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How professional athletes are role model
How professional athletes are role model
How professional athletes are role model
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In modern culture the established altruistic values surrounding sports have contributed to the widely held belief that professional athletes are somehow superhuman, specifically when it comes to dealing with injuries. For instance, by playing hurt for the good of their team, past athletes, like Emmitt Smith, who despite of a separated shoulder continued to play against the New York Giants in 1993, have inadvertently set a precedent condoning the act of risking long term health in order to “live in the moment” (Rhoden 4). Ultimately, this is where the controversy surrounding the handling of athlete injuries arises. Fans, who have witnessed such incredible feats of heroism and toughness, have begun to generalize all athletes as superhuman entities, capable of withstanding unfathomable levels of pain. These values, combined with the fact that fans pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to see their favorite athletes in action, have created a “code that mandates that athletes play with pain, that they suck it up” (Rhoden 4) Consequently, professional athletes now find themselves having to decide whether they should …show more content…
By heralding Rose’s actions as “Brilliant and prophetic” and advising players to sit out, rather than entertain millions of people, he gives the audience a glimpse of his character and expresses that he is only interested in preserving the long term well-being of the players. Similarly, Rhoden believes that athletes are just people trying to make a living and questions why athletes should have to risk their livelihood and health in order to entertain fans who care about nothing else than “living in the moment” (6). He claims that sports make up a small part of an athlete’s life, and argues that they should not compromise their long term happiness by trying to advance the misconception that playing hurt is part of the culture of sports
At the snap of the ball a whole players world could come crashing down. The game of football holds a whooping 47% of all concussions reported in the world, while ice hockey and soccer trail behind. Football is America’s sport and its athletes become the world’s pride and joy, but what happens when an athlete is injured and is struggling to mentally get better. This topic hits close to home for me because it was the one sport my family praised and adored. My older brother who is now twenty five, played highschool football for the Laconia Sachems. Just the name Sachems is enough to make me get the chills. In 2007 the Laconia Sachems the only undefeated team to go on to win the New Hampshire state championship saw success, but my brother went
Athletes are one of the most highly paid professions, and with that comes a great responsibility to everyone but themselves, even it means putting their lives, and others around them at risk. A football player’s goal is to entertain the fans that tune in to watch them, however their only job is to win their games, and untimely a Super Bowl Championship, but not for themselves, for the franchise that owns them and their bodies. As long as they can run a play and take a hit foot players are gold to their employers, or if you will their owners. “Toughing it out, turns out, can kill people.” (Diaz Truman, M 2013), and cause irreversible brain damage to football players. Continuing to ignore evidence that supports the growing concern of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how it relates to the NFL players is troubling because of the long term affects it has on a player’s mental s...
The failure of the NFL to disclose credible research linking concussions to permanent, hidden long-term brain injury to the players can be interpreted as both ethical and unethical. Ethical theories and traps influenced the NFL’s decision. Not disclosing the research is considered moral by the ethical theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarian ethics considers the best decision is one which maximizes overall happiness and minimizes overall pain is more ethical. Utilitarianism’s goal is to produce the best outcome for the largest number of people. The NFL’s failure to reveal the research connecting concussion to permanent brain injury’s is in line with utilitarian ethics. A larger population benefits from football compared to the small number of
March 8th, 2004 was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive and action packed regular season hockey game between feuding rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks. The game slipped away from the Canucks, with the Avalanche up 6-2 heading into the third period. The heated contested already had its fair share of fighting majors, but an incident that happened late in the third period shocked the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at Rogers Arena, the hockey community, and North America. After failing to instigate a fight with Avalanche forward Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks grabbed the back of Moore’s jersey, landed a vicious punch to the back of Moore’s head, before slamming him face first on the ice and falling on top of him. Moore had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher, and has never returned to the NHL. Bertuzzi, on the other hand, was suspended for 20 games by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and is still playing in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. This is one of many examples of deviance in sports, and how a win-at-all costs mentality can drive athletes to act in extreme manners. As a result of the growing commercialization of sports, athletes are socialized at young ages to believe that winning is everything, and that stopping at nothing will help you succeed. Athletes will do almost anything to gain the upper hand in their respective sports, whether it is through engaging in excessive on-field violence or through the use of performance enhancing drugs, excessively committing themselves to their sport, or by violating league rules and policies. In sports, deviance is viewed in a different light than in the outside world. As professional athletes strive towards conforming to spor...
