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VIOLENCE & SPORTS.
Term Paper ID:14086
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Essay Subject:
Connections between social violence in general & violence in sports involving athletes & fans.... More...
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11 Pages / 2475 Words
10 sources, 16 Citations,
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Paper Abstract:
Connections between social violence in general & violence in sports involving athletes & fans.
Paper Introduction:
This research will be discussing the links between violence and sports. While both the athletes and the fans are involved in violent acts, the discussion will emphasize violent behaviors exhibited by the fans of sports events. In particular, links between violence in the larger society and violence in sports will be sought.
That there is much violence in society is something that would be hard to dispute. Saul Bellow, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, has noted in interviews that hundreds of millions of people have been murdered in the twentieth century. Modern man has become accustomed to brutality and savagery. People in modern America complain that violence in many neighborhoods is so common and excessive that they are afraid to go outside of their houses (Bellow, 1982, p. 49-50).
Text of the Paper:
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Also, the verbal aggression practiced by fans at sportingevents can easily turn into physical aggression. Downey says that he had a crumpled Hershey bar wrapperthrown at him by basketball player. In response to that move by Gator fans,Seminole fans rushed onto the field to stop them. than in Britain. It may even be thatcompetition itself acts to overcome inhibitions on violence. People in modern America complain that violence inmany neighborhoods is so common and excessive that they are afraid to gooutside of their houses (Bellow, 1982, p. Saul Bellow, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature,has noted in interviews that hundreds of millions of people have beenmurdered in the twentieth century. Discover 6. It was noted that the gunmen's father hadrecently died and that the gunman had been recently fired from his job. Thegunmen ran his pickup truck through an unguarded golf club gate andthreatened people with a pistol. Halfthe 12, members of Liverpool's largest soccer fan club were unemployedand banded together for protection and defense of their turf. There is a suspicion that belief in anafterlife enables people to passively accept violence. John Irving echoes these sentiments when he notes that humans havealways been a violent species. So far, the U.S.fan violence has been mostly random knifings, fistfights, shootings, and"celebration" riots (Neff, 1985). Thus, peoplepassively accept a violent death in hopes of better in the other world. Modern man has become accustomed tobrutality and savagery. (1985, July 1) "Wogs and Louts" New Republic 193, 13-14. Eventhe visiting fans can become the enemy along with the opposition team.Built-up frustrations and rage can then find focus on "enemy" fans andteams (Neff, 1985). Aggression increases as crowd size increases. In the United States, the Detroit Tigers 1984 WorldSeries victory was celebrated by street mobs that left eighty peopleinjured and one person dead (Editor, 1985, p. That there is much violence in society is something that would behard to dispute. The British soccer rioters were foundto be mainly youth aged 16 to 24. Three hundred fortypeople were injured and hundreds of cars were burned in riots whichoccurred in a crowd of 5 , people at D.C. Fighting erupted in the stands, and hundreds of fans chargedonto the field and attacked the right fielder of the rival team (JeffBurroughs of the Texas Rangers). Inaddition,the modern city has so many avenues of escape, that people are able to livewith illusions and avoid thinking of the violent reality surrounding them(Irving, 1981, p. Bellow singles out the hard core welfare society people in thecities as people living in perpetual chaos and noise, and with whom thereis no reasoning. However, economicclass and racial differences have erupted into violence at cheap and free-admission high school wants in the United States. Alcohol is also a factor, since many of the soccer hooligans drinkall day before attending an evening soccer match. Only two weeks prior to thatsoccer riot, 13 soccer fans in Peking, China, were arrested followinganother soccer riot. 27) An example of the automatic riot is seen after collegefootball games in the United States. A brawl in which 25policemen were sent to the hospital and 8 fans participated ensued. 