Sport Pages 15

• Before this class, I didn't know really all of the facets that went into the sport world.  I didn't know how much cultural aspects go into what types of sports people normally play.  One thing that I really took away from the class was what really happens to professional athletes after their careers and how there isn't really a clean transition into assimilating to the real world.  I always that that during their careers, they would make so much money that they would be set fro life but that really isn't the case all the time.

• For the most part, it hasn't changed drastically but it has shed a little bit more light on aspects of sports that I really overlooked.  For example I feel like now if I were on a sports team that I would be a lot more accepting of having someone on the team who was LGBTQiAA because of all we have learned about the issue and how progress needs to be made in the sporting world.

• The facts that stood out the most was post professional athlete life (mentioned earlier) and how vicious Paralympic sports such as Murderball can be.  The unit about disabled bodies as a whole just really opened my eyes to the fact that they are just as competitive as any athlete out there.

• Even though my sporting career has been over from high school, I feel like moving on after this class into the real world I will think about all of the concepts that we have learned whenever I am attending a sporting event or watching one on TV.  I'll probably listen a lot more to the commentary and see exactly how they touch on topics such as the sports ethic and toughness in sport.

• I would most likely recommend this class to a friend because most people I know are (or have been) some sort of athlete and I think that it would help them be a lot more open minded with different topics in sport as it did with me.
  

Sports Pages 14

I personally think that sport is becoming more of a safe place for LGBT athletes but isn't completely safe yet.  If there are still people afraid to come out in the sports world (which there still are), it will never be completely "safe".  I think that when it is less of a big deal to be LGBT in sports and people aren't singles out for being gay as they are now, the atmosphere for LGBT individuals will be safer.  
Strategies that I think would create a more inclusive sport culture would be to maybe have more sensitivity classes that all players of a given team should be required to take before they can be apart of a team while not having people who happen to be LGBT feel as if they are being singled out.  When referring to the movie that we watched, we see that girls who were lesbian or associated with lesbians were singled out and discriminated against, making it even harder for these individuals to speak up and explain who they really were.  By stifling people and making them feel like they have to keep their true identity a secret makes them only feel even more alienated and as time goes on, hopefully more of an inclusive atmosphere will develop in the sports world to promote more inclusivity. 

Sports Pages 13

• Define the significance of sport in the African American culture.

Sport is a very significant part of the African American culture.  For the most part regardless of the socioeconomic setting, sports such as basketball and football that are relatively inexpensive and bring African Americans together.  In all of the movies listed as well, a form of brotherhood is fostered from playing basketball with one another

• Compare and contrast the Hollywood portrayal of the African American athlete with that in the Hoop Dreams documentary.  Include a picture from the Hollywood film you are comparing.

With the movie Blind Side, the moral of the story is that a white family takes in Michael Ohr and he eventually becomes a successful football player at the high school, college, and professional level.  If he weren't able to get the support and opportunities he received from the family that took him in, it would be impossible for him to have made it.  In the same way, William was also given an opportunity by a white family to help pay for his education at St. Joseph's but the main difference was that it didn't work out picture perfect for William and Arthur  as it did for for Michael.  Michael's was a rare story that ended up to work out, but it doesn't always work out perfectly. 

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSfHkMskdEBk4GctALrNXfi0jMdOfMlfcF98-zZJF6COFkyb0LuN3kUt8uL1qX8I7C4_E6H-VzGylSBr2NuAzCN0E6BMOLAZPYMEM06GZu6f9Vp-H3Fjl8AbGyH1UOmG2YA8DkBTDH3yKX/s1600/theblindside.jpg

• Is sport damaging Black American and preserving the myth of race?

In some ways, the physicality and violence associated with sport can potentially damage the ideal of the Black American (making them seem more violent) but for the most part, I think it does more good than harm.

