Examples Of Deviance In Sports

Jay Coakley dedicated a whole chapter on deviance in sports and how it differentiates than being a part of society. According to Coakley, deviance in sports affects mostly male college athletes lately because of the talking back they do towards their coaches, breaking violations and rules in the game, drawing fouls on the field and taking supplements that affect their performance. Coakley mentions that deviance in sports can “involves an uncritical acceptance of norms, rather than the rejection of norms.” Athletes often overreach their ability to play and participate in sports in order to pay the price of fulfilling their dreams. In the book, Coakley defines deviance as “when a person’s ideas, traits, or actions are perceived by others to fall outside their normal range of acceptance in a society.” Coakley talks about many different types of deviance, but my focal points are more so on cheating, gambling, and hazing,

Cheating can be taken in the academic aspect and in the athletic aspect. Cheating though academic is seen as a deviant act. For
More than half of Americans place sport bets with friends, families, and co-workers. Coakley says, “Sport gambling debts can have destructive consequences, but betting on sports is not generally seen as a moral or legal issue.” This is seen as deviant, but the viewers are not having a big issue because people mostly buy lottery tickets or make their way to the casino. Gambling leads to outcomes that are much more competitive for the teams because it all depends on which player scores what points or who wins what game. An example of gambling would be Floyd Mayweather Jr. betting a $100,000 wager on Duke winning their first half of the NCAA Sweet Sixteen against Arizona. They do not call him "Money" just because he's good at boxing, but he is very interested in sports gambling in