how far the competitiveness will go. I think everybody knows about the certain riot that happens at huge soccer games in other countries. It happens about every year and innocent fans die just because it is a big game and they don’t want their team to lose. I don’t think it is a big issue in other countries. A couple of little things that happen that I have seen, because a person is so competitive in what he is doing. We see fights in hockey all the time, but it is becoming unnecessary when guys are getting fractured necks, having to be out for months and months at a time. Other things are like charging the mound in baseball, fistfights in basketball and football. Example is Roberto Alomar spitting in the umpires face in the MLB. Latrell Sprewell hitting his coach in the NBA, and Keyshawn Johnson getting in his coaches face because he wants the ball or don’t get the ball all the time like he wants it all the time in the NFL. All this reflects on athletic role models. Children tend to model their own behavior and attitudes on ones they admire. This includes fathers playing or watching sports as well. Even Presidents admire professional athletes. Kids joke about how they want to see a fight in hockey, but these kids and parents don’t know how much those hockey players want to get rid of the violence on their sport. Research shows that children who watch violence on T.V. like thieves, murders, or sadists don’t affect them as much as seeing their sports idol getting into a fight, or violent acts. For example most kids want to bat like a professional baseball player. Most kids want to dress like their favorite football or basketball player. I have done this myself, so I know other kids do it as well. To sum all this up it seems like violence in Sports and Competitiveness in Sports is at an all time high. Parents fighting others, players hitting their coaches, giving the finger to the crowds, players spitting at and hitting the referees and umpires during the game. And in my opinion I think the media takes it way to far and don’t help the issue at all. The whole world doesn’t need to see what a player done, plus it doesn’t with the kid issue either. Bob Randolph states that, “this may be causing the attitude changes in kids today an and off the field”. I totally agree with that statement. I see a...