Fair or No Fair?
A contemplation of sports and sports reporting, particularly the injustices and innovations that might make people say, No Fair!
Is it fair to say NFL fans don’t care if players are using performance enhancing drugs as much as baseball fans do? SPORTSbyBROOKS raises this question in response to a column by MLB.com columnist Peter Gammons. Gammons was talking about fan reaction to Mark McGwire’s incomplete confession to steroid use. Brooks argues that NFL fans care, they just haven’t had scandals at the top of the star charts to react to in the way baseball has. What do you think? Where steroids are concerned, do football fans hold NFL players to the same expectation of fair play as baseball fans?
The segregation of major league baseball represents a tremendous injustice in American culture, yet the signing of Jackie Robinson to the AAA Montreal Royals in 1945 had more than a few people crying foul. The team was locked out of stadiums, power was cut to prevent games from being played, all because a black player was taking the field with white players. His debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 was a signal that Americans would be forced to confront the racism in many aspects of their lives.
Racism is a glaring form of injustice found in sports, and Robinson an iconic image of the courage it takes to change an institution and a nation. But the world of sports is rife with lesser examples of things that make people cry, No Fair! Some of those offending instances are deemed unethical, wrong or plain old cheatin’. Others come to be seen as smart. Performance enhancing drugs? Super-sleek swimsuits? Humongous goalie pads? Gender testing? Age testing?
This semester, J285, a sports reporting class at the University of Montana, will focus on readings and conversations related to ethical decision making in sports and how such controversies are covered by the media. This blog is a part of that conversation. Please join in.
— Nadia White