49-5 ). During the second quarter of thegame, Jim Petersen of the Houston Rockets punched Karl Malone of the UtahJazz, who scored 29 points during the game. Los Angeles Times, I-l+. Gammon, C. News & World Report, 49-5 . Over 23, fansshowed up. As a result, there is helplessness and resentment,which leads to violence. If You Think Payton isPlayful, Just Honk. People tendto focus more on their own daily grind with its hardships, ailments, taxproblems, traffic, and waiting in lines. The gunmen kept thehostages in the golf club pro shop and continually hung up on the Presidentwhile demanding to see him in person. The image of the angered athletedoing battle with the taunting fan in the stand is known only too well, andit blurs the line between fans and athlete to the point where it is hard tosay who is responsible for the violence. 7 -71). (1985, June 1 ) Can It Happen in the U.S.?Sports Illustrated 62,n.23, 27. As a result, Jim Petersen wasejected from the game by officials. Often these items are directed at oppositionplayers. For the male, there is a tendency to develop a love of fighting andto see fighting as a central source of gratificationand meaning in life. Matters Have Gotten Out of Handin a Violent Society. Tiger stadium also switched to low alcoholbeer in an attempt to reduce rowdyism among fans. (1985, March). Scientists are very interested in what it is about sports thatreleases violence in some people. Thegunman had also been drinking near the time of the golf club incident(Fritz, 1983, I-1+). Aggression alsoincreases with hotter weather. With this loss of the deeper human meaning of life, it becomes morepossible for society to send people to extermination camps (since theirlives have no deeper meaning). Violence in society operates within the context ofthisdehumanization of life (Bellow, 1982). The fact that U.S. Typically,no one comes forward to take responsibility for the violence. Pringle, P. Pringle arguesnotions that alcohol or unemployment explain the fans' violence. Fan violence also increaseswhen there is open seating. The hooligans become more attracted to violence when they seethat their violent actions attract more attention in the mediathan the game itself. Thus, the line between hard hittingviolence on the sports field and playful violent acts may be blurred withcertain professional athletes. Pringlenotes that the most violent are from the upper-workingclass, semi-affluentbackgrounds and dress well for the riots. It isnow common to have isolated fights between fans in the stands. Seventy percent of fights occur in the lastfour innings when alcohol has taken effect. (1985, June 1 ). In 1984, fansof the Tottenham Hotspur rioted in Brussels streets with one shootingdeath, scores of broken beer bottles, and 141 arrests. News & World Report, 7 -1.Kagan, J. Some even leave gold-embossedvellum cards on their victims,saying "Nothing Personal -- You Have Been Serviced by the AntiPersonnelFirm." Pringle makes a strong case for xenophobia, notingthat it knows no class barrier and has been part of the rulingclass jingoism called up periodically to get the nation aroused for war.With the deindustrialization of once strong industrial towns, all that isleft of social identity for the lower and middle classes is the generalregional and cultural identity that is symbolized by the soccer team. 8-9). John's in the nation'scapitol. References Bellow, S. 28-29+). According to Bellow, after a day in that jungle mostpeople prefer to expel the violence from their thoughts behind closed doorswith entertainment and security precautions in place. But it seems clear that violence andphysical acts are a part of sports that people who are in proximity of theathletes can not miss feeling or seeing. Science 85, 628-629+. This research will be discussing the links between violence andsports. This is in contrast with scholars fromAristotle to Kant who have held that every person has the ability toexercise rational control over actions (Kagan, 1985, p. Itwas felt that anything could happen when fans were allowed to drink without controls (Neff, 1985). Aggression is worse at night than during theday. Day of Horror and Shame. Gammon likens fan violence in Britain to a battle history of theHundred Years' War. One of the more notable incidents occurred inOctober of 1983 at the Augusta National Golf Club. The violencebecomes a source of identity and fame for the soccer hooligan. Neff, C. Violent actions are a common part of modern society that can be readabout just about any day. While both the athletes and the fans are involved in violent acts,the discussion will emphasize violent behaviors exhibited by the fans ofsports events. Stadium in 1962 when blackEastern High School met all-white Catholic St. Irving, J. There was even a