Violence in Sports

For my blog, the main topic to be focused on is the violence in sports and whether or not it is a result of societal problems or climate.

3 Posits
What, if any, is the causal relationship between violence in sports and the culture that a person grows up in?

What, if any, is the causal relationship between poor sportsmanship in sports and lack of a good role model growing up?

What, if any, is the causal relationship between violence in sports and the violence in society?

Bias and Opinions
I think that a major cause of the violence and and poor sportsmanship is a result of the way people grew up. It all depends a lot if there are any good role models to look up to. In some cases, kids are growing up playing sports for fun and their parents are taking it more seriously than they are. There are the parents who forced their kids to play in competitive sports year round with the idea that it will be good for them in the end. Ocassionally, you hear the stories of parents getting into fights and large scale arguments over a game involving kids. This just goes to show that these kids are learning the sport and growing up without the right role models. Another situation is kids who grow up playing on the streets. Out there, the sports are often less structured which can be good at times, but it can also mean no rules as well. Some athletes often resort back to that street mentality when playing which can lead to problematic results when the athlete is participating in a more structured rule-based sport. The values of society can have an effect as well. In Europe for instance, soccer or football as it is known there is immensely popular. Many of the clubs in Europe from the huge teams to even small town third division clubs have their own firm which is essentially a gang. The idea of supporting a team is turned into a reason to get into fights and incite violence. Society values winning, and many times promotes the idea of winning at any cost which leads individuals to behave in a manner that leads to violence and poor sportmanship.