Sportsmanship

The topic for this weeks discussion was sportsmanship. To me the discussion is one that is highly controversial and varies from person to person depending on how and where that person grew up. From the actual discussion in class i feel comfortable saying that a lot of the students in the class grew up in “soft” environments. One of the topics we talked about was touching hands with the opposing team after the game and most of the students said they should have to touch hands and i believe this as well but one of the biggest aspects of sports is the mental side and emotions fall into that category. They believed that no matter what you should always shake your opponents hand and i dont believe this should be the case. If i just put it all on the line during the game and my emotions are running wild and i dont feel like shaking certain players hands i shouldnt have too. Doing so would mean that i didnt play with any emotion and games need to have emotion or else they would be dull and boring. Growing up playing multiple sports since a young age ive learned that getting into your opponents head can give you a great advantage. Its ignorant to think that pro athletes are always showing sportsmanship. Im sure they trash talk constantly throughout the game. With that being said my description of sportsmanship is being respectful to the opposing team, following the rules, and not playing dirty. Everything else goes for me.

References

http://www.everythingcounts.com/sportsmanship-and-why-it-matters/

http://www.lhsaa.org/news/the-huddle/the-meaning-of-good-sportsmanship

Should athletes have to stand for the National Anthem?

Im going to start off by saying that i personally stand for the national anthem but as far as the topic goes no i do not think that they should be required to stand. I don’t believe that anyone should be required to stand if they don’t feel like it. Colin Kaepernick had every right to kneel during the Anthem. Some leagues do require there athletes to stand for the National Anthem like the NBA but the NFL does not according to NBCsports.com. I really have no idea why this topic has even became a big deal. I’ve played sports my whole life as well as been to a good number of professional events and witnessed numerous people not give a care in the world that the anthem was playing they just kept on with what they were doing. I have personally sat in my seat while everyone else is standing simply because i didn’t feel like standing up. Its never really been a big deal to anyone until he did it. His cause is something more then being disrespectful in which i don’t think he was at all. Its about stopping the violence in this country and there is a lot of it going on. Ironically, in the word of Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribute, the song is “full of violence and defiance “. If people would just take the time to accept the point that hes making the country would be on its way to more peaceful times. I hope this movement keeps catching the attention it i so we can finally start to see some changes happen.

References

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-national-anthem-sporting-events-lincicome-spt-0904-20160903-column.html

NFL: Players are encouraged but not required to stand for national anthem

NCAA Drug Testing

Are topic this week for Sports Journalism was NCAA drug testing. Me personally i think that the drug testing is pointless. I have a couple reasons why i feel this way. First off players know about what time of the year they will be tested. This gives them the whole rest of the year to do as they please and no one will ever know. Secondly, the athletes that use these banned substances are always one step ahead of the game. There are numerous tips and tricks that players use to cheat on these test.

When it comes to the actual testing i don’t believe that the NCAA should be testing for street drugs. Testing for steroids and performance enhancers is needed to keep the level of competition equal but street drugs will not help an athlete perform any better. In my opinion if an athlete is using street drugs they are hurting there performance and that’s on them. I guess that they test for street drugs to protect there athletes but in my opinion your only hurting them more. If these athletes get kicked of for street drug use there only likely to start using the drug more.

The concept for NCAA testing is a good one because i do admit that it deters players from taking any chances.If the NCAA does want to start cracking down on substance abuse they need to make the testing more effective. Some ideas could be to start testing more often. This will cost more money but would ensure that the NCAA is drug free athletics.

Participation Trophies!?

Are very controversial topic this week was “Should kids receive participation trophies?”.  I personally do not believe that they should and for many reasons. The first reason is that it is taking away kids ambitions to work hard for the things they want. These trophies are telling kids that just showing up makes them special and this is not how the world works at all. Roxanne Jones of CNN.com said it best, “We should teach kids to work hard for their rewards in life, because showing up is not enough to earn praise.”. Kids need to learn that hard work is what it takes to be considered a winner. Secondly, its teaching kids that they are spoiled and they deserve reward just for being them. Kids that received participation trophies their whole life expect things to be handed to them. This mentality needs to be ended because it is making are society into a lazy bunch of spoiled brats. Parents think that this is helping the kids self esteem but people need to learn that material things are not what builds a kid up its the hard work they put in. Galanty Miller of the Huffington Post  said, “Sure, participation trophies are stupid.But all trophies are stupid. How insecure is the human race that we need a useless, cheap plastic piece of crap on are bookshelf to make us feel accomplished.”. Failure is a positive thing in kids life’s because it teaches them that whenever you get knocked down you get back up. So please let kids work for they trophies dont hand them to them!

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galanty-miller/only-winners-should-get-a_b_8038736.html

http://www.CNN.com/2015/08/18/opinions/jones-sports-trophies/

CSC Baseball!?

