"Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender/race representation in "

I did my short study on the ESPN Insider web page. My research found that there were twenty-two minorities and twenty-seven whites in the extent of my findings. I jumped onto the ESPN Insider web page and took into account any colored person I saw and any white person I saw. Then I moved my mouse over each tab (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAAF…etc.) and counted how many coloreds and whites I was able to see in each tab.

            My findings lead to a pretty balanced out representation of coloreds to whites. Being that now day’s sports is more diverse this is not shocking to me. In this sports magazine I feel that even if they wanted to be racist they couldn’t because such a huge portion of athletes and costumers are minorities. Being that this is an online website I understand that the pictures, topics, and stories can change several times a day. Today during my research the first thing that I saw was the biggest picture on the page, and that was of a minority baseball player. The headline is CUBA, Opening the Next Great Pipeline in Sports. This article talks about how there is now a new Pipeline to Cuban players in baseball.

            What seems to be a very diverse ESPN page actually holds an underlying issue concerning the types of sports we are allowed to play as a race. The interesting thing I saw was the on the Professional level of the NFL and NBA the race was exactly equal but on the college level basketball and football were all colored. The messages that are being sent here is that at the professional level things are diverse but at the college level there are a lot of colored athletes. This also sends the message that the NBA, MLB, NFL, college football and basketball are sports that coloreds can play in. On the NHL, Nascar, and Olympics tabs they had only white people. It is true that there are not many colored people that participate in these sports but still the message being sent furthers the notion. Certain sports are meant for certain races and maybe ESPN isn’t trying to send that message but regardless it is being sent. 

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

More than 60 percent of retired NFL or NBA players are under finical stresses and some even going bankrupt. We tend to see the glorious lives of athletes after their career. Troy Aikman as a commentator, or Michael Strahan and Terry Bradshaw also as a commentator. Life after professional sports can set you on the right path for you to be successful. For most this isn’t the case. Many athletes don’t know what to do when their time on the field or court is up. They end up not having any money left and not knowing what to do with their life. In the ESPN article Derrick Brooks talks about the football field is a safe haven where you can block everything out, and how that can be a double-edged sword with life.

Athletes usually start their athletic career at a young age. No matter what time of year it is you always keep in shape or get strong especially as you grow older and move into high school then college. By the time they are playing professional spots it is difficult to find any other purpose then to keep playing. I know personally I don’t know what I would work out for if I am not playing a sport any more. That would leave me lost because I’m always conscious of that thought to work out for my sport. The degree is greater for these professional athletes. To make that transition to being a X-player is difficult.

The other aspect that makes it difficult for these players is that they are used to getting a lot of money for doing something they love. Each pay check rolls in and it supports their lifestyle. Now when they retire and their income doesn’t match their lifestyle they begin to dig their way into debt. There are smart players who put away money, don’t live the lavish lifestyle and are prepared for life after their athletic careers.

I think that these athletes struggle like this because they become used to a lifestyle and certain things. Once it is taken from them they do not know how to act. As we’ve discussed in class the more money an athlete makes the more successful he looks. Some athletes have a lot of money and can spend money on things without it being a problem. Other athletes don’t make as much as the really rich ones but still hang out with them and maybe spend money they don’t have.

I personally have thought of this a few times. I am the type of person to conserve money and use it wisely. That is just the way I was raised. I think that if more pro athletes were educated about how to spend their money then we would see the numbers of broke athletes decrease significantly. Of course they would have to listen and actually do the things they are educated about but at that point it is up to them.

High school sports

High school sports is prevalent in all of America. We participate in high school sport because we want to be active. We also compete in high school sport because we want to move on to the college level. This drive to be recognized by the next level has made high school sports more and more competitive. This leads to the high school sport turning into more of a business.

High school sports are meant for kids to stay out of trouble and be a part of something. It is also good to take a break from education and to stay healthy. What we see with the effort to be recognized by colleges is that high school sport is changing. If you are an average kid and you want to play basketball you probably are not going to be able to because there are kids who trained their whole lives for this sport in order to move on. This tells certain kids they are not good enough and pushes them to the side. The sport gets so intense that the main reason the kids are there for (education) doesn’t really matter anymore.

In America we see interscholastic sport as a preview of the future of sport. We all like to look at kids and say one day he/she is going to be great. It is sort of like a stock market. The more exposure you get as a high school athlete the better off you look to the colleges. Usually the colleges tend to stay around places where they have found talent before.

