Ethics in Sport
CHARACTER, COMMUNITY, CONSEQUENCES
LIFE Program
9 October 8, 2012
Richard Lapchick
1950
1952
1960
1961
1978
My journey on the issue of race and sport has been personal and profound. There is something about sport.
Your request to discuss ethics in sport is a loud response to the lack of moral outrage to the seemingly daily reports of cheating -- on exams, in sports and corporate America. The reports have numbed millions of Americans who now seems to accept it as part of our culture. "It's no big deal."
We are saying it is a big deal!
What is a leader? It is a person who Stands Up for Justice and Doesn’t Block its Path
Not the Countless athletes, executives and students seeking an edge, act as if lying, deception and rule-breaking are legitimate competitive strategies.
· Life skills worth honing. It's wrong only if you get caught.
· Behind closed doors, you wonder if there are leaders preparing the next generation for success by
teaching them to cheat instead of trying to stop them.
These are not real leaders. They do not Stand Up for Justice; They are Blocking its Path
In 2006 I wrote a book, New Game Plan for College Sport, in part looks at problems in college sport. In 2003 and 2004, the two years prior to the completion of. Game Plan,
There were
· 2 murders,
· 2 suicides,
· sex scandals in recruiting,
· coaches being fired after unethical behaviors,
· the surrendering of national championships because of NCAA violations, and
· athletics directors and presidents resigning because of scandals.
· Coaches from 17 colleges and universities were charged with an array of offenses including driving under the influence, striking or threatening a player, academic fraud, gambling, selling drugs, carousing with strippers and coeds.
· Student-athletes from 19 colleges and universities were charged with an array of offenses including gambling, assault, sexual assault, soliciting sex, identity theft, burglary, underage drinking, possession of drugs, murder and suicide.
· 50 colleges and universities were listed in the “programs in trouble” section.
· Among them were 28 Division IA schools, privates and publics, religious-affiliated.
· There were athletic powerhouses and there were schools like Lock Haven College, Loras College and the University of the District of Columbia.
· Problems can and do happen anywhere.
bad year for ethics in sports· One of the big stories in the NFL is whether the game is slowly killing its oft-concussed own.
· Penn State
· UCF.
You need to ask the athletes you work with how they want to be remembered.
Favre
Woods
Clemons
Bonds
Paterno
Yet don’t be misled as many in the media and public are.
That is easy and results in a public that reads mostly negative stories about athletes. The list adds up to 444 athletes or, on average, more than three per week.
That certainly can be used to stereotype athletes as lawless or thinking they are above the law. While this number is alarming, we have to give it perspective.
There are more than
· 30,000 professional athletes worldwide,
· 380,000 college student-athletes and
· 750,000 high school athletes in the United States. When we know that, the number 444 shrinks in the face of
· more than one million athletes actively competing. Even if anti-social acts by athletes are underreported by a 10 to one factor, which is highly unlikely, 1,500 athletes in trouble out of a million athletes is a tiny percentage.
The list of athletes who donated money is far too long to discuss.
Marc Pollick is the founder of The Giving Back Fund, which creates and professionally manages charitable foundations for athletes, told me, “ we have seen an explosion of interest in the past few years in athletes wanting to give back. Most understand that their celebrity affords them an opportunity to influence others and to impact their community in positive ways. They also realize that celebrity can be powerfully leveraged for good through cause marketing and other ways to promote causes, raise funds, and draw attention to worthy charities. Athletes are role models, and most are willing to wear this mantle proudly and selflessly in ways that help others.”
But it is the time given by athletes that is the most important. I have been working with athletes as the President of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports for 25 years. We have more than 240 colleges and universities as members. Part of being a member is creating community service programs for your student-athletes who teach conflict resolution skills, how to prevent gender violence, emphasize academic success, and how to avoid drug and alcohol abuse.
In 25 years, participating student-athletes have reached more than 19 million young people while collectively donating more than 21 million hours of service.
Most of the athletes I know or know about are family centered, deeply religious and regularly contribute to the community. If the past is a prologue to the future, we will surely have some athletes who bring on shame but we will also have vastly more athletes who use the power of sport to make this a better world.
If our image is that sports, athletes and coaches are bad, then the Good that sport can do will be diminished.
So many social justice Issues that we work on:
I define a leader as someone who stands up for justice and doesn’t block its path.
There are so many social justice issues you can help our young people navigate.
race: Obama, hate groups, 600, 800, 1,000-
anti-Semitism- our children have Learned how to hate
Violence-
our children are waging war on one another: 12 per day, 400,000 per year
High school drop outs at 40% in urban America: every 26 seconds.
Poverty gap grew
Men’s violence 4.5m battered; 900,000 raped. (8.6per minute)
Teen pregnancy 34%
Drugs
PEDs
Child Abuse: Penn State made it a huge news story:
· A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds; 1 in 10 is reported.
More human slaves than at any time in history;
During this 1 hour session:
138 children dropped out of school
46 high school students victimized by violence
1 child under 16 was killed by a gun
876 children died of a preventable disease (21,000 a day)
46 babies were born to a teenage mother
3,600 children were abused
516 women or girls were battered
104 were raped
114 were enslaved
During this 1 hour session
We can
help young people, to
· Believe in what they cannot see.
· Build a Floor on despair and a roof over their dreams.
· We have got a big job.
· My Journey has been on the issue of race and gender in sport.
· You can have a similar journey in whatever you do.
· We can help our children, community, nation and the world. Depends on us. People in despair … transformed by people and organizations who care. I came today because I know there are people who care here.
There is something about sport.
Miracle of the Huddle... There is something about sport.
Sports can help us heal after tragedy
· 9/11 and the Yankees
· Japan world cup
· Katrina and Ida Johnson
Sports can help us be inspired
· Dad 39 years later
· Eddie Robinson - legacy
Sports can help us change society
· Jackie Robinson
· Billie Jean King
· Anti Muslim feelings: think about Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
· Mandela
Sports can help us get hope…Slim
I think that
· graduation rates,
· life-altering injuries
· the threat of gambling,
· performance enhancing drugs,
· the lack of full implementation of Title IX, and stunningly
· poor records for hiring people of color in important athletic positions are the five worst problems in college sport today.
How concerned should we be? We would be naive and arrogant if we didn’t take note. We would be irresponsible if we don’t attempt to do something about these problems in sport.
However, we should not get carried away about problems of and with athletes.
I speak to you as a passionate academic and activist. My father taught me that, armed with information, we can affect change. Change is what fighting racism and sexism is all about.
There is something about sport.
But we can apply these principles to any part of our society.
We can do more. We can change lives.
You can make them believe in what they cannot see.
South Florida
Robin Roberts
Legacy
If our children have Learned how to hate, teach them how to love
If they are Waging war on one another, we can give them the tools to make peace and forgive each other.
We all have the power to help.