Hoop Dreams and Sports Movies

The documentary Hoop Dreams chronicles the dreams and struggles of two African American high school student athletes in Chicago as they attempt to pave their way to the professional level. It depicts the issues of race and the culture of high school athletics in a realistic manner, starkly contrasting archetypical sports films such as The Blind Side, Coach Carter or Remember The Titans. It has received almost universal acclaim from critics and audience members alike due to its realism and rejection of the stereotypes perpetrated by more simplistic depictions of African Americans in sports. In traditional sports movies, African Americans are portrayed as lacking discipline unlike their white counterparts, until a hard nosed coach comes in and turns their lives around. Inevitably, they all come together to win the big game and celebrate while many eventually go to the professional level. As touched upon in class, the reality is that a high school player is extremely unlikely to go onto the next level, as is a college player. Statistics are stacked against athletes, especially Black athletes like Gates and Agee who come from poverty. The socioeconomic status of athletes is important for cultural and racial reasons, as both Gates and Agee have to adapt to transitioning to a predominantly white, upper class high school.

African American culture is tied to the aesthetic of athleticism and sport culture in the United States. The media focuses primarily on African Americans who have achieved wealth and fame through athletics rather than education, so in response the "American Dream" is measured by athletic success within predominantly Black communities. Hoop Dreams reflects the notion that success is measured in athletic achievement, and highlights all of the obstacles stacked against Gates and Agee. Neither of them make it to the NBA, which is typical of nearly every kid growing up with dreams of playing professionally. Still, both were able to learn from chasing their dreams and able to achieve a better economic status through their respective careers and through the documentary itself. Sports play an invaluable role in our society, and especially to African American communities in which sports are synonymous with hope. The problem is often time this is false hope, and as Langston Hughes wrote A Dream Deferred can fester and ruin lives. The reality is that most athletes won't actualize their professional goals, but Hoop Dreams showed that these initial goals can be adapted and revised in order to achieve success, nevertheless.

Gender in Sports Commercials

Whether NASCAR can actually be considered a sport is a topic for ripe for debate, but in this post I'm going with the assumption that it is. While it is definitely perceived as low-brow and geared towards men, it has had much success in particular areas and demographics in America. The face of NASCAR could be considered any number of talented male drivers, but the best advertising appeal is by far and away held by its 'sexiest' female driver, Danica Patrick. Danica Patrick's fame for her racing skills is dwarfed in comparison to her advertising campaign with Go Daddy, a domain name purveyor. They have utilized Patrick's sex appeal in Super Bowl commercials especially, for the past half-dozen years to reach hundreds of millions of Americans, creating controversy over sexism and promiscuity. Although there have been numerous commercials over the past several years, I have chosen one from 2009 to provide the context of the campaign and included another from 2014 to show how the ad campaign promotes its values.

2014 Super Bowl Commercial
2009 Commercial

Both commercials essentially ignore the fact that Patrick is an athlete, the only give aways are the featured Go Daddy car in the second commercial and the super tight racing-like shirt Patrick wears. Her sense of authority comes from her status as a sex symbol. Both of these advertisements are, as Coakley would say, are "male centered," presuming that their audience is mostly male (specifically horny 14 year old boys) despite the fact that almost everyone watches the Super Bowl. Danica Patrick is objectified, not as an athlete, but as a sex object in both commercials. This marginalizes women in the male dominated sports world and suggests that their only value lies in their looks.

In the first voyeuristic commercial, several geeky boys watch as Patrick and one of their professors shower together through a computer while controlling what they do. The end is used to illustrate Go Daddy's effectiveness, as the gender roles are reversed and Patrick controls the voyeurs through her computer making them slap themselves. This commercial promotes the stereotypes that women are mere sex symbols to be seen by men, and that they seek to  actively control and tease unattractive men for pleasure. 

By the second commercial, Patrick has become infamous for her advertisements. After she slowly unzips her Go Daddy Uniform, she relays that "Go Daddy gives her all of the exposure she needs, so she can keep her beaver safe and out of sight." Their are several actual beavers, but it is clearly a double-entendre that works as a euphemism for vagina. Essentially, she is saying that because of her work for Go Daddy (and as an athlete maybe?) she doesn't have to expose herself for attention and money. Once again, this advertisement operates  under the assumption that a woman need attention, and her options are limited to being a spokesman or exposing herself publicly. 

