Sportsmanship Article Reviews

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Sportsmanship Article Reviews

First Article Review

The media and sports personnel have constantly posed the question whether the rules governing any sports have some degree of bending. Some of the bended rules degrade the sport, others add flavor while the rest simply deserve denunciation. For instance, during the Thanksgiving week, the Nets coach, Kidd Jason, gained more time by spilling a drink on the court and the Steelers couch disrupted a Ravens player by stepping on the field (Hirsch 1). By definition, sportsmanship is an ethos that proper considerations for respect, ethics, fairness and fellowship with other players have to be adhered in order for a sport to be enjoyed. However, in the cases of these two coaches, the ethics of a good sportsman were not observed. According to Hirsch, their actions can nonetheless be considered fair at some point.

Hirsch provides two approaches with which he justifies their actions. The first part involves the first rule where all sports personnel have to follow the rules. This justifies the reason why the two coaches were punished for committing an offence. Other cases where a member might be punished include spying on opponents and use of steroids by the players. Contrary to the first part, the second approach disagrees with rule number one. Hirsch wonders what happens in occasions where sportsmanship has not been observed and the rules are not broken. For instance, he gives an example of the hidden ball trick in basketball. This is a move made by players in order to trick their opponents in a game, which is to their advantage. Such a move cannot be considered as a bad sportsmanship. In incidences where a basketball player draws a foul by flopping, it is considered cheating because he or she is trying to fool the officials. The author states that the two moves are advantageous to the teams though one should understand there is a difference between a crime and an accident (Hirsch 1). Therefore, he concludes that fooling an opponent is accepted but tricking the officials is not.

Second Article Review

During the second quarter of a Michigan college football game against NCAA, one of the linesmen, Hall Marcus, was ejected from the game. This resulted from his offensive action for flicking off the multitude, stomping around the sideline and banging his helmet. Sportsmanship is conceptualized by relatively stable and an enduring characteristics where the individuals are able to differ in expected ways while exhibiting a high sense of fairness, respect and maintaining self-control. Thus, Hall’s actions cannot be considered as good sportsmanship because he defied the values it upholds. Surprisingly, the Big Ten failed to punish the player and even allowed him to participate in the Big Ten Championship. This is because the Big Ten has no rules that govern sportsmanship (Siedel 1). This is an unexpected incidence because other team members in the country are often punished for their offences. Siedel gives an example of such occasions where Glen Davis of Orlando Magic was fined $35,000 by the NBA in 2012 for making an obscene gesticulation to the fans in Canada. Another scenario was when Chuck Cecil, Tennessee Titans defensive director was fined $40,000 by the NFL for making an obscene sign towards the officials because of his team’s loss to the Denver Broncos in 2010.

Afterwards, the Big Ten admitted that Hall had defied the body’s sportsmanship policy and removed him from the game for a while. They also issued a public scolding of the football coaching staff in Ohio. This is because they had failed in their duty to escort a player to the locker rooms. However, during the conference, the Big Ten reviewed the video and concluded that the coaches had done their work as expected. Siedel stated that he believes the Big Ten flicked off the idea of sportsmanship because of how it handled the case in Ohio (Siedel 1).

Works Cited

Hirsch, Alan. “Making Some Rules About Sportsmanship.” Real Clear Sports. Real Sports Mag.,10 December 2013. Web. 16 December 2013. <http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2013/12/10/making_some_rules_about_sportsmanship_97890.html#.Uq6RDyf-h74>.

Siedel, Jeff. “Big Ten  Flips Off Sportsmanship By Not Suspending Ohio State Lineman.” Detroit Free Press. Gannett Company, 3 December 2013. Web. 16 December 2013. < http://www.freep.com/article/20131203/SPORTS07/312030042/>.