shooting in whatsociologists refer to as the "automatic riot" in which fans riotwhen their team wins. Thus, the terror and violence of society are organized by people insuch a way that it is expected from their lives. SportsIllustrated 62, 2 -35. Other British sociologists look at the social origins of fanviolence in terms of other variables. There isalso fan aggression in North America that must be explained. One need only remember the celebrants outside of Tiger Stadium whenDetroit won the last game of the World Series in 1984. (1983, October 26). Things are now donebrutally at a fast pace in society, without a sense of deeper humanmeaning. Prestige isequated with violence. The otherteam, the opposition, can become the focus for rage and frustration. On Love and Violence. Forexample, in a National Basketball Association game between the HoustonRockets and the Utah Jazz featured a fight between two of the players onthe basketball floor during the game. One anthropological contention is thatmodern sporting events are remnants of lethal competitions of the humanpast that havebecome ritualized. Los Angeles Times, III-6. (1985, August). The pace of life has quickened andpeople have lost the sense of a private sphere. It is alsocommon for fans to throw onto the field items such as batteries, coins,bolts, ice, and dead fish. People simply avoid goingout at night and avoid certain streets(oftenwithout full consciousness that this is what they are doing). Humans Are A Violent Species-- We Always Have Been. Peter Pringle, the Washington correspondent for the Observer ofLondon, writes in the New Republic that there appearsto be two Britains. Alcohol also provides people witha convenient excuse (they can say that they were too drunk to know whatthey were doing). Downey lists manyother indignities, and says that a sports writer eventually develops athick skin that confers an immunity to being used and abused byprofessional sports people. For the price of admission to thesporting event, fans may acquire a feeling of being significant. Fritz, S. Eleven fans were killed in a stampede for seatsat Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium at a 1979 Who concert. 13-14). (1981, October 25). (1986, January 15). But Americansharbor frustrations, drink excessively both before and after games, and areprone to the same mob psychology of losing inhibitions and sense ofresponsibility as part of the crowd or mob. Even Moscow is not immune -- they had a soccer stampedein which 2 fans were killed in 1982 at Lenin Central Stadium. In fact it iscommon to blame the victims for not standing up better to fight -- at leastin Liverpool (Gammon, 1985, p 2 -35). It has been theorized that the Englishsoccer hooligans who killed 38 Italian soccer fans were practicing ultra-violence in response to a culture which keeps a stiff upper lip in denyingviolence. Gunman Seized After Demand to SeeReagan. Still theLiverpool fans that rioted in Brussels in 1985 will be remembered for the38 deaths that they caused. Thus,the rush to the tribalization of soccer as a search for a societal anchorsconferring identity. Add to this mob psychology, in which a person hasanonymity and less responsibility for his actions as part of the mob(Editor, 1985, p. In particular, links between violence in the larger societyand violence in sports will be sought. 8-9). A gunman named CharlesR. Later in the game, during the thirdquarter, Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets also punched theUtah Jazz's Karl Malone. (1982, June 28). Americans maynot be as fanatical as their British counterparts in soccer. Alcohol tends to impairjudgment and inhibit control of impulses. The question of why fans become violent at sportingevents is difficult to answer, and the answers have been many and varied.Riots by soccer fans are especially common, and have been attributed tosocial malaise and mob psychology. Bellow goes on to note that violence in modern society may be linkedto the isolation and powerlessness felt by people living in urban areas.Bellow presents a vision of modern society in which people sit at home interror, read horror stories in the newspapers, and watch violent televisionshows. However, spectator violence is not limited to the British. This type of fan violence led to theclosing off of 11,5 bleacher seats at Tiger stadium in Detroit (the seatswere a favorite of rowdy fans). However, Downeyacknowledges that much of this mayhem may just be part of the playfulpractical joking side of sports. The extent of the violence surrounding sports was vividlyseen on May 29, 1985, when English soccer fans assaulted and killed 38Italian soccer fans at a match in Belgium. Fans may feel like numberone when their team is number one. Downey, M. It