Violence and sports have been integrated into our society for over 2,000 years. Violence is a huge factor when trying to obtain a large audience and media attention. Sports should police violence, both on and off the field, because fans are looking up to them as role models and positive influences. One might think differently of a team and organization if they weren’t held accountable for their actions. This is the way it should be, but the reality is that a lot of athletes aren’t getting punished for violence off the field. It’s because all sports leagues aren’t guided by the same rules as the criminal justice system. Rules on the field are different from what the athletes do off the field.
It’s inevitable that some sports are violent, especially football, boxing, MMA and UFC. Coaches usually expect players to use violence, or do whatever it takes to win. In some regard, sports has conditioned us to be violent. For example, instant replay, highlights, marketing materials, and news media have celebrated violence in professional football for decades. NFL.com still publishes a collection of illegal hits, including advertisements at the beginning of videos.
Even though violence is accepted in the game of sport, there are set rules established so that competition doesn’t turn into a bloodbath. An example of this is back in 1983, Luis Resto was a boxer, and he removed the lining from his boxing gloves to do more damage to his opponent. The eyes of his opponent, Billy Collins, were so damaged he was forced to retire, and he killed himself in a car accident. Resto’s boxing license was suspended for one year, and he was convicted of assault and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
There are some cases where athletes in sports get punished for being violent on and off the field. An example of this is Mike Tyson’s history with violence. In 1997, Tyson was suspended from boxing after biting Holyfield’s ear in the ring. He was also convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in in prison, 1992, and he also verbally assaulted his opponents.
Although there have been a number of cases resulting in consequences, there are still athletes who commit violence and no action is taken. It happens all the time, especially on college campuses. According to an excerpt in Social Issues in Sport, there was a study done showing that male athletes make up three percent of the population on college campuses. Out of that three percent, 19 percent account for sexual assault and 35 percent account for domestic violence.
An example of this is Jameis Winston. He was accused of rape in 2012. Erica Kinsman filed a lawsuit against Winston and it resulted in him not being charged with a crime. She also tried to file a lawsuit against Florida State because of the university violating Title IX laws regarding to how they handled her case. Florida State investigated the matter, and still didn’t press charges against Winston and decided not to charge him with violation of school conduct.
Even in the professional field, action is taken lightly. For instance, the Ray Rice domestic violence case. It first surfaced when news broke that Rice and his wife were arrested. They were later released on “simple assault charges.” Rice’s attorney described it as a “minor physical altercation.” When the part of the video was released of him dragging his wife out of the elevator, Rice was then suspended for two games by the NFL. Later the full video was released of Rice punching his wife and he was suspended from the NFL. If the video hadn’t come out, would the NFL still have taken the same action? Probably not, considering law enforcement officials sent the tape to an NFL official, and their response was “the video wasn’t available,” and they have never seen the video, to their knowledge, according to the SB Nation website.
Boys can avoid derogatory labels if they are seen as capable of violence. This might lead to why male dominated sports are referred to as violent. Violence is identified as a form of masculinity, and a way to show their dominance. It’s constructed into our social norms since birth that boys and girls are supposed to play certain roles in order to be accepted in society.
Sports leagues policing violence by athletes off the field needs improvement, but we are slowly making progress. A lot of the reason why we’re having a huge break though with athletes being held accountable is social media. It’s one thing to hear an athlete being charged with assault, but another to see it. Our society can show proof of athletes and hold them accountable, or else it can reflect badly on their organization. Ray Rice was a perfect example of that -- once they had proof of Rice punching his wife they terminated him and issued a letter of apology to season ticket holders, fans and sponsors.
Policing violence on the field has had faster growth than violence off the field. Today, helmet-to-helmet collisions are banned and can result in suspensions and fines. There are more rules implemented to protect athletes safety, and improved football gear to prevent less damage to the body.
Sports should police violence, both on and off the field, to create a better society. Younger generations watch this type of behavior and if no actions take place when violent cases are present, the audience observing this will think its okay. A way to solve this is by providing athletes with anger management classes and other ways to let off stress. Athletes need to be held accountable for their actions on and off the field.