The best choice of a sport to add to Chadron State College in my opinion is baseball. First off Baseball is “Americas sport”. A lot of people love and enjoy baseball and baseball would definitely bring in the most profits for the school. I was honestly shocked when i came to Chadron and found out baseball wasn’t a sport here because almost every schooling the country, high school and college, have baseball teams. Another big reason is baseball is a big sport locally and if Chadron added a college team it would allow the local stars to continue to play in front of their friends and family while representing their local area. It would also be an easy sport to get started. All you would have to do is use the softball field and extend the fence. Their is also room to build bigger stands or even just extend the existing one. The softball team would still be able to use the field by simply building a fence that meets their regulations. The remaining expenses would be of course the coaches salary and uniforms. Of course you would also have to buy equipment but that would be that expensive. Baseball is the most obvious choice if Chadron is considering  adding a sport to the school. The starting of the program will take a good chunk of money but i’m sure that the profits that the team would make up for that. It would be a big win in the schools point of view.

 

Should fantasy sports be legal or illegal?

The controversial topic of this weak is “Should fantasy sports be legal or illegal?” I think that it should be legal because it is far from being classified as gambling. Google defines gambling as “play games of chance for money”. Fantasy sports are not games of chance they are games of strategy based off facts. FTSA.org explained it best with this quote, “Fantasy sports leagues are games of skill. Managers must take into account a myriad of statistics, facts and game theory in order to be competitive.” Managing a team takes a lot of time and research in order to get the players you need as well as decided whether or not to play a certain player over another.

When it comes down to it most people look at fantasy sports as gambling and this is false due to the fact the U.S. government doesn’t even acknowledge it as gambling according to FSTA.org. I personally don’t even know why gambling is illegal. If people want to give their money away because of a bet they should have the choice to do so. Most illegal gambling happens online where billions of dollars a year are bet on various topics all over the world. With this knowledge if gambling is illegal to prevent conflict there not point in it being illegal because the people never actually meet. Just like any illegal activity it’s not going to be stopped so making fantasy football illegal isn’t going to stop people from playing it and isn’t worth the governments time to make it illegal.

Should the NFL and NBA Make College a Requirement?

No! These organizations should not require athletes to attend college before being eligible for the draft. First off the NFL and NBA have nothing to do with college sports and should be searching for the best players in the world to play in their leagues regardless of their education level. If they had this mindset the quality of athletes would greatly rise in my opinion. More people would dedicate their lives to the sport and not have to worry about the distraction of school. School also stops these kids from getting paid to what there already great at. Fred Carter said it best from ESPN.com “The point of college is to receive a better education to increase your ability to make money. The best high school players can bypass college and go straight to the money.” Age should have nothing to do with their skill or work ethic point blank period. The NBA’s one year college requirement is completely pointless. One year of college does nothing for the athletes except stop them from getting one year’s salary in their pockets. Now the NFL’s rules do not require a college education but does require an athlete to wait three years after high school which makes sense. This is what Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune said about the policy, “The NFL has the most restrictive policy, with players needing to be out of high school three years to be eligible for the draft. The NFL understandably has this rule to prevent players who are not fully developed from entering the league and getting injured.” I believe that even this is a pointless rule. The best way to learn is to put yourself around the people that do what you want to do the best. So if allowed to play with the pro’s earlier, even if that means just for practice and with a substantially lower salary, would allow these athletes to progress way faster than usual. I truly believe that both leagues would benefit greatly from this.

References

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-smack-ryan-spt-0414-20150413-story.html

http://assets.espn.go.com/nba/columns/carter_fred/1537641.html

PED’s and the Baseball HOF

This weeks topic of should players that have used performance enhancing drugs be allowed in the Baseball Hall of Fame is a highly controversial argument that is wide spread among sports lovers all over the country. I’m going to be straight up and say that I personally believe they should be allowed in and I feel strongly about this. I do believe though, that pro athletes taking PED’s is wrong and that players that use them should be punished but you cant take away from a players skill just because he made a mistake. No matter how many PED’s an athlete takes does not take away from the skill of placing the bat perfectly on a pitch thrown by some of the best pitchers in the world. PED’s only ad strength and speed to an athlete which could definitely increase power to the players swing but has nothing to do with hand eye coordination or reaction time to a 100 mph fastball. When it comes to players like Mark Mcgwire, and Sammie Sosa who are two greats of the game but have been denied into the Hall of Fame for testing dirty they were using these substances before they were even illegal in the sport. Regardless if these players used PED’s or not they played in the games and the dominated in those games making history. Nobody can take that from them.After all the Hall of Fame is a Museum for the Sport of Baseball and these players are apart of that history. They deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments.

Is Cheer leading a Sport?

The question “Is cheer leading a sport?” has been a long debated topic. In my opinion it is a sport but only if talked about in the right setting. When it comes to college cheer leading no i do not believe that it is a sport. I feel this way because they do not compete for anything the are simply there to support the people doing the actual competing. College cheer leaders are more entertainers to me. Now high school cheer leading is a sport and has been recognized by multiple states to be a sport. This is because they are competing to win something. Thats the main factor when it comes to this topic. As long as there is something to win its a sport its as simple as that. There no doubt that cheer leaders regardless if competing or not are very athletic and do amazing things. So to all those college cheer leaders out there dont think that your skills and talents are recognized because they are. Cheer leading competitions are sports as well. The shows and routines those people do are nothing short of amazing. They spend a lot of time and effort to go out and win the title of best cheer group so yes it is a sport. Im sure this topic will continue to go on for a long time but i dont think we are to far away of seeing cheer leading explode all over the world.