American Sports & The Sports Scandal Spectacle

The “sport scandal” has practically become apart of the norm in American sports. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, adultery, or rape, there is no denying that it’s prominent in sports and media coverage today. Media bases their stories over what we, as fans want. In today’s society we want the drama, the gossip, and the rumors. You can deny that you have no interest in this aspect of professional sports but unfortunately for the majority it has. When searching youtube for the best sports plays you see videos with about 300,000 page views, but when you type in best sports fights, the first video to pop up has over 3 million views. Interesting right?

Although it may not be intentional, sports and scandal is something that the majority have become entertained by, but it has also become an issue in society. Sports media coverage is about the sports information along side the entertainment we want as well. With this entertainment aspect being at such a high value it can be said that media frames the scandals they think should be covered. Do you think that this reflects the integrity of the professional sports world? In the Handbook of Sports and Media, chapter 31 on “Criminals or Media Construction,” it state,

“Those responsible for the mayhem chronicled on these pages are no ordinary criminals. They are perceived as heroes. Rather than being stigmatized like cons, these pros are cheered, idolized, and highly paid because they bring us thrills. We are not talking about just a few bad apples here (524).”

Criminality and scandal in sports has become a spectacle and what I believe to be a serious problem in sports. As it states in the text “20%, or 1 in 5, of the members of the NFL have been charged with a serious crime (524).” The worse of it all is that the media develops the story line that we believe.

An example of this is the recent story, which involves Metta World Peace, formally known as Ron Artest. Almost every media outlet has covered this story within the 24 hours since it happened. In yesterday’s (4/22) dramatic game, World Peace was celebrating his third dunk of the game when he took a hard elbow swing to James Harden’s head leaving him in pain on the ground. Take a look at the clip if you had not seen:



The media is leaving this up in the air if it’s intentional or not? The story line reads, “Metta World Peace reverts back to Ron Artest”. Here is a link to this story written by The Bleacher Report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1155451-metta-world-peace-reverts-to-ron-artest-in-a-short-but-and-violent-outburst. The article starts by saying “it takes years to rebuild a reputation and seconds to destroy it (bleacherreport).” This is all tied back to a sports scandal that has happened almost a decade ago. This scandal was involving Ron Artest and the “Malice at the Palace,” or otherwise known as the scariest day in NBA history.



World Peace was suspended for 60 games after these events in 2004. Now, he has come back to play. It seems that with this play that happened late last night that the media is promoting World Peace as a crazy athlete that can literally explode at any moment. With the high popularity that the Malice at the Palace has for sports fans we understand why this is brought back up. Does it make it right? Is it worth the suspension or perhaps a lifetime ban?

Aside from this recent scandal, we have found that there may be a decrease of interest in sports scandals. What I mean by this is that the recovery for an athlete is much easier than it ever was before. As we discussed in class, Michael Vick, who was charged with dog fighting and killing dogs is now back playing AND had one of the top selling jerseys after he was back. This goes along with this thought stated in the text, “…crime epidemic within American sports is the idea that society ‘awards them with special attention and privileges’ (525).” Do we award these athletes that do wrong? Are some athletes that engage in fights and other such things seen as more masculine? Can Metta World Peace or Ron Artest come back again without being held to the standard of being a hot head?

Sports scandals are something that will never go away. As we discussed in class, if an actress or a musician did something wrong, would the media cover it as much? Would we really even care? I believe the answer is no because in our generation we have learned to accept these notions, whereas sports is still held to a higher ideals. There are rules in sports that need to be followed, there is a sense of fairness that we honor in professionals sports, yet the scandal gets more coverage than the fair play.

The Superbowl, The All-American Competition

 This is the one sports event that attracts all. The hardcore fans, and the not so hardcore fans. The ones who use it as an excuse for the get together and the ones who live by their teams. Most of all, this event attracts the ones looking for a hero and a victory, something to believe in.

The super bowl in my house, similar to many, is a ritual. It is something you had to watch. Some super bowls are better than others. In this case, whether you were a patriot’s fan, a giant’s fan, or despised both there is no doubt that this superbowl, Superbowl XLVI, was a nail bitter, a high anxiety game, that was sure to last until the very last second. This was not only a game with two teams battling for the title; it was a battle for revenge from the hard loss of the patriots jut four years ago. Patriots, the undefeated, top notch team and the Giants, the underdogs that came back with an amazing victory just four years ago, that set the scene for this clash today.

Tonight, it was clear that both teams fought until the very end, leaving their hearts on the field. There are many aspects that went into this great storyline and overall great experience. The media seemed unbiased, summarizing the very feeling of nervousness each team experienced, the fans were upbeat and faithful throughout the competition, and lastly it was a fairly called game with plenty of good sportsmanship. Sportscenter as well as many other media outlets such as NBC made this victory and centralized around the hero and MVP, Eli Manning. The cover stories on all sites talk about Eli Manning making his team to champions and how Eli won the game for the Giants.  As close as the game was, it was clear that the Giants victory was well deserved. This was without a doubt a well-played game and one that will go down in history.