These advertisements clearly are 'male dominated,' as men are the judges of qualification, and as mentioned 'male centered' (Coakley Kindle Ed.). The consequences for these types of advertisements are more devastating towards youth viewers than your typical male oriented sports ad, as it features a rare female, but instead of being championed for her athletic accomplishments she is being sexually objectified. Meanwhile, all men are represented as being control-seeking, voyeuristic, sex-obsessed, dweebs. Ultimately, these commercials promote gender stereotypes for both men and women that damage both sides for the sake of an attempt at humor and soft-core porn. 

Once the Cheering Stops: The Life of a Retired Pro-Athlete

The ESPN 30 For 30 videos are extremely interesting to me, and I have watched nearly all of them because of the way in which they present unique perspectives about famous events, people, and phenomenons in sport culture. The video "Broke" details the fiscal rise and fall of many prominent athletes, exposing the disconnect between what they expect financially and what actually occurs. The NFL seems to be the worst organization in regards to its players going broke only several years after they retire. This issue stems from a variety of different issues, including the lack of financial education received by the players, agent salary, the high pressure to live up to sports culture normatives/dreams, the players' respective backgrounds and friends, injuries incurred while playing, and so on. These many factors all act together in a ferocious manner and cause the mysterious phenomenon of multi-millionaire professional athletes going bankrupt decades before most people even retire.

I have been aware of this issue for quite some time, and have had discussions with friends in the past about how every athlete should be required to either hire a financial manager, be provided with one, or set aside a certain percentage of their pay for the long haul. The NFL is an extremely dangerous game that can leave its players physically, mentally, or emotionally crippled. All of this is gro

wing apparent over time as more and more players speak out, not to mention the near billion dollar lawsuit that the NFL paid out to former players. In the case of injury I think it should be required that the league itself pays for its injured players healthcare for life.
The other ways in which professional athletes go broke are harder to fix, especially the mentality that they will be rich one day as a pro athlete and will be able to help out all of their family and friends. Many athletes are told this since childhood and use it as motivation to succeed, and then believe that they owe all of their friends something in return. It is hard to criticize this generosity, especially given that fact that I have no idea what it's like to grow up in poverty, but the NFL and other organizations must teach the players to look out for themselves first. In addition to this, the NFL must take care of its players by not only just educating them, but by protecting them against agents and providing special assistance to players from low-income areas. The NCAA should also absolutely allow any athlete who left college early(without a degree) for the pros the opportunity to come back and finish their degree, honoring their initial scholarship. This would provide these athletes with more opportunities after they finish their usually short playing careers.

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

     Perhaps the most obvious example of politics and sports colliding can be traced back to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, deemed the "Nazi Games." Despite the obvious tensions, these games boasted the highest number of countries participating up until that point. In addition, they were the first Olympics to receive live coverage on television despite poor coverage. Despite the political differences, U.S. Olympic Committee head Avery Brundage supported Germany hosting the games and famously stated that "politics has no place in sport" (jewishvirtuallibrary.org). 

      As mentioned in Chapter 9, "Hitler turned the 1936 Games in Berlin into a propaganda show to legitimate Nazi Germany" (Eitzen & Sage 206). This violates every sensibility of the games, specifically concerning Eitzen & Sage's 5 political uses of sports. The most apparent of the 5 uses that Hitler's Germany violated is #1, as the Olympics were used as a launching point to legitimize Nazism and its hateful rhetoric. Although the Nazi party was influential in Germany, there were obviously many dissidents in the host country as well as worldwide. The Nazi party itself, thus can be considered a political dissident despite their obvious power. Germany attempted to disallow Jewish and Black people from participating, which pertains to #3 or denying certain nations the attempt to participate by the host body. Germany eventually caved under mounting global pressure, and allowed everyone to participate while removing derogatory signs. Numbers 4 & 5 on the list were also evident, as many nations considered boycotting the Games for political reasons (and some athletes did) as it was evident that the entire political organization of the 1936 Olympics was operated by the heavy handed Nazi regime. 

     Based on my research, it is hard for me to agree with the statement that "Sport is pure and devoid of political interference," despite the best intentions of the U.S. and other nations involved. The fact that the developing climate in Nazi Germany alienated Jewish and Black athletes had an effect on the sports themselves, as many athletes chose to boycott the games and the U.S. even pulled several of its Jewish sprinters in an attempt to save Hitler from embarrassment. Even today, the anti-gay rhetoric in Russia spearheaded by Vladimir Putin will likely effect the games despite the U.S.'s best efforts to minimize it. Organizing world-wide sporting events will ultimately always be influenced by the political climate of the time. I would argue that the effect of politics on the Olympics has been minimized to a certain extent over time, but it is impossible to completely eliminate political interference. 

