Sports And Drugs Essay Research Paper In free essay sample

Sports And Drugs Essay, Research Paper In twentieth-century America, athleticss became one of the most successful and exciting, but controversial basiss in American society. In the early old ages of the twentieth-century, America cheered both the participants in professional baseball and the college football participants at the state s finest establishments of higher acquisition. As the game of baseball appealed to a greater figure of Americans, its participants became icons. They became function theoretical accounts for immature kids and subjects of societal treatment for Americans of all ages. Baseball built the foundation for what was to go a really profitable industry, the professional athleticss industry. The athleticss industry has therefore grown vastly over the old ages. In this industry, there have been victors and also-rans. The victors, the bulk, have been those who worked difficult on and off the field and devoted many hours of their clip to break their image and their prospective conference s image amongst the populace. Twentieth-century athleticss were dominated by a figure of great professional and recreational jocks, but more significantly they were run by a bulk of sound personalities and quality people. The others, like some of today s jocks, come to the large clip with their billfolds full and some preconceived thought of what a athleticss hero should be they are handed $ 60 million contracts when they leave college. These are the also-rans, those who chose athleticss but chose a different way, the anti-role theoretical account way, and stand for the downward slide or the backward displacement in professional and recreational athleticss. This displacement may come from misbehavior on or off the playing field, a deficiency of community engagement and or a deficiency of ethical motives. These jocks do non advance the growing of athletics, sportsmanship or the sense of teamwork. These jocks take a selfish attack to feature ; they are merely in the game for the money and themselves and non to do a difference. Neither the victor or the loser doctrine on athletics was of all time a requirement to come ining professional athleticss, but like the 1997 Sportsman of the Year Mark McGwire said, you don t drama athleticss believing you are traveling to be a function theoretical account. You play because you are given endowment. And the function theoretical account is something adopted. It comes with the occupation. The birth of professional baseball did non necessitate function theoretical accounts, ball-club proprietors wanted good participants, they wanted participants that would pull fans and win games for their squad so the organisation would turn a profit-just like any other concern. Just as proprietors did non anticipate participants to go instant function theoretical accounts, participants did non anticipate to either, merely like McGwire said. In the early yearss, participants were non needfully their town s heroes or function theoretical account s ; many participants, mere ly like many today, were mean to below mean pupils who on occasion got in problem, but were by and large merely great jocks. It was the development of the industry that gave rise to athleticss figures as function theoretical accounts. Players did non look to go heroes, the media via wireless, newspapers and ulterior telecasting helped make the sometimes-false semblance that these jocks were great people. The media expanded the participants attempts on the field to a greater figure of viewing audiences and hearers than merely the few that attended their games live, therefore the function theoretical account became an development or modernisation of the ( twentieth-century ) professional jock. Sports have given the mean individual the opportunity to promote himself to degrees beyond the celebrity, luck and glamor of film stars, authorities functionaries and affluent concern barons. They have given people who neer had a opportunity to go bookmans and academic winners the opportunity to go affluent every bit good as successful, respectful, function theoretical accounts for kids of all ages. Sports have taken the poorest and unluckiest of persons and given those persons a 2nd opportunity to get down a new life and do a difference for person else. Athletes like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig and Jesse Owens in the 1920 s and 30 s ; Joe Dimaggio, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson in the 1940 s, 50 s and 60 s were heroes for kids in their twenty-four hours. Reporters from local and national documents and wireless Stationss made these jocks out to be fables, work forces who made a life by playing a mindless game. As public icons, these participants were popula ting illustrations of what kids wished