In particular, in 1966 the National Football Associated founded the NFL Physicians Society to provide care for athletes and support athletic trainers (“The NFL Physician’s Society,” 2012). The physicians, therefore, are dedicated to promoting the health of their patients and protecting them from injury. The physicians promise to follow the code of ethics, including autonomy, informed consent, beneficence, non-maleficence, confidentiality, and justice. Sports, however, are heavily supported by the nation and highly competitive, resulting in conflicts in interest in health care from team physicians. Team physicians are influenced by coaches, parents, teammates, the nation, the need for success, and the players themselves to play athletes without full recovery, allow controversial procedures, decide whether to report violations in drug enhancing tests, and make decisions on disclosing personal information. Players elect to play for reasons that do not reflect an understanding of consequences and physicians struggle with controversial decisions to break confidentiality and report a player’s inability to play in order to prevent injury or harm. Physicians are required to follow the Health Insurance Portability and
If conventional ideas of “toughness” are allowed to be celebrated in our society, then it should be no surprise that athletes continue not to speak up about their injuries. If we make athletes feel ashamed of being weak, they’ll be more likely to struggle with mental health issues and long-term physical issues. I’m sure that the Dusseldorf Panthers chose to use this advertisement because it works for their purposes, but the fact that it works says a lot about what society values. In this case, the advertisement shows that society values sport and entertainment over the players. When we justify putting a person in danger of being permanently injured for our own entertainment, the idea of what’s “tough” has gone too far. It’s time to find a new way to encourage allegiance to a sport team, one that doesn’t risk the health of the people playing for
Whether you are an avid spectator of football, hockey, basketball, or NASCAR, you have witnessed a fair amount of violence. In the 2013-2014 football season, at least five different college football players broke their leg, and hundreds of other players at the high school, college, and even professional level have injured a plethora of other body parts in a variety of methods. Hockey is considered one of the most violent sports in the world—the players have violent tendencies and generally release their anger on their opponents—and, unsurprisingly to its audience, results in many injuries. While basketball is not considered particularly violent, audiences are thrilled when they witness almost any sort of injury. Last year, University of Louisville guard Kevin Ware’s compound fracture broke through his skin, exposing his broken bone to everyone around him. Several people took videos of the incident and less than a year later, the video has nearly tw...
The National Football League is considered one of the most lucrative sports corporations in the world, with millions of people devoting their Sundays to nonstop action and the intense drama that is the NFL. But, what we don’t see as passionate sports fans is the trauma that our favorite players have to go through each and every play of every game. We watch as a player lies on the ground, but what we don’t notice is the pain that they are going through at that moment. According to Spinal Surgeon Michael Glieber, “Concussions are the most common injury in all levels of football.” Concussions can change an individual’s life in the blink of an eye, it’s not something you can take for granted. That’s why today I am analyzing the different views
In October of 2015, a young man named Kenny Bui was killed as a result of a tackle playing football (BBC news, 2015). This tragedy is not an uncommon event in contact sport and it is ignorant to think that it is simply a fluke. This man as well as three other young men are only a few to have lost their lives from a severe concussion in American football (BBC news, 2015).The fatal consequences of playing a simple game are present in all contact sports. Particularly hockey and football which has been the focus of my research. These two sports embody a culture that is unique to hockey and football but similar to a warrior/military culture (R. Graham, F. Rivara, M. Ford, & C. Spicer, 2014, pg. 3). This is a culture which many athletes, students,
Due to the nature of sport, athletes will always be faced with the possibility of becoming injured. Empirical research has demonstrated that injury has a psychological impact on athletes (Quinn & Fallon, 1999). Indeed, sports practitioners often witness negative psychological impacts such as depression and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies in the injured athlete (Jevon & Johnston, 2003). Injuries have a dramatic impact upon an athlete’s life (Deutsch, 1985), Crossman (1997) interviewed athletic trainers and established that 47% of respondents believed that every injured athlete suffered psychological trauma. Walker, Thatcher and Lavallee (2007), explain there is a need to advance current knowledge of the way injured athletes psychologically respond, with deeper understanding it would be possible to aid rehabilitation professionals and help the athlete cope better psychologically. Psychological issues have an important role in the athletes ability to recover from injury (Arvinen-Barrow, Penny, Hemmings, & Corr, 2010), understanding how an athlete responds will have multiple practical implications. Ford and Gordon (1997) suggest that if an athlete experiences negative emotions then it will lead to non-complinace of the rehabilitation process. In order to understand athletes psychological responses to injury several frameworks have been suggested. These include the: integrated model of response to sports injury and rehabilitation (Wiese-Bjornstal, Smith, Shaffer, & Morrey, 1998), the Bio-Psychosocial model of sport injury rehabilitation (Brewer, Andersen, & Van Raalte, 2002), the staged-based grief response models (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and the stage model of the return to sport (Taylor & Taylor, 1997).