Sports Pages 12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFKW3Wu5Zck

The message that is portrayed in this commercial is gender relation within the male gender.  It shows how the two men, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant coexist within the same sport culture and are at odds against one another even in their dreams.  The fact that the idea of losing to one another wakes them up at night shows how important it is to be more athletic and masculine than the other person in order to make sure that they are as ready as can be when they compete against one another

Consequences of showing this intragender relation in the commercial will force males to train harder and harder in order to out do one another come competition to prove masculinity.

Sochi Paper

Junior DeSouza

Sochi Olympics Paper

            The winter Olympics this year were held in Sochi Russia.  This was at first a very controversial place to hold the Olympics due to the speculations that the rest of the world had concerning the Russian government and diplomacy.  On the weeks leading up to the games, many people in Western countries such as the US greatly feared the possibility of a terrorist attack on the games due to Russia’s lack of intelligence sharing with the rest of the world.  Some of the athletes even advised some of their family and friends to rather stay back and watch the games in the US as opposed to coming to Russia and potentially putting their lives in danger.  Another element that added to the Western questioning of the safety of the event was that just a month prior to when athletes and competitors were scheduled to arrive in Sochi that there was a terrorist attack not too far from Sochi in which 34 people were killed by suicide bombers.

            In the end, the Sochi Olympics were conducted without the threat of any such terrorist attacks that could potentially harm the athletes, spectators, or families viewing the games.  This was able to happen due to the fact that the guards wee very well equipped with firearms in case something were to happen, there were metal detectors at every possible entrance, and that there were strict regulations on giving out visitor passes for people to enter the games.  Even with this strict code on getting into the games, personnel responsible for keeping a secure and strict presence were able to make a comfortable and joyful atmosphere for the viewers of the games.  All in all, Sochi was able to provide a safe atmosphere for the games, which came as a nice surprise foer all of the Western viewers of the games.

High School Sport (Counts as 2 Sport Pages)

The social conditions in which high school sport emerged were creating a social outlet for teenagers to create bonds with one another and foster a sense of belonging and community.  In addition to this, high school sports develop and can possibly instill the ideals of commitment and hard work to the growing teenagers within schools in our society.

The objective of high school sport is to not only bring players on the team closer together, but also to bring the entirety of the school body together as well. Take the football homecoming games for example.  There are pep rallies and parades and then the whole high school (and the rest of the surrounding community) are able to get involved in order to cheer the home team on.  This has been a tradition for many high schools across the country and its persistence shows that getting the school body and the community's involvement is a primary objective for high school sports. 

Possible problems with interscholastic sports can possibly be rivalries taken too far between different schools and also sports having TOO much of an importance in the lives of the student body and in the lives of the student athletes.  When rivalries are taken too far, people and property might be potentially put at risk because of the strong hatred that one school can have for another. Also, the sports weighing too on a student athlete can male them divert time that they could be using for their studies to just focusing on the sport that they play.  As far as a solution for the mass rivalries, this could be diminished by more harsh penalties against the school if they are to take it too far when their school plays another school in a given sport.

Once the cheering stops: The life of a retired pro-athlete

One of the major difficulties that retired athletes have to face is dealing and paying for medical treatment after their careers are over.  with football for example, it is a very violent sport and can leave players with long term impairments that require a lot of expensive treatments after their careers are over.  In addition to this, retired players are more susceptible to want to self medicate (by abusing drugs) in order to cope with the injuries that they have sustained throughout the many years of playing their given sport.
The transition from being a full time athlete to becoming a retired athlete is also very difficult.  Most of these players have to retire relatively early and when they do, most don't have a hard set plan as to what they are going to do with the rest of their lives.  They essentially go from making millions of dollars one day to potentially having to work minimum wage the next day depending on when their money runs out (and for a lot of them it is fairly quick because of the expensive taste that is acquired after making so much money during their careers).  The flashy lifestyle that athletes live nowadays is so ingrained in the culture that it sets them up for losing all of the money that they made during their career
Also, the way that sports are, you never know when your last day is going to be.  Whether it be an injury or your team decides to drop you, the way that sports are make it very unstable.