is likely that afew people start the violence and then the crowd follows. If this premise is accepted, then the violenceaccompanying sporting spectacles is not so surprising. To Irving, passionate acts of violence out of love orhate are more understandable than much of the political violence of todaythat is ideologically motivated. Utah Hands Houston First Defeat atHome. However, Akeem Olajawon was not even thrown out ofthe game for the punching incident (Hafner, 1986, III-6). A combination of aggression and lack of police action may havecreated the riot. (1986, January 15). After having recently been goosed by thefootball Chicago Bears' Walter Payton, Downey felt that maybe he had neverreally developed an immunity to abuse by athletes. Los Angeles Times' sports writer Mike Downey notes the commonness ofsports violence. Kagan notes that when it comes to violence, most Americans do notbelieve that anyone can be held responsible if the violence is a result ofpassions having grown strong. The hooligans threw stones, jumped fences, andacted like savages with broken bottles, knives and iron bars as weapons.Explanations ranged from boozed up cretins to poor unemployed, macho youthwith nothing but soccer. Los Angeles Times, III-l+.Editor. Fights among rival fans at high schoolbasketball games in Rochester, New York, in 1984 led to banning spectatorsfrom sporting events. U.S. Numerous incidents of violence also show up in the sports pages. Nonetheless, it cannot be ignoredthat both fans and athletes in our society exhibit violent behaviors(Downey, 1986, III-1+). Why are Soccer Fans So Violent? Pringle also speculates that the British riots against foreign fansis part of a general xenophobia. 8-9). In 1965, in Detroit, 8 people were stabbed after a high schoolregional tournament basketball game. The soccerriots are seen as replacement for the blood-lust campaigns of the BritishEmpire in Africa and India. It may be that the fans are actually attending the games and engagingin this violence in a search for vicarious power. Blame is also placed on police who are not doingtheir job. Losing sidestend to become frustrated and retaliate with violence against the winners(Editor, 1985, p. sporting events are expensive and may take placein cities distant from the visiting teams may make riots less common in theU.S. Artis Gilmore, while baseballoutfielder Kirk Gibson would swing his bat within inches of Downey's head.Baseball player Jimmy Piersall actually threatened to give Downey a blackeye if Downey did not write things that Piersall liked. According to Irving, this is frustrated timeand a frustrated society in which there is a great sense of individual andeconomic worthlessness. Fans threw bottlesand rocks and battled with police whileburning and overturning cars. Leaders affirm their position by being more violentthan the followers. Most of these youths were working classmales who lived where fighting was essential to neighborhood survival. An example is the 1982 Florida 13-1 victory over Florida State in Tallahassee, in which the fans ran onto thefield and tore down the goal posts. Sixty-nine percentof fan fights occur at night. With the sacred space around people removed,tentativeness and respect are lost. Harris seized two presidential aides and three other people and heldthem hostage while President Reagan was playing golf. In their place, people are now open andfair game for anything. Hafner, D. The case for alcohol being a factor is made by events such as NickelBeer Night for a Cleveland Indians baseball game in 1974. Irving likens the political terrorist violence soprevalent in society to a genuine illness, though Irving notes that oneonly need read Charles Dickens to know that society in Victorian Englandwas also violent. Much of the violence is expressive in nature, intendedfor onlookers rather than being directed against the victim. Identity as a Brit means keeping foreigners out andintimidating them abroad. The incident marred what was to be apleasant golfing weekend for the President and his cabinet members. This emerges in the racial violence, desire todefeat the Argentines in the Falklands, and in soccer matches (Pringle,1985, p. This automatic riot is referred to as beingas natural as the seventh inning stretch in baseball(Neff, 1985, p. One is inhabited by the soccer hooligans, working classlouts who have periodically gone on rampages since the Crusades. A noted incident was the 1972 Battle ofBarcelona in which Glasgow Ranger fans rioted and the team wassuspended from European competition for one year. A study of professional baseball games indicates that 77% of fanfights in the stands occur in the least expensive seats. U.S.
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