What Makes College Athletics Special

Over the course of this semester I’ve had the privilege of attending several Michigan sporting events. At the beginning of October I went to a Men’s Soccer game against Notre Dame, the #6 Ranked team in the country at the time. That game was the first non-football UofM sporting event I attended, and it did not disappoint. Michigan won in exciting fashion after a goal in the final minutes of play gave Michigan the win, 3-2. I also had the pleasure of attending the Men’s Basketball team’s first game this past Monday. That one was a little less thrilling, but it was still fun to see the team out there again in a pre-season win over Wayne State.

In PoliSci 101, we’ve discussed growing competitiveness in sports today, and the controversy over whether college athletes should be paid or not. While I’m still unsure about the issue of paying college athletes, the growing competitiveness in college athletics is clear. For the fans, however, I think the experience of watching college sports is still as fun and special as it always has been.

LeBron’s State of Nature

In the summer of 2010, the whole world was captivated by the news of LeBron James announcing his shock decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that drafted him first overall out of high school, for the Miami Heat. Not only was LeBron the unquestioned leader of a Cavaliers team that through seven years had gone from one of the worst teams in the league to annual title contenders, but Cleveland was also his hometown team. LeBron James was an icon that the state of Ohio could claim as their own, making his subsequent departure all the more shocking.

State of Nature: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Growing up, Survivor was always one of my favorite TV shows to watch. I loved watching ordinary people compete in a setting with much less restrictions than in the real world. Survivor’s motto is “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast”. I feel that Survivor is the perfect modern representation of the state of nature described by Hobbes in The Leviathan. The goal of Survivor is to be the last remaining person in the game. You need to battle the elements and strategize to avoid getting voted out by your fellow tribe mates.

More than just a TV show?

Hobbes proposes his concept of the state of nature, saying that without a governing body the state of society would be in total conflict and chaos. The show Survivor places a group of people in a society without the normal governing body of our society. This is one of the best ways to demonstrate the state of society without our governing laws. Hobbes believes that the state of humanity is inherently violent. Without rules, violence between mankind is natural and inevitable according to Hobbes. It was never a surprise to see physical altercations and sabotage in the game of Survivor. Players would lie, cheat, and steal in order to advance in the game. These would otherwise be against the rules in our modern society. Hobbes believed mankind is inherently selfish and would fight against others in order to survive. In Survivor, the TV game show, people will do whatever they have to move forward in the game and survive the vote at tribal counsel. This mostly came in the form of blindsiding even your closest allies and friends.

Bo Schembechler: A True Machiavellian

Bo Schembechler is a God-like figure at the University of Michigan.

Bo Schembechler was one of the greatest ever to coach in College Football.

When Bo took over at Michigan, the football program was in shambles.  Michigan was coming off of a 50-14 defeat by Ohio State, in which legendary head football coach Woody Hayes opted to run up the score and go for two against Michigan on a late touchdown just to make it to 50 points.  For college football’s all time winningest program, it was flat out embarrassing.   When Bo took over in 1969, he ended up using that move by Woody Hayes as motivation, taping the score 50-14 on each player’s helmet during practice the week before the Ohio State game in 1969, where Michigan upset #1 Ohio State.  He ran one of the toughest conditioning practices in college football at the time, which lead 65 out of 140 players that showed up to camp to quit the team.  Bo then made one of the most legendary moves of his career, putting up a sign in the locker room that read “Those Who Stay Will Be Champions.”  Bo went on to become one of college football’s greatest all time coaches, posting a record of 194-48-5 (The 5 being ties).  He also won or shared thirteen Big Ten Championships, more than fulfilling his promise to his players that they would be champions.  He was inducted into the University of Michigan Hall of Fame, State of Michigan Hall of Fame, Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, and College Football Hall of Fame among numerous other awards and recognitions.

Gender’s Role in Sports

As explained by Professor Mika LaVaque-Manty, in lecture on October 23rd ,2014 about the role of sex and gender in our society, and how these different ideologies and standards put pressure on individuals to represent themselves. He further explained different institutional and value barriers that both men and women face in every sphere of their daily life. How these different categories; sex as biological and gender as social culture impact the sports. These differences bring a struggle between masculinity and femininity, moreover; professional sports add strains of gender differences to this social phenomenon. These gender differences create a challenge for women to be accepted in a male dominant and masculine institution of sports. While learning about these social norms in “Political Science” class, I could see the connection between the theories I learned in my other class “Intro to Women’s Studies”. Both of these classes are completely different but this lecture on October 23rd of Pol. Sci. and Intro to Women’s Studies has direct connection with women in sports. I learned in another class how gender difference in sports encourages or sometimes forces to sexualize women through media.

Trapped Within the ‘Magic Circle’

The Kansas City Royals, as I’m sure many of you know, are a professional baseball team who compete in the American League’s Central Division. At this point, many of you probably realize that the Royals are currently playing the San Francisco Giants in the world series, which could arguably be one of the most important sporting events in the world. Now onto something many of you might not know, videogames, more specifically Clash of Clans almost destroyed the Royals season! So the real questions are, how could seemingly a seemingly innocent game, destroy a professional sports team?