Sports Politics in the Olympics

The 1964 Olympics occurred in Tokyo, Japan and the events took place from October 10th to October the 24th.  By hosting the Olympics, Japan wanted to be seen in a more positive light after WW2 and they no longer wanted to be seen as war criminals.  Also, Japan wanted to show to the world that they were recovering from the aftermath of the war.  At the opening ceremony, they even had Yoshinori Sakai, a man born the day of the atomic bomb drop, carry the torch to symbolize Japan's recovery.  Also as a result of hosting the games, Japan was even further modernized to accommodate the games (such as transportation and building development).  Overall, the games were a success for Japan.  With these olympic events, sport was mainly being used as a vehicle for change.  Japan wasn't only just trying to rebuild and change its infrastructure, but also trying to change its image projected to the world and be seen more positively post WW2.  As far as the quote saying that "sport is devoid of political interference", I would have to disagree.  Most things that are within the socoil arena tie somehow, some way into politics (at least within our American society) sports included.  Take boxer Muhammed Ali for example.  Him refusing to enlist in the draft didn't only bring attention to his personal life, but it also impacted the boxing and sporting world.  It is impossible to have sports without politics in my opinion.

London Calling

The NFL is seeking to expand out of the USA for the main reason of expanding their market and eventually creating more revenue.  We have hosted several games in London and will continue to do so because of the great success that the British Premier League has world wide.  If we are able to broadcast globally such as the Premier League, the NFL's revenue would skyrocket exponentially.  London is also a prime place to host NFL games due to the fact that the Wembley Stadium that is suited for football games doesn't have many events going on during the time the NFL season is going on.  For the most part, the factors that will contribute to expansion will greatly rely on the location of the games played and if the fan base will be big enough to make this all worth it in the end.  Possible obstacles that can get in the way of running a European team would be the time it takes to get to and from London for the players and also just managing and coordinating a schedule from overseas.  The dark side that could revel itself could possibly be that we dump all of this money into moving a team over and it proves to not be worth it because we cannot generate enough interest in Europe among the fans.

Sociogenesis of Basketball

Sociogenesis of Basketball:

Basketball originated in Springfield Massachusetts on March 11^th, 1892.

James Naismith originally created it and then it was further developed and spread by the YMCAs and the US Army. The original 18 players of the game included John J. Thompson, Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P. Ruggles, William R. Chase, T. Duncan Patton, Frank Mahan, Finlay G. MacDonald, William H. Davis and Lyman Archibald, who defeated George Weller, Wilbert Carey, Ernest Hildner, Raymond Kaighn, Genzabaro Ishikawa, Benjamin S. French, Franklin Barnes, George Day and Henry Gelan.  All of these men were white men.  The YMCAs played a very big role in spreading the game across the US, into Canada, and also across the world to places such as China, India and Japan.  The initial rules were 9 players on a team, no dribbling the ball, and the baskets used for hoops didn’t have a hole in the bottom of them so they had to pause and get the ball out of the hoop each time someone scored.  Of course, the rules were changed and now the hoops are bottomless, there are more fouls, points and stats are monitored more, and you have to dribble the ball when you move.  

Uniforms then:

http://vimeo.com/15412952

Uniforms Now:

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/21/first-look-at-team-usa-olympic-basketball-uniforms/

Jerseys now fit a lot more loosely than they did when the sport was originally created, but both still have the fundamental aspects of a jersey, shorts, and shoes with a ball and a hoop.  Throughout history there have been struggles for equality for players of different races and genders.  Also, on of the more significant thing that has happened in recent basketball history was that there was a lockout because there needed to be negotiations on how to pay the players among other things.  This is an ongoing problem within the NBA.