to someday go. These kids began to believe in these jocks, they began to see them as illustrations of what to be and what to draw a bead on to be. They saw Babe Ruth as the greatest homerun batter of all-time and imagined all great baseball participants to be unbeatable. These professionals gave hope and encouragement to America s young person to go person person like Jackie Robinson, who opened the door to white-professional baseball for African-Americans across the state. Like yesterday s Robinson and Ruth, participants of today like Mark McGwire and Cal Ripken, Jr. in baseball, Steve Young, Joe Montana and Kurt Warner in football, Grant Hill, Michael Jordan and David Robinson in hoops, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux in hockey, Pete Sampras in tennis and Carl Lewis in path, etc. have built solid public images that enable kids of today to place with and look up to. These positive images have enabled these participants to accumulate great weal th and thrive as people, altruists and jocks. These function theoretical accounts are those who give professional jocks a good name. Those jocks who have inspired and challenged America s young person to work hard are function theoretical accounts. They are people who take advantage of their place in the universe as public figures to heighten the quality of life for those disadvantaged and in demand. Role theoretical accounts are indispensable in athleticss and the athleticss industry. Those jocks who live unselfish lives and work to break the community around them are the victors. They are the 1s that win the favour of the populace and that of corporate America, which paid out more than $ 1 billion amongst 2,000 jocks in 1996, a figure ten times greater than a decennary ago, but more impressive is who earned that endorsement money. Of the $ 203 million earned in indorsements and licencing income by the universe s 40 highest-paid jocks last twelvemonth, $ 175 million went to jocks with sterling reputes. Super nice cats [ Michael ] Jordan, [ Arnold ] Palmer and Shaquille O Neal brought place over $ 70 million outside of their athleticss. The bulk of professional jocks has been and continues to be victors, cats who do non make objectionable stunts to acquire the media s attending, like professional hoops participant Dennis Rodman and former football participant Brian Bosworth. For a piece nevertheless, this bad male child image was a existent moneymaker. In the August 20, 1990 erectile dysfunction ition Forbes magazine declared, Sports today: throw a fit, do a vaulting horse. However, this period of bad is good and good is tiring was to be short lived and since the early 1990 s great jocks have had their indorsements stripped from them because of off the playing field jobs like former NFL great O.J. Simpson, who, old to June 1994, one time had a good cat image, was dropped as a spokesman of Hertz Car Rental because of his double-felony slaying charge ; heavyweight pugilist Mike Tyson who endorsed Pepsi and Kodak before being convicted of crushing his married woman and subsequently jailed for colza ; former NBA star Charles Barkley who openly confessed to the populace in a Nike ad three old ages ago that he is non a function theoretical account ( his indorsement trades have since been cut in half ) and Dallas Cowboy s receiver Michael Irvin who was taken to tribunal because he violated footings in his indorsement contract with Toyota, who paid him $ 120,000 to make commercials and finally be the auto maker $ 400,000 in production costs. FILA, proud patron of Grant Hill, besides encountered a job with another heavyweight pugilist, Riddick Bowe, who was ill-famed for acquiring in battles with the media at imperativeness conferences while dressed in FILA athletic wear ( Randall, 1996 ) . Like the films, no affair how good the bad cats have it in the beginning, the good cats ever win in the terminal. These bad cat jocks were portion of craze selling, harmonizing to David Falk, Michael Jordan s concern director ; intending their Acts of the Apostless like Rodman s cross-dressing and bizarre behaviour and Agassi s longhaired loud Ne expression, which he has since changed, were merely impermanent successes because a batch people and selling bureaus saw nice cats as drilling and non exciting. Piercings, tattoos and bad-boy behaviour was the craze during much of the late 1980 s and early to mid-1990 s. However, crazes, like Agassi s bad male child image, merely last so long, says Falk, and are replaced with the good cat image like that of Pete Sampras. For illustration, Rodman s name may come up 18,300 times on a Lexis-Nexis database hunt compared to approximately 6,000 for former golf-pro Arnold Palmer, but Palmer is still doing $ 15 million in indorsements long after his calling compared to Rodman s $ 2 million ( Randall, 1996 ) . The Numberss prove good cats win in the long tally, like that of baseball participant Cal Ripken, Jr. and tennis participant Pete Sampras. Ripken, in three old ages, increased his indorsements from $ 1 million to $ 6 million and Sampras, in four old ages, increased his indorsements from $ 4 million to $ 8 million. Professionals Tiger Woods ( golf ) and Grant Hill ( hoops ) are besides illustrations of good cats who made it large. Forests entered his first PGA tourney transporting a $ 60 million endorsement trade with Nike and Titlelist and Hill, even after a brief debut to the NBA from dirty participant Bill Laimbeer continued to populate his life as a good cat and was subsequently quoted, I am a function theoretical account. Hill signed a $ 25 million trade with FILA and has helped give rise to FILA s growing in gross revenues, 37 % in 1995 and 40 % in 1996, to $ 750 million and increase in stock monetary value from a blue 15 dollars per portion to 75 as of December 1996 ( Randall, 1996 ) . Other function theoretical account jocks t hat have hit it large with companies have been the San Francisco 49 s signal caller Steve Young, a non-drinker and tobacco user, who made $ 4 million in 1996 ; pro-tennis participant Andre Agassi who one time was tennis s bad male child but has since cooled down and changed his image and his contracts which now pay him $ 13 million opposed to the $ 4.5 million he made before looking on Forbes magazine s screen. As for former jocks with good cat ( individual ) images, the money keeps turn overing in ; Joe Montana and Nolan Ryan both earn about $ 4 million a twelvemonth and former adult females s tennis great and full-time female parent Chris Evert earns about $ 2 million a twelvemonth. Endorsement trades seem to alter as the temper of the state alterations, and all of a sudden, being a nice individual is non boring-its good, says Mark McCormack, president of the athleticss selling elephantine International Management Group. The also-rans in athleticss, like Rodman, have been those in high profile places that have had, but have non taken advantage of the chance to better peoples perceptual experiences of non merely them, but besides the athletics they represent. These jocks are those who do non see the effects of their actions, they are the felons of athletics they steal from themselves and they steal from others who have built trust and religion in them as jocks and as people. The authoritative also-ran in athletics is the deceiver, to be more precise the drug user, the jock who looks for a cutoff because he is non willing to give himself to the difficult work required to be the best and hence demands to happen some option to acquire an advantage, which he finds in public presentation heightening drugs. Athletes who use analgesics, steroids or any signifier of public presentation heightening drug non prescribed for medical grounds is a hypocrite, an athlete looking for the easy manner out and a quicker path to success. They are the 1s who take the pureness out of athletics and make an unreal environment non based on difficult work, but alternatively on scientific discipline, engineering and money. American athleticss have had many great function theoretical accounts: function theoretical accounts that have preached about the dangers of drug usage and force, function theoretical accounts who have raised important sums of money for charities, etc. However, through clip, jocks, even function theoretical accounts, have abused or become addicted to drugs and do so in order to heighten their public presentation, kill the hurting they receive from their athletics or for societal grounds. This includes some of the finest jocks of the twentieth-century, whom of which have fallen into the deep, dark hole known as dependence. Addiction is non merely a conflict it is a war, it is a war that many jocks have waged on themselves. Drugs take control of people s lives, some of them are lead oning and neer look to be a menace, but to the addicted they seem to be the reply, the solution, and many times your best friend. Some of these drugs come in what we seem to believe are guiltless signifiers because we see them mundane. These are the unsafe drugs, these are the 1s we take for granted and because they are legal, we think they are safe, why else would the authorities let us to buy them? Alcohol, a sedative, is likely the most camouflaged of them all. Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, arguably one of the greatest baseball participants of all-time, was what many today would name, a liquor hound. Baseball s Denny McClain, the last thirty-game victor, Billy Martin, former Yankee Manager and teammate of Mantle s, Dwight Gooden, the Mets fliping phenom of the 1980 s and Golf s John Daly all great jocks and athleticss people, but besides all alkies.