Final Reflections

I'm a athlete so before taking this class I feel like i just looked at the sports that are the biggest like football, basketball, UFC, and other sports like that. I didn't really pay attention to women's sports and how things go with that and this class opened my eyes to a lot of new ways to look at our sports world. That definitely has changed because I'm not focused on the usual things that us as a society has made as our mainstream biggest sports, I look at different sports and give it just as much attention as I do with basketball or football. A few things that stood out for me was people with disabilities being able to compete with normals athletes, I mean I saw it in the olympics but I never really gave it any thought until we hit the topic in class. The way they put females through sex test in order for them to compete in the olympics was pretty crazy to me. The fact that the olympics are so big you don't really hear about that unless things hit the fan. Another things is how we explode our women athletes in magazines and in commercials is crazy and I'm so used to the norms to were I never really gave it any thought. The women athletes some of them are fine with it like the NASCAR driver said sex sells and if thats going to bring in more money for her, she's fine with it. That goes to show you that not just men but the women have begun to except these social norms. After taking this class I will continue to look into topics differently wondering why are things this way etc. I'm pretty sure I will be able to use everything we did in this class to look more in-depth and critically think about the things going on in todays sports. If you are into sports or want to learn more about sports this is the class to be in, we went over so much that me as a athlete never even thought about so yes I would recommend this class to friends.

Why the 'Mans Mans' Game is an Insult to Men

When watching Training Rules we saw that coming out of the closet is one of the hardest things to do because you are surrounded by mostly straight men. So when putting it out there that your are a homosexual on that team and in the locker room mostly everyone looks at you different including the coaches no matter how much of an impact you have on a team. A lot of men are uncomfortable with being in a locker room with a man that is homosexual knowing that they are showering and changing their clothes in front of him. The case where the Missouri football player entering the draft and coming out to the world that he was gay it changed his draft stock from being in the first round to the second or third round. This worries teams because there are players that just don't like gay people and teams feel that it will mess up the chemistry by making them deal with that. For right now the tough contact sports are no safe places for LGBT athletes because other players don't want them touching the or anything of that sort. I feel that we as a culture should except people as they are and not think about a person being gay.

African Americans in Sports

Being a African American and a athlete I know all what sports can do for a young man growing up in a poor or middle class family. For some kids that are blessed with athlete talents it gives them a way to possible get out of the current situation that they are in with their families. Along with getting a good education while doing their sport. Like william in "Hoop Dreams" his school tuition was paid for and he was surrounded by teachers that put in the time to help him with his school work. But it doesn't come that fast from all African American kids because most have to go to the schools that don't have enough books or teachers not caring much about them, so they have to wait until college to really get help because their parents can't afford a tutor for them while in high school.

In Blindside you see basically a homeless boy that gets taken in by a white family that pays for his high school tuition and does what it takes for him to get into college on a football scholarship. While doing it out the kindness of there heart people looked at it as they did what they did to get him in to their favorite college Ole Miss so that he can play for them.

The biggest that sports can do to young black kids is get there hopes up that they will make it and then it doesn't work out. Depending on what coaches and other people see in a kid depends on how much they will invest in them and as you get older it becomes a business. So players are getting used for what they can do and once you show no use to the team anymore then people slowing stop doing all the things that they were doing when you were at your best.

Gender Advertising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWzwmm4Fg38

I like this commercial here, nike took LeBron James and showed the world a different side coming from athletes. Usually you see the athlete in there domain but here LeBron is in a family atmosphere spending time with his wife and kids. Showing him not just as a basketball player but a father and husband. By showing this side of them it shows young people the opposite of which athletes are portrayed, as in having a lot of women around them and such. This plays a big influence to young peoples lives showing them that family is important.

Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: ESPN Online (espn.go.com)

Looking on ESPN's online page I would say that it depends on the season to who you see as a head line on the website. Sports I would say is the first to really break race in the U.S. so its not like they only have pictures of white people. In fact I would argue that there maybe more people of color on head lines then whites. So because its basketball season you see more black people as the headline pictures, because they are mostly the most talked about. Say theres a big college game like the Duke vs. North Carolina game they have some white players that are really good and is known for making big time shots for their teams. When Alex Rodriguez came out and said he will be retiring after this up coming season his face was all over ESPN because it was a big deal. And When these's golf going on then then you may have Tiger Woods or one of the other big name golfers face up during that time. One year they had a sixteen year old Asian that was in the tournament and they had his face all head lines because he was the youngest player to every play in the tournament.
ESPN mostly likes to put up pictures of athletes in action showing what they do in their own sport. Also if not in action then they tend to have athletes looking mad or as we like to say in game mode showing a masculine look. But it seems now that things are changing and more and more you see ESPN post pictures of athletes smiling and wearing suits or casual wear clothes. So with the time changing ESPN finds ways to keep up with their audience of today.

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

Being a student athlete I'm gonna always favor to the side of student athletes getting paid. But this subject has been one off the biggest debates of the NCAA for sometime now. Schools advertising players year round to be the face of their individual sports. These schools are making billions of dollars off of players and they say that we get get our scholarship check but those are based off of the cost of living in the city that the school is in. Once you pay rent and utilities most of your check is gone. Some athletes play their own bills outside of just cable and electric so that's more money coming out of pocket and we are left with maybe only like two to three hundred dollars the rest of the month. Student athletes basically sign their names over to the school to be advertised by only them so that only they can benefit from it. Then NCAA comes up with rules saying that you must remain an amateur so that you cant advertise yourself or receive anything from being an athlete but in actuality they are.
On the other side of this whole situation who do we decide to whom gets paid what. All sports advertise their star athletes but every program isn't making as much money as the others. Then on top pf that their only the star players that get advertised. So do the athletic program split the money with all sports even tho basketball and football might bring in the most money to the school. Or do they just pay the athletes that are being advertised. These are some of the problems that comes with paying student athletes, its just so much that comes with everything. If you do pay the athletes as said in the article the student may start t come out of "Student-Athlete" because they would have so much money to where when it comes down to doing papers and taking test that athletes will try to pay other students and even the teachers in order to get the grades they need in order to play.
Looking over this article made me think about this topic in a different way by all the things student-athletes will be able to do. Bu when you look at it at big schools things like this already happens so I don't know if there will be much of a difference in things that much. I still feel like student athletes should be paid because everything we do is our sport there's really no time to get a job when you have to manage your sport and school work.

High School Sports

When we started sports most of us was coming off of the everyone plays rule coming from middle school. Once we got to high school everything started to change, the environment became more serious, the coaches became more meaner, and the game became more competitive. Everything was held to a certain standard putting in more time and effort for your teammates, coaches, as well as the school. On top of playing and having practice almost everyday of the week student-athletes have to juggle school work and having a social life with their friends.
Most high school teams goals are to be the best in the state and I would say winning that championship is what every team is starving for. That main goal isn't being made only by one team of each class that they have. so other teams or just getting back to work for next season.
So interscholastic sports in America basically keeps students into the sport by showing them how academics and their sport shape them as a player and as a person and how they should should what they learn in everyday life.
When its good that they want to do these things every person not the same so if a player is the star of their team and maybe they don't like school then their focus won't be on both the sport and school. they would be just focusing on their next game what can they do to help their team when or improve their stats.
If we can get our student-athletes to be as excited about school just as they are about their sport then we will soon be able to solve that problem.