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Name: Javier Salas
School: Christopher Columbus HS
Grade: 11th grade/Junior

Violence in Sport

Professional sports are a major part of the American culture. Fans across the country flock faithfully to watch their favorite teams participate in athletic events. Often times sports contain violent actions that are not reprimanded, and often praised. Many sports thrive on violence, and rely on it to maintain a happy fan base. Has this become the fate of our society? Violence occurs in many different facets of sports. The violence begins with the coaches and parents, trickles down to the players, and lastly is violence that occurs within fans. Violence is an ill that must be eradicated from all sports for the well being of everyone involved.

Professional athletes are idols. Kids around the world look up to athletes, and admire their skill, and competitive vigor. Although most athletes are worthy of praise and admiration, some athletes exhibit too much competitive vigor and exert violence in their respective games. This is exemplified in hockey, where it is acceptable to “drop the gloves” and fight against a marked opponent. The repercussions of fighting are insignificant to the player who must spend 5 minutes in the penalty box, but faces no further punishment. To the kids watching the game, fighting is exciting; often times the best fighters are the most popular players on the team. To an immature child, he may think that violence is not that bad. How then do we correct this issue? The answer is simple, but putting it into action may take decades. Players must understand how important they are in the lives of young people, and take measures to impose the right impression of themselves and of their sport.

Coaches and parents play instrumental roles in the formation of children. Often these coaches are fathers away from home. At a young age children are taught to listen to everything their coaches say, and execute their plans to perfection. It is all too common that coaches nowadays, impose on their players the philosophy that “winning is everything”. Coaches will do anything to win, and win big. Children adopt this philosophy, and learn to win at all costs. In the game of life, winning is not everything, and winning at all costs will end up terrible for everyone involved. The problem occurs within households as well; parents want their kids to be the best at everything they do and take measures accordingly. It is not uncommon for parents to fight at their kids games. Kids are learning at a young age they must succeed no matter what, no matter the means.

Lastly, violence is evident within the sports fans. Most teams have thousands of loyal fans who live and die with the success of their teams. Losing is something distant and miserable for fans, but even worse is the feeling of losing to a bitter rival. For decades fans have been engaging in fights with opposing fans. This occurs from the emphasis that is placed on sports. Some people fail to comprehend that sports are intended to be fun games, a release of stress. Fan violence spoils all the principles that a sport stands for.

As stated, violence is something that must be eradicated not only from our society, but from athletic fields. No one benefits from the use of violence in sport. Violence has a chain effect, one act leads to another, and trickles down throughout all ranks in society. I believe that the more rapidly people begin to understand that, the faster we can grow as a community, and as a people. Once we learn to play in unison, we can begin to live in unison.