From bright lights, big hits, and postgame interviews, to television commercials, team comradery, and multimillion-dollar deals. What comes next? Depression. Memory loss. Suicide. It’s not a strict protocol that fits every mold, however, the future lifestyle of a former player in the National Football League consists of constant medical exams and the inability to “access your entire brain” (Weller 47). Football has consistently had issues with head injuries no matter what level it is being played at and the NFL is a league filled with violent collisions from some of the world’s most athletically gifted players. Players are progressively being diagnosed with significant brain trauma due to the size and athleticism of the players in a game that is constantly evolving in terms of the speed and velocity at which these humans are colliding. But “can we make it more of an Indy 500 and less of a demolition derby?” (King 6). “Players are too fast and too strong to think they can hit each other in the head over and over and think they’ll keep walking away unharmed” (4). The effects of the collisions are far more impactful than the instant headache the player
As a parent, all you ever want your kids to do is grow up and be something great. Parents expect their kids to have dreams of becoming a lawyer or majoring in topics like business and medicine. They don’t realize that some kids have goals like playing baseball in the major leagues or becoming a great fisherman that is on television. Not all kids have the same mind-set. People of all ages, all around the world, enjoy either watching or playing sports.
Football is a game of adversity and emotion. People who have not played a sport or follow one closely don’t understand the emotion behind game. They think that football is just a game, but for those who are involved with the team don’t think so. All those horrendous hours of countless preparation are for something players and coaches love. About a few years ago, a football player at the collegiate level was told that he wouldn’t be able to play another down of football again due to his banged up h...
Recovering from an injury can indeed be a difficult process and athletes must wait for however long in able to play the sport again. During that duration of time, the idea of waiting and not performing can sometimes cause an athlete to feel angry, to be in denial, and
Society loves sports and as a result, the fans idolize the athletes, almost as celebrities. Along with this new “celebrity” standing, comes major pressures to always be “perfect” or in the “right”. If the athletes make one mistake or have a bad game, their standing with the fans and their popularity changes negatively, lowering their self-esteem and confidence. In the short story, “The Silent Season of a Hero”, Gay Talese talks of how the former baseball star, Joe DiMaggio felt pressured to always uphold the myth of the “perfect” player with patience (444-445). In the essay, “Kill ‘Em! Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!”, John McMurty, a former professional football player, talks about his experience and injuries during his personal career. He endured many injuries such as broken nose, fingers, jaw, and toes, a dislocated shoulder, pinched nerves, etc. Acquiring injuries such as these tore him and other athletes apart, especially since they felt pressured to continue to play with these injuries because the spectators. The author talks of how people love to see the players “blindsided, clotheslined, or decapitated.” which leads to those injuries that they obtain. The viewers love violence and pain, so “Either you, too, do your very utmost to efficiently smash and be smashed, or you admit incompetence or cowardice and quit.”(Find page