In Mark Edmundsons article “do sports build character or damage it?” Edmundson makes a very good case that supports his idea that sports can build character. He also gives good reasons as to why some people think that sports just breed brutality, and are a diversion from the business of education. Sports are a complex issue, and this article proves it is clear that we as a culture are unsure how to think about them. Edmundson goes on to tell about when he was a young man in high school, and his first year playing football. Football is a dangerous sport, and he tells of how many people get injured, whether its from concussions, broken bones, or…
The term couch potato did not develop when the couch was invented; moreover the term became popular the same era as the television. The term refers to somebody that is lazy and spends his or her time in front of the television, or in other words it refers to millions of Americans. To further exemplify the lethargy in society a Nielson Survey concluded that "the average family was watching television seven hours a day" (248). Our over-privileged society spends these hours glued to the television screen warped into another carefree world. Television makes the viewer forget his or her problems and creates a roadblock effect when it comes to solving them.…
Varda Burstyn provides great insight on hypermasculinity and modern sport in her book, The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics and the Culture of Sports. In this book, Burstyn asserts that performance enhancing drugs have become institutionalized as part of the “hypermasculinization” in sports and society. Athletes use performance-enhancing drugs to receive an energy boost as a means of playing through the pain endured during a sporting event. Especially in modern sports, competition has increased dramatically and athletes are willing to do anything they can to gain a competitive advantage. Monetary and materialistic incentives that are attached to winning in modern sports have catalyzed a need to attain even the smallest advantage. The source of athletes’ mentality of gaining a smallest advantage over competitors can be traced back from the time they were young to the time they reach the professional stage. The pressure to perform at a high-level consistently throughout his life has influenced the athlete to rely on drugs and has normalized the use of drugs in modern sports. However, using performance enhancing drugs comes with its fair share of disadvantages as well. Athletes who use steroids tend to have mood swings,…
The norms and standards of society go unnoticed by many athletes throughout the country, who believe that the game acts as a platform for the expression of their own individuality. As every fans are awed by each and every personality that walks the field, a greater amount of influence is granted to the athletes. They are shown as "respectable" figures that are equivalant to our modern day gods. This thought process is an exact depiction of Campbell's third rule. By putting an extremely god like sterotype on athletes we are creating a social order where athletes are the elites. Other qualifications that are needed for a progressive society areleft behind and the vast majority of society dreams of becoming a world famous athlete. It's not that athletes aren't great, just that their shouldn't be so much commotion for a career which may as well last a few short…
Athletes are sometimes prone to get into trouble because of their recognition and the great things they do in their field of play. One hypothesis looks at the athletic environment as a potential cause. See competitive athletics is a very dichotomous environment. On the one hand, you have rules, regulations, etc (Ashbrook online). These are in place to keep the playing field as even as possible, with the hopes of determining the "best" performer (Ashbrook online). On the other hand, we have money and fame, lots of it. How do athletes get money and fame? By being successful at sport. But how do we become successful at sport? Ideally, with hard work and determination. But what if there was an easier way (Ashbrook online)?…
Richard L. Worsnop offers multiple different points about high school sports and athletes. Concerns about the oppression of young athletes and debating if high school athletics “builds character”, are some of the main issues pointed out. Some coaches believe interscholastic sports competitions teach everything about character and teamwork, while others believe overemphasizing a win can teach the growth of negative character traits. Meanwhile, there are no doubts that certain drugs can enhance an athlete’s performance, but this can lead to injury and other harmful effects. High school athletes are sometimes considered, “dumb jocks”, which leads to the question if student athletes should maintain a certain grade-point average. Some players think…
There are many existent opinions about what being a sloth genuinely means. We commonly mistake it as a person who’s just a couch potato,…
