Essence of sports is competition

Former Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) undersecretary, Dr. Dante Velasco said his attention was drawn by the series of columns we had on the fascinating articles of sports sociologist D. Stanley Eitzen on the dark side of sport. Velasco said he longs for the day when the Philippines sports or sociology community can craft studies on the same subject with the same rigor and solid research. I told Velasco, who has a doctorate in mass communications from the University of the Philippines, that perhaps our sharing these papers IN OUR COLUMNS will arouse the interest of scholars might want to devote time to the research and practice of sports sociology.

At any rate, continuing on the dark side of sport, Eitzen says that sport is plagued with problems. In fact, big-time sport has corrupted academe. Coaches sometimes engage in outrageous behavior, but if they win, they are rewarded handsomely. Gratuitous violence is glorified in the media. Some athletes take drugs. Some athletes are found guilty of gang rape and spouse abuse. Many athletes cheat to achieve a competitive edge. Sports organizations take advantage of athletes. In the view of many, these problems result from bad people. Eitzen believes that such behavior stems from a morally distorted sports world – a world where winning supersedes all other considerations, where moral values have been confused with the bottom line. And winning-at-any-price has become the prevailing code of conduct in much of sport.

Eitzen’s thesis is that American values (which are shared by many societies, including the Philippines, where unbridled capitalism sometimes dominates the value system), are responsible for many of the ethical problems found in sport. We glorify winners and forget losers. Eitzen points out that Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, once wrote, “Nobody remembers who came in second.” Following are a few more quotes from a few famous coaches on the importance of winning:

“Winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing.” (Vince Lombardi, American football coach. Head coach of Green Bay Packers.)

“Defeat is worse than death because you have to live with defeat.” (Bill Musselman, American basketball coach in the NCAA, ABA, WBA, CBA and the NBA.)

“In our society, in my profession, there is only one measure of success, and that is winning. Not just any game, not just the big game, but the last one”. (John Madden, former American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL), former head coach of the Oakland Raiders.)

“There are only two things in this league, winning and misery.” (Pat Riley, retired coach and player in the NBA. Team president of the Miami Heat and regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time.)

“Our expectations are to play for and win the national championship every year…second, third, fourth and fifth don’t do you any good in this business.” (Dennis Erickson, when he was head football coach at the University of Miami.)

Eitzen stresses that Americans want winners, whether winning is in school or in business or in politics or in sport. In sport, we demand winners. Coaches are fired if they are not successful; teams are booed if they play for ties. The team that does not win the Super Bowl in a given year is a loser.

In the article “Ethical Dilemmas in American Sport: The Dark Side of Competition”, Eitzen provides one example of how first place is exalted and second place is debased. A football team composed of fifth graders was undefeated going into the Florida state championship game. They lost that game in a close contest. At a banquet for these boys following that season, each player was given a plaque on which was inscribed a quote from Lombardi, “There is no room for second place. I have finished second twice at Green Bay and I never want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game but it is a game for losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do and to win and to win and to win.”

In other words, as Eitzen says, the parents and coaches of these boys wanted them to not be satisfied with being second. Second is losing. The only acceptable placement is first. If second is unacceptable and all the rewards go to the winners, then some will do whatever it takes to be first. It may require using steroids, or trying to injure a competitor, or altering the transcript of a recruit so that he or she can play illegally.

The whole problem stems from the fact that sport is essentially a competition and when people compete, their aim is to win. The challenge is, simply, to win fairly.