     I have included this picture of former President George W. Bush as a visual example to help illustrate my point that sports and politics go hand in hand in the Olympics. It serves more of a symbolic purpose, as obviously Bush wasn't interfering in this picture but he is still a powerful political figure posing with Olympic athletes during the Beijing Games. This is fairly common in the Olympics, and shows the political interest in sports.  

George Bush at Beijing Olympics with U.S. Women's Volleyball players Treanor & Walsh.
Source: Telegraph.Co.UK

Sports in Ancient Civilizations

    Reading Guttman's From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports highlighted the manner in which competitions as well as sports have evolved over centuries while still maintaining core roots. He identifies the modern characteristics of sports as secularism, the quest for records, rationalization, a bureaucratic organization, quantification, specialization, and equal opportunity. In contrast, the Plains Indians involved sports with religious and ritualistic festivals and their ultimate purpose was to please the Gods and reap specific rewards. In addition, only grown men and women took place in true sports while children simply played imitation games. Similarly, the Mayans and Aztecs played a soccer-like game to challenge the Gods of the underworlds. It is clear that while ancient civilizations spearheaded the competitive spirit found in modern sports today, the sports they took place in usually had a ritualistic or religious element that raised the stakes. Even the first Greek Olympic games were staged in sacred grounds and held a deeper religious meaning, as they were enacted as offerings to the Gods. The first Olympic games were actually a race between two men, and the participants were all in the nude. As the games evolved, they became less primitive and featured many sports such as wrestling that still hold a place in the games today. The religious tradition in sports can even be traced to Notre Dame, with its strong roots in Catholicism.

    Equality in ancient sports was much different than it is today, as limitations such as a girls virginity or whether or not a boy had hit puberty were deciding factors in choosing participants, rather than the basis of athleticism and skill that we use today. These, again, were mostly due to religious reasons. The Ancient Greeks divided men and women, and adults from children in the games. Ultimately, equality was looked at very differently in ancient sporting events than it is today. While today, athleticism plays the biggest role in whether or not an athlete is able to compete, their are still many socioeconomic factors that put lower classes at a disadvantage. The rules and regulations in sporting events today are tightly regulated, but no more so than in ancient sports. The difference lies in the ways in which primitive vs. modern society each determine who is able to compete in what games. For instance, today African American athletes are associated with specific sports and positions in each sport and "They also continue to be underpaid in proportion to their ability" (Guttman 33).

    Ancient Rome is famously perhaps the furthest departure from modern sports, as tens of thousands of people watched gladiators fight each other to death in the Colosseum. The gladiators were raised and trained to kill, and through this they provided the ultimate primitive form of entertainment for spectators. The gladiators were essentially slaves that had to kill in front of crowds to gain their freedom, and as Crowe's character in Gladiator famously asked, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" Although a battle to the death is no longer tolerated in civilized society, the culture of watching athletes beating each other to a pulp for the sake of competition and the entertainment is still a huge part of today's society.

The Sport Ethic

Hughes and Coakley's purpose in their journal article lies in examining the 'sport ethic' or inherent code that all athletes feel compelled to follow and then to determine how it influences athletes lives outside of sports. Not only this, but the two authors go one step further and assert that following this code causes social deviance among athletes that is often perceived in public poorly but in reality much of the deviance is positive. The authors attribute this deviance in athletes to the coaches and role models or more generally the people who the athletes look up to. The deviance is accepted by fans as well as anyone else involved in sports culture, but alienates outsiders. 

The main positive deviances inherited by athletes include making sacrifices for the betterment of the whole, striving to be the best, accepting risks and pains in order to achieve goals, and refusing to self impose limits. Hughes and Coakley go on to examine the empirical data supporting the alleged positive deviances gained by athletes, and present the negative ones as well.

I tend to agree with the two authors in their assertion, as when I was a basketball player in highschool I tended to hold myself up to a higher standard. I'm not certain whether or not this was for the sake of the team, but I have definitely lost some of my drive and willingness to accept 'pain for gain' as the years go on.