An obesity epidemic has forced celebrity athletes and even the First Lady to speak at schools and encourage today’s youth to pursue a more active lifestyle. They recommend turning off the TV for an hour every day – one less hour in front of the tube in hopes that the child will spend one more hour in the pool, or on their bikes, or walking with friends. But few do, not when it’s “too hot” outside and there’s a humming computer waiting in the next room. People disagree, Ehrenreich says, “because it is either dangerous or would involve getting up from the couch,” and then where would we be? The passage points out that television pulls people in two directions: we’re drawn to it, to the plastic people with plastic smiles and perfect hair, drawn to their more interesting lives, doing everything that we want to but can’t. They don’t watch TV – they fly out towards their special bat-beacon and save the day. But on the other hand, we’re lazy. We’d rather watch them save the day because it would be too much of a hassle to go about it ourselves. You’ll never see TV characters “watching [television], hour after hour” like “real people” because even we, The Coach Potatoes of America, would be bored.…
explores the possible harmful eating intake of female student athletes, and how weight issues may play a contributing part to this disorder. The authors will also observe the female student athletes surroundings, which may play a major role in how these students identify themselves as being over weight which could lead to unhealthy dieting. Furthermore, the authors will monitor the mental capacity of these female students’ athletes while trying desperately to lose pounds for their team or individual sport.…
Athletes strive to be better than their competitors by improving their performance. They are encouraged for doing so, and it is what all athletes want to do. The concern is that, the method some athletes use is unfair and unjust.…
An anonymous individual once said, “People don’t play sports because it’s fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldn’t imagine their life without it. It’s part of them, the love/hate relationship. It’s what they live for.” The quote continues saying, “It’s who they are. It’s who we are. We are athletes.” An athlete is an individual who trains to compete in a sporting event. However, there is a fine line distinguishing an athlete and a student athlete, or at least there should be. A student athlete, where student comes first and shows the balance of a full time student and a full time athlete, is an individual who competes in organized sports sponsored by an educational institution. Rephrase this for clarity…The majority of individuals are not able to continue their athleticism and their passion for their sport into college for at least four more years that they have played for many years beginning as young children, but those who are fortunate enough should not take it for granted. Colleges should have the same standards for their student athletes academically as they do for their non-athlete students. Colleges should not have exceptions and give their student athletes free hand outs, they should have strict rules and requirements, and colleges should set up tutors and extra help for their student athletes should they need it. Student athletes need to learn how to prioritize their “Three S’s,” study first, sports second, and their social life third. Colleges and universities should keep their standards just as high for student athletes than non-athlete students but Don’t use “in the end”… It’s a cliché…overall in the end it is the student athlete’s responsibility. The tensions between athletics and academics has flared and produced negative attitudes towards student athletes from professors and non-student athletes, due to…
In “Stuck on the Couch”, the author points out that more than 60 percent of Americans do not exercise regularly and are content to admit they don’t exercise at all. But to Gupta that is not the case, exercise needs to part of our daily life to prevent diseases. According to Gupta’s survey, 72 million are obese and almost every one of them would like to shed the extra pounds. In the essay he points out that, “in the whole first-year college students participate in significantly less exercised than they did just one year before” ( paragraph 3 ) This section of the essays discloses the idea of freshmen 15. From high school to college is a big transition for not only change academic performances but also maintaining a constant physique. Since not many mandatory activities are offered in college like in high school some students become lazy and loose track on how to maintain their weight.…
Overweight people are thought to be lazy people that just sit around and not exercise, but many of them exercise much more regularly than a thin person does. Many times they are not taken as serious as a thin person does when it comes to jobs because people believe that they wont be as active. But the fact is that overweight people work as hard or even harder than any other person does.…
Health is a precious gift that needs to be cherished. Unfortunately, there are three global issues that are destroying people’s health and killing them. These health concerns include inactivity, obesity and lack of safe drinking water. The positive side of these issues is the fact that they are all preventable through making the right decisions and taking action.…
Sports are full of competition, but this heavy amount of competition may not be so good for a person's body; plus, injuries are a common thing in sports. It wouldn’t be a sport without an injury occurring. Injuries, like concussions, are very common in sports like soccer and football. Those are caused by continuous action to the head. Concussions can have long-term effects on the brain, like memory loss and diseases like Parkinson’s(Nordqvist). Also, the violent plays in today’s sports, are not things children need to be looking up to. Athletes are supposed to be role models to the youth, but they way these athletes play on the field or court show that maybe they are not someone a person should look up to. The violent, dangerous acts, and styles…