Ancient Greece vs. Ancient Rome

Ancient Greece

The sports played in ancient Greece include Sports boxing, wrestling, discus, running, triple jump, javelin throwing, and four horse chariot racing.  The structure was highly organized and strictly regulated.  For example the penalty for a false start during a sprinting race would result in the whipping of the runner, which is a punishment that is usually reserved for slaves.  The participants themselves were very respected in the society and seen as sex figures to women.  All of the men that participated also had to undergo months and months of training and also maintain their dedication to Zeus during this process.  The function of these events I was for religious reasons and also entertainment for the crowd.  The winners also would be given very large amounts of money if they won.  As far as participation went, anyone no matter their social status was allowed to participate in the games.

Ancient Rome

With ancient Rome gladiators, the main goal of the participant was to fight and kill his opponent by use of swords or whatever type of weapon they specialize with.  The dueling to the death that these men would have would be very bloody and violent.  The role that this had was purely to entertain the audience in the sense that these men were pitted against one another and the armor given to these men would have certain weak spots that their opponent would try to capitalize on in aims to appease the crowd.  The participants that actually dueled against one another were prisoners (prisoners of war against the Romans or other types of criminals).

Sport Society & Me

Sport Society & Me

            Sports have always been a big part of my life.  My first sport I started playing as a kid was soccer but then I eventually moved on to playing basketball and football, which I played for all four years at my high school.  To me, sport means competition while making close relationships with your teammates and your coach.  My teammates eventually felt like brothers and all of my coaches became somewhat of father figures.

            To me, I think that sport plays a positive role for the most part because within a team, it unifies and gives the players, coaches and staff a sense of togetherness and unify everyone involved.  For the American society as a whole, I think that sport is a great spectacle and form of entertainment that should be upheld.  Although there can be opposing fans that may feel very strongly about their teams and potentially don’t see eye to eye, the sports culture still has an overall fun and competitive nature to it that almost anyone can participate in if they choose to.  Also, sports bring in a sizeable profit to the economy from buying merchandise to going to the actual games.

            The successful athletes themselves are held in significantly high regard and respect within the society mainly because of the entertainment that they bring to the viewer.  In addition to this, successful athletes serve as role models to younger athletes who aspire to peruse goals in their sporting career.  On the other hand athletes who are not successful or who do not carry themselves with a respectable demeanor can inversely disrespected but regardless if they are respected or disrespected, they are still social icons that are highly talked about in our society.    

The Sport Ethic

The Sport Ethic:

Sports ethic defines how a given athlete should be have in order to perform at the highest standard in order to sacrifice, take risks, and put it all on the line for the sake of “The Game”.  The four dimensions of this Sport Ethic concept is sacrificing for the game, striving for distinction, accepting risks and playing through pain, and refusing to accept the limit of possibilities.  Athletes choose to conform (and at times even over conform, which can potentially lead to deviance) to this set of values in order to stay as competitive as possible among one another and ensure that they are the best.  I personally have dealt with accepting risks and playing through pain when I played basketball and football in high school.  Most of my senior year of high school I was recovering from a fractured vertebrae but I was very hard headed and refused to stop playing in games even when the pain got bad mainly because of this aspect of the Sports Ethic.

Welcome to America

“Welcome to America”

Welcome to the United States! Let me introduce you to some of the popular sports this country has to offer.  The main popular sports here are football, basketball, baseball, and hockey for the most part.  One characteristic that all of these sports share is the strive for being the best by beating competitors.  Teams that win more games or matches tend to be held in higher esteem and are usually respected more throughout the society.  Another important characteristic that these popular sports have in common is physicality.  Fans love seeing a great show and the more physical the better.  Whether it be tackling, running, or jumping, whoever can be more physical and athletically superior in a sporting event is important in the United States sporting world.

A typical game day for a given sporting event is very energetic and lively.  The fans for a team will all rally together and either actually go to the sporting event or watch it together in one of their homes.  For the teams and coaches actually participating in the game, they take it very seriously.  They will spend weeks before the actual day in preparation to face their opponent.  The values that come out of all of this are a feeling of together by rooting for your favorite team.