Sport management includes a variety of levels of sport, professional sport, collegiate sport, high school sport, and recreational sport. These levels of sport all acquire the same issues; ethical issues. Ethical issues are moral principles, the rights and wrongs of the actions that people display every day. These issues are displayed tremendously in sport. There are many ethical issues involving sport from fair play in recreational leagues to steroids in professional leagues and everything in between. Sport managers face many challenges in their line of work, one of the biggest being ethical issues.
The sport managers’ for professional sports faces some of the biggest ethical issues involving performance-enhancing drugs. Professional players are seen as gods to many of their fans especially the children dreaming to be exactly like them when they grow up. There are many players from almost all major leagues who use performance-enhancing drugs. One of the latest scandals involved the seven time winner cyclist of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong. Armstrong was one of the greatest cyclists of all time even after fighting his battle of cancer. People looked up to him, his strength and fight to push through every barrier in his way. “On October 22 the International Cycling Union stripped Mr. Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him from the sport.” (America). Lance Armstrong was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs and also paid other cyclists such as Stephen Swart to throw races which he then won. Armstrong thought it was okay because everyone else does it. “Among his dwindling number of supporters, the most common defense of Mr. Armstrong’s actions is “everybody does it.” Indeed, Mr. Armstrong and his fellow conspirators that very argument to rope into the plot younger racers, some of whom had thirsted for the excitement of international competitive cycling all their lives. The familiar syllogism ran:
Cited: Page Hosmer-Henner, Adam. “Preventing game fixing: sports books as information markets.” Gaming Law Review and Economics Jan.-Feb. 2010: 31+. Academic Onefile. Web. Dec.2012 Kowalski, Christopher L., and Jennifer J. Waldron. "Crossing the line: rites of passage, team aspects, and ambiguity of hazing."Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 80.2 (2009): 291+. Academic OneFile. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. Meyer, Sandra K. "NCAA academic reforms: maintaining the balance between academics and athletics." Phi Kappa Phi Forum 85.3 (2005): 15+. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Moorman, Anita. “Gambling and professional athletics.” The International Sports Law Journal 1-2 (2009): 90+. Academic Onefile. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. “Peddling Deception” America 12 Nov. 2012; 5. General Onefile. Web. 2 Dec. 2012