An article about ethics in sports – Term Paper

The article Personal Foul

An evaluation of the moral status of football by Pam Sailors talks about the profitability and popularity of the American gridiron football. Primarily, the sport has attracted overwhelming support over the years, and large revenues are reported at the university and professional levels. The thesis of the author has three-pronged ethical acceptability of the game at the professional and amateur level that is based objectification of the player, harm to the players, and damage to other players resulting in the conclusion that the sport is morally unacceptable (Sailors 2015).

The author reviews several reports by the National Football League referees on the injuries that take place during the game. The report from almost all the referees concurs the sports result in multiple injuries to the players, which include back pain and brain damage. Similarly, other reports from articles and media suggest that the sports results in a lot of injuries with some leading to deaths and long term injuries (Sailors 2015). The author further acknowledges the games has led to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, because of repeated blows to the head. However, the head collisions during the games are unavoidable but can lead to cascading series of head injuries and neurological events that may result in the strangles of the brain and leaving the player unrecognizable.

Traumatic brain injuries statistics

The author of the article clearly had conducted intensive research on the topic. Firstly, the author clearly uses credible reports from the referees, club report, and the national football league. This information is reliable as the sources can be verified. Moreover, the author uses data from the report from the hospital on the injuries that have been reported. For instance, he states that of the 24 brain injuries of the 25 injuries reported by football players Dr. McKee had reviewed them (Sailors 2015). Further, he goes on to support his information by stating that brain tissues injuries resulted to 128 deaths of the previous player who played the sport a high school, college, and professional level (Sailors 2015). Consequently, he states that the national football league has a vested interest in suppressing the numbers of injuries that occur in the game. This is by the fact that in his article he states that the football league had suggested that it was going to compensate only 28% of the players who had brain trauma injuries from playing the sport.

The use of statistical data in the essay is an excellent move by the author as the validity of the information is unquestionable. Such data can be traced to the source to prove its validity, and it makes the research by the author top notch. This is the kind of information that most writers should use to support their argument as they become more evidential rather than speculative. Most writers use speculative information rather than evidential information, which makes their information and validity of the information questionable. Further, it is important that the authors consider other aspects of NFL that results to the injuries that go unanswered.

Secondly, the author tries as much as possible to uncover the evil that takes place within the organizers and management of the national football league. The game attracts wide coverage from the media and the public, but there is much more information that is left hidden that the management does not want the public to be known. Primarily, the players who are suffering from head injuries are many, and most of them do not have the chance of seeing their 50th birthday. This is alarming considering the number of the people who are joining the game every year. The league generates a lot of revenue every year but does that income get used for the betterment of the match and compensation of the players who are injured in the process. The hospital bill is heavy on the player but with the league declaring that it will only compensate only 23% of the players suffering from brain trauma is a drop in the ocean (Sailors 2015).

The violence in football

Similarly, the author brings out the involvement of the game in culture and criminality. The authors state that the nature of the game emphasizes on violence and aggression with most fight emerging during the sports between the players. Both traits of aggression and violence are linked with masculinity. Such a feature makes the players become more aggressive and are likely to injure their opponents to prove their masculinity to the spectators and WAGS. Moreover, the physical aggression sometimes gets out the sports with some fight even emerging between the players when the game is over. This has resulted to the intense rivalry between the players and clubs with the match turning violent when they lay each other. Further, the loss of empathy in the players lead in the men players devaluing the women, and this sometimes results in difficulties in intimate relationships between the players and their girlfriends or wives. These are some of the aspects that the author brings out correctly in the article.

Additionally, the authors use information from the university and colleges that play an important role in creating the next superstars of the fame. The writers argues that the numbers of graduates has increased over time because people are loving the game and they are willing to join college and university to play the sport. Further, the writer highlights some of the mistakes that the national football league has made over the years. Primarily, the revenues of the league a not used for the best interest of the game. For instance, the article states that only 0.2% of the revenues generated from the sport was used in repairing the stadiums used for the sport. This is not good considering that the government contributed more than 30% of the cost to renovation of the stadiums. The fact that the writer uses his article to express his opinion towards the management of the NFL is good strategy on the writers brings out some of the flaws that the management of the league should work and improve on.

Racism in football

In the representation of his arguments that author has some drawbacks. They include firstly, in the information the authors is biased. The author seems to put forward the plights of the of the male players while the game has players of both genders (Sailors 2015). Consequently, the authors do not indicate the role of the clubs in maintaining the safety of the players. He is mainly concerned with the national football management while the clubs play a vital role in ensuring the treatment of the players after they are injured. Similarly, the author does not recognize the violent acts in other sport such as boxing, soccer, and athletics, which have resulted in the loss of life and significant injuries. For instance, boxing competition is mainly associated with head injuries.

Additionally, the writers in the article bring the issue of racisms between the natives and the black Americans in the game. Racism is one of the bad things that have ruined sportsmanship of other games such as soccer in Europe (Sailors 2015). Moreover, the writer fails to address this issue adequately as people of color are likely to be attacked during and game and be injured more than the white players. Moreover, the author is mainly concerned with the negative aspects of the game and does not represent the positive dimension of the sport in the article. The games has significantly impacted the community and the country on a positive note. Consequently, it provides revenue to the government and salaries to the sportsmen. This show that authors is not neutral and that the information might be questionable regarding credibility.

Reference

Sailors, P. R. (2015). Personal Foul: an evaluation of the moral status of football.T Journal of the Philosophy of Sport,T 42(2), 269-286.