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 example, there are coach’s that do not care about the grades of their player, so they will take matters into changing their grades. This happens when the player is not eligible to play, so it is seen as deviant because grades are changed to be eligible to play based on their grade point average. In terms of cheating in athletics, an example would be that one of the top Italian soccer team in 2006 was influencing league officials to have them pick their favorable referees so that they can win during their game.
When they were caught, their 2005 and 2006 titles were stripped and there was a criminal charge towards some officials. Not many charges were long term because they were eventually dropped, but a lot of people learned their lesson with the whole situation. In both situations cheating is outside of the norm of seeing what is right and wrong. If a player cannot play because of their grades, they should be on academic probation. If a team can con officials into picking referees that will help said team, they should have negative consequences.
Based on the two situations, the judgment was fair and cheating should be enforced as wrong. Gambling is seen as deviant to people because the ending result can be affected by what people do and if and when they get caught. 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 basketball. Hazing is a deviant act that has to be watched carefully. It is difficult to see the hazing on the team, especially if the relationship is player to player.
Athletes do not want to be rejected by their peers and teammates. Sports keep teams organized and the goal is to have a team that can play well on and off the court. Coakley says hazing is, “a secret, private, interpersonal process that reaffirms a hierarchical status difference between incoming and existing group members. ” Some examples of hazing would be doing ridiculous acts that consist of alcohol, drugs, sexual acts, the infamous paddle, and humiliation. Hazing takes place in many different social groups, not just sports.
These three deviant acts have been around sports since the very beginning. When I decided to talk about deviance, Christina, Tina for short, Giovanna Szocka came to mind. Tina is 22 years old and is an athlete I met in college. She is a very good friend who wears her heart on her sleeve. She is always striving to help people and strives to do her best when she has to get work done. Her hobbies include playing soccer, exercising, spending time with friends and family soccer, all sports in general, education, nature, animals, and current world events.
Tina is very informational when it comes to world events and knows a lot about that is happening nationwide on the news. I consider Tina to be an effective communicator and personable with people she comes across. She is a female who is 5’6”, I consider her to be an athletic built with more muscle than the average woman. Along with her athletic physic, the shape of her body is similar to that of an hourglass. On the lower half of her body, she has smaller calves, a bigger waist and bigger thighs. On the upper half she has skinny arms and broad shoulders.
Her face is round shaped with high cheekbones with a small nose, small lips, and almond shaped eyes. Tina has short, blonde hair and hazel colored eyes. Her physical traits helps her become approachable as a soccer player, you can tell she plays sports. When I first met her, she either played soccer or softball. Some background information on my interviewee will consist of social identity, identity, ancestry, place of birth, residence, occupation, and education. Tina identifies her social identity as Christina, Tina, T-Bird, and/or Christy. Her ancestry consists of Italian, Polish, and Hungarian.
Since I am good friends with her, she was talking to me about grandpa and grandma on her dad’s side and all the dishes she cooks her. She can be considered to have strong family ties. In the midst of interviewing we became a bit sidetracked that led to talking about her family’s history. Tina is a Catholic, a Republican, and an animal rights enthusiast. We started talking about her childhood next. Tina was born in Addison, Illinois and currently lives in Crystal Lake, IL. When she played sports, moving did not affect her playing sports. Growing up she attended Crystal Lake High School where she played soccer all four years.
She then was recruited to play for the NAIA at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, IL. She is graduating this year with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. Tina is furthering her education for law school at Marquette University in Milwaukee, IL. Her occupation is a full-time student. Tina was an active member on campus and on the field. She belongs to multiple memberships such as the Saint Xavier University Women’s Soccer Team, Lifetime Fitness member, Business Student Association at Saint Xavier University, and PADI Scuba Diver Association.
Being involved in these memberships has shaped Tina and her social life with interacting with many people and it has taught her many skills that will help with her future. Some important experiences that has shaped her and stood out was playing competitive soccer my entire life and playing 4 years in college. She said that she has met so many wonderful people along the way and hopes to keep some close. She also worked hard applying for law school and committing to law school the next 3 years was an important event as well.
Some of the social skills she owns are that she is semi-fluent in Italian, owns strong writing skills, held a cumulative 3. 6 GPA in college, and became a CCAC Academic All-American. With those accomplishments, Tina’s character really speaks out for her. I believe that passion is what motivates me and makes me tick. She says, “in everything I do, I do it 100% with passion and determination. ” Her motivation to get a task done to see someone will go until the very end, which is what I enjoyed about interviewing her and being friends with her. Now, we will move onto the interviewing process.
