In this week's lecture we received a commentary on violence in sport, which alluded very well to the pitfalls of a highly commercialized professional sports industry. In a community where the primary function has become monetary gain, it is unsettling to think about the violence and harm done to players, let alone to those who are watching. Great athletes have always been a group with which communities have been fascinated. For example, the Greek poet Pindar, in one of his victory odes, writes:
Great runner, four times victor at the Games,
But for a war you would have known no fame.
Though exiled from the bubbling springs of home,
Your swift pace made a new land's fields your own.
But for a war you would have known no fame.
Though exiled from the bubbling springs of home,
Your swift pace made a new land's fields your own.
But what happens when the war is taken to the game? When we cease to portray our athletes as peaceable, and when our athletic heroes become thugs who will stop at nothing to make a profit?
What is particularly concerning to me is that as a society, we have chosen to so highly compensate our athletes, especially when professional sports such as hockey are so particularly violent and our myth of athletes serves so poorly to embody the values of sport that we have cherished so long. As Trothen points out, in professional sports, athletes are commodities to be traded by owners in order to make a profit. Similarly, our heroes of athletics will go to great lengths of self-harm and harming others in order to win.
Although I am hesitant to ever take such a position, I can't help but implore our society to "think of the children!" As McGurtry alluded in 1974, in his report for the Ontario government "Investigation and Inquiry into Violence in Amateur Hockey", we must certainly look towards professional-level hockey in order to explain the prevalence of violence at lower levels. When the ethic of sport becomes winning, and winning is synonymous with money-making at the cost of our values, we must be cautious. In Canada especially, where we have a special affinity for hockey, we must be critical of what cultural values we emphasize to our children when it comes to our national sport. After all, what is seen on television is easily practiced at the rink, especially when there is pressure from coaches to do so.
Although I am hesitant to ever take such a position, I can't help but implore our society to "think of the children!" As McGurtry alluded in 1974, in his report for the Ontario government "Investigation and Inquiry into Violence in Amateur Hockey", we must certainly look towards professional-level hockey in order to explain the prevalence of violence at lower levels. When the ethic of sport becomes winning, and winning is synonymous with money-making at the cost of our values, we must be cautious. In Canada especially, where we have a special affinity for hockey, we must be critical of what cultural values we emphasize to our children when it comes to our national sport. After all, what is seen on television is easily practiced at the rink, especially when there is pressure from coaches to do so.
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