The problems we see here is that not everyone gets a fair chance to be looked at by coaches. One of the problems is that you need to go to camps for your sport, but they are expensive. If you don’t have the money to go then you will not get as much exposure. Another problem is that not all kids play in the same city, some cities might be harder than others and coaches look at the harder ones more than the weaker ones.

A solution could be that there would be an NCAA camp that goes around to each city and holds a free camp for kids to come show their skills. This would allow certain kids in certain areas to get some recognition to build off for their future.

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid

Pay for play has been a pressing issue in the past decade. It takes away from the amateur style of sport, but the NCAA and colleges make so much money shouldn’t the players get some? These are the types of debates that are happening around this touchy subject.

In today’s society everything is represented by a brand. It is no longer the slam dunk competition it is the Sprite slam dunk competition, or no longer the NBA all-star game it is the Kia All-star game. When companies put their name on something like the dunk competition they are paying a lot of money to the program that they are endorsing. The players now get a little more money for participating, and some of that money comes from Kia. As our NYtimes article talks about “big-time sports has become the public face of the university, the brand that admission offices sell” if college sports is the face of the university in essence the college is compared to Kia as the sports team is compared to the dunk competition. The dunk competition will represent Kia and Kia will get a good name as the dunk competition gets paid. The sports team will represent the university and the university will get a good and as the sports team will not get paid. This is the dilemma we have with players getting paid. Is it free labor is the question?

   The argument against paying athletes is that with such a wide range school wealth across the nation some schools could afford to pay their athletes and some couldn’t. This would make the stakes uneven for D1 sports. For example Colorado St would never have even the slightest chance of beating Norte dame. Norte dame just has too much money to offer good players while Colorado St would not. Another problem there would be is who do we pay? Some players offer more worth then others. If you are driving down the street and look up and see your starting quarter back on a billboard or you see the starting long snapper, which one would make you more interested? The quarter back of course, so should he get more money than the long snapper?

                The problems I find with the NCAA not paying athletes is that they don’t know how to distribute the money.  As an athlete myself I think we should get paid just because I want to get paid. After I learned what exactly the NCAA makes as well as the schools make I believe that we need to get paid and I feel used in a way. I think the NCAA should make a fund where they put money into from every school, brand, or company that makes money off Sports then divided it up to every scholarship player. They should make it like a player tax, where the tax goes to the players.

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

The image that really struck me involved the American man saluting at the Olympics and the German man holding his hand out representing Germany from the reading. This carries a certain weight but what I found more impactful was the picture from the 1968 Olympics, two black males holding up the black power fist. The difference I saw in 1986 was there was a fight for natural human rights and not national patriotism.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos were competing in the 200 meter dash during the 1968 summer Olympics. Tommie Smith came in first place winning the gold and John Carlos came in third winning the bronze. The two “Stood on the podium wearing black socks without shoes to symbolize black poverty in the U.S. Carlos wore a strand of colorful bead to protest lynching… the star spangled banner played, and [they] raised their first—clad in black leather gloves.”(Robin Amer) In this time period slavery had been abolished for some while but the rights of black people were lacking as well as the treatment of them. Racism was strong with people who were racist and with people who did mean to be. This outreach sent a message to the world saying that the fight for equality is not over.

I found that Eitzen and Sage’s political use of “sport as a vehicle of change in society” was used here. As I looked for a matching political use of sport I found this one that mentions this exact event. In an in an article I read about the event by Gary Younge he mentions a story Carlos told about how “As a teenager, he used to chase Malcolm X down the street after his speeches and fired questions at him.”(Younge) Now as a young adult having the spot light of the world, he had his chance to make an impact and fight as his idols did before him.

Through my years of living in this world it is very rare to hear the voice of the common person. We usually hear debates between Politicians and educated people, who have had their mind washed through the system at times. It is only the voices of the important people that we hear in the world. Sports does something different though, it gives an athlete the spot light, and it makes the athlete an important person in the world. The athlete who is a regular person in politics now gets the chance to speak his mind and I don’t think that is politically influencing sports that bad. The part where the statement “Sport is pure and devoid of political interference” gets messed up because the athletes voice now gets bought out to represent or say anything that people want them to say since the spot light is on them. I do not think the sports and politics are a separate in modern times.

Amer, Robin. "WBEZ 91.5 Chicago." Revisiting the Black Power Salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympics, 28 July 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. <http://www.wbez.org/series/dynamic-range/1968-black-power-salute-iconic-olympic-moment-revisited-101270>.

Younge, Gary. "The Man Who Raised a Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympic Games." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 31 Mar. 2012. Web. 02 Feb. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/30/black-power-salute-1968-olympics>.