In America, athletics are put on a pedestal, players and coaches have a lot expected of them. They are to act like perfect role models to youth and adults across the nation. They are put in the public eye and expected to never make a mistake, do charity work, always say the right things, and win games. It is impossible to be perfect and even harder when your life is played out in newspapers, TV Programs, magazines, and social media for the entire world to see. The low profile mistakes these people make like a DUI or making a bad decision during a game/play seem to come and go fast with no one even remembering them a month later but other times a large mistake turns into a scandal that erupts across the nation.
In the year 1919, baseball was one of the most popular sports in the nation. The ball park was a place for families to spend quality time with each other in an appropriate setting of good morals, fair play, and a glorious Saturday afternoon. Players were role models to the kids in the stands who had big dreams they wanted to conquer someday. The 1919 Black Sox scandal diluted the “family friendly, fair play” illusion baseball had. Gamblers who bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win the 1919 World Series approached players of the Chicago White Sox and offered them a great deal of money to throw the series so the gamblers would win the bet. Suspicion arose because the Reds were the underdogs in this series and they were winning while the White Sox were failing to make simple plays and making mistakes left and right on the field. In the article Nexus of Labor and Leisure, Bachin talks about the disappointment of the fans at the team. The story of how the saying “say it ain’t so, Joe” originates from a boy's broken heart from the mistakes of his role models. As players from the White Sox exited the courtroom fans lined in streets in a single file fashion, gloomily looking at the players hoping and looking for a sign saying that the scandal was false and those players did not throw away a historical game because of greed. At this time, professional athletes made little money and often had to pay for the washing of their uniforms and many other things that professional athletic teams today take care of it. The players were acting in a greedy fashion but they also were not paid enough to live a middle income lifestyle.
Today, scandals in professional sports happen almost monthly. One of the biggest that lost the trust of fans, other teams and the rest of the league was the football team New England Patriots Spygate scandal of 2007. Coach Bill Belichick was caught having Patriot staff members video record New York Jets play signals during a season opener at the Meadowlands. They were going to use the videos taken to predict the Jets plays. When this story broke, fans once again, as if it were a flashback to the 1919 Black Sox, were heartbroken by the team they idolized their entire life. This scandal hurt the team because of the penalties enforced by the league on the team and on Coach Bill Belichick himself. The Patriots future players and draft picks and Belichick was fined.
These two sports scandals, nearly ninety years apart are quite similar in the way they affected the nation and shows the amount of trust and pressure we put on athletes and sports personal in America. The 1919 scandal was about money and the one from 2007 was about winning. Two different motives but one largely similar outcome. The fans, especially the young ones, were let down by their idols, the people they look up to show them that they are not quite as pure as everyone perceives athletes and coaches to be. The values of American sports have not changed since the early 1900’s. Families and communities still are brought together by one team as well and forever standing by their side and supporting a team through every scandal, heartbreak, win and loss. The mistakes made by personal in each of these franchises made a large impact for many years. The Black Sox scandal eighty-seven years later is still important in American baseball and people still talk about it. As for the Patriots and Belichick, the franchise is still in the rebuilding process and the scandal still haunts them today. The Patriots have not won the super bowl since Spygate broke and are not expected to make it to the super bowl for a while.
In conclusion, yes there are many differences in sports from the early 20th century to today, but the core values stay the same and they always will. There will always be far too high expectations put on athletes and sports personal pushing some over the edge or where their greed overtakes their morals. Sports also always had and always will have the idea of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is a key characteristics in all great players. No person has perfect sportsmanship no matter how much they show the public how great they are, everyone has a breaking point and it affects everyone that had any connection to them at all.