How an accomplished NFL QB Overcame his Disability

Second String McCoy (#12) standing next to starting QB Brandon Weedon (#3) in his time on the Browns

Colt McCoy was a promising QB from the University of Texas drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft to the Cleveland Browns. He had a solid collegiate career and once he got the starting position in Cleveland he showed the world that he may have what it takes to start in the NFL. But then “disaster” struck. He started throwing picks and incompletions and in 2012 he rode the pine behind the recently acquired Brandon Weedon, the new starting quarter back, .

Then he was traded twice in two years to the San Francisco 49ers then to the Washington Redskins this past year. This is where things become interesting.

Barrier

Colt went from being a second string QB on the Browns to a second string QB on the 49ers to a 3RD STRING QB on the Redskins. It was a tough go for Colt. As a usual starter, I would equate being a back up to being a “disabled” player, similar to Mika Lavaque-Manty equating being a woman in sports to being disabled in his book The Playing Fields of Eton. Although controversial, Lavaque-Manty talks about the value barriers and the traditional barriers of women being excluded from higher level sports. Because of NFL teams’ hierarchy, it is very hard, if not close to impossible, for a back up QB to get more than a few snaps a game.

Colt was barred from the starting position for two and a half years before he was finally given the chance to start after the starting QB, Robert Griffin III, was injured and the second string QB, Kirk Cousins, played horribly.

At half, it wasn’t looking so good for the Redskins. They were trailing 10-6 and Kirk Cousins had just committed his 10th and 11th turnovers of the season. Colt came out of the locker room and, with his first pass in the NFL after two years, heaved a 70 yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon. It was magical to say the least. This seemed to be the turning point in Colt’s NFL career so far.

It was great to see such a great collegiate QB finally make some headway in his professional game. After being “disabled” as a back up QB and being barred from starting in in the game he loved because of the value barriers of the teams he had played for, Colt finally overcame his disability to bring his team to a victory over the Titans.

Even though it was great to see him play well again, the real test had just begun. This past sunday, the Redskins were to take on the 6-1 Cowboys in Texas, Colts home state. With his parents and most football fans watching, Colt went to work. The game started off with a field goal from Washington and even though there were some bumps in the road, the Redskins went into the locker room at half time with the 10-7 lead.

Colt started to get his footing a little better in the second half and to top off his 45 yard completion to Desean Jackson, finished the drive by running the ball in for a touchdown. With time running down and Tony Romo, the Cowboys’ starting QB, being injured, who else but Colt’s former teammate, Brandon Weedon, stepped into the game for Dallas. He threw a touchdown to tie it up.

Overtime. Colt drove down the field and the Redskins kicker punched one in for the win.

In his home state, with his parents watching, and his first start in over two years, Colt brought the Redskins to victory against the high powered Dallas Cowboys. Oh, and he has the highest pass completion percentage of any QB in the NFL the past two weeks.What a way to recover from his “disability.”

How Growing Competitiveness is Damaging Youth Sports

Kids playing soccer

The other day I came across this article on Huffingtonpost.com about decreasing participation in youth sport leagues across the country recently. The article pointed to several potential reasons for the decline in numbers of kids playing sports. Risk of injury and growing competitiveness were two of the main reasons the article discussed. That got me thinking about Dunning’s claims in The Dynamics of Modern Sport that we talked about in class and discussion sections. He talked a lot about growing competitiveness in today’s world of sports. At the time I thought about how that related to trends in college and professional sports, but perhaps that movement towards increasing competitiveness is occurring at the youth level as well.

Sportsmanship Lacks on the International Stage

Players line up and congratulate each other by saying “good game” every time they clap the hand of a competitor

After almost every little-league game around the country, no matter the outcome or score, you’ll see the same one thing happen: the kid players line up with their team, and clap hands with the other team. This is a symbolic gesture of sportsmanship.  No matter who won or lost, a certain level of respect always remains for the competition and for the game itself.  And even on the national professional stage, congratulatory remarks are not uncommon.  

Dirty Hands and Sports Culture

Dirty Hands and Sports Culture
We have discussed in class, about Machiavelli’s “The Prince” “The Prince” and the Dirty Hand principle. We discussed in the class how politicians are forced to make decisions even when they know it’s immoral and wrong. While thinking about writing this blog, I was wondering what aspects of the society other than politics we can connect with the concept of the Dirty Hand. I think we can connect every situation with this concept that has an competition and outcome in the end as winner. With the idea of professionalism and expectation to win to get successful, people are in a way forced to adopt the principle of the Dirty Hand and justify their actions so they can win the competition.
For this blog, I am going to focus on the principle of the Dirty Hand and sports because sports is the theme of the class. Moreover, I believe the Dirty Hand principle may be applicable to sports because the motive of each and every player when they compete in an event is to win. It becomes more important to win in the case of super stars of the game. Sports like ice hockey have had a long history of violent fighting which leave some hockey fans disgusted with the game. However, people continue to watch the game and most of the time they even support the violence because may be its an entertainment for them, moreover, they want their home team to win no matter by what means they adopt. The issue of violence and problem of discipline in any game may be considered Dirty Hand because players knowingly use the violence and break the rules of the game in order to hurt the players of the other team so their team can win.