Ethics in a Pressure Cooker

Why There Are So Many Ethical Dilemmas in Professional Sports

Ethics Resource Center 2003
Jerry Brown

When I started researching this article some months ago, my premise was that ethical dilemmas in professional sports are the product of player avarice and arrogance combined with a fast lifestyle. It seemed to me that the situation could be set right by raising awareness and setting limits on demands made by spoiled elitists living off their physical prowess.

I could not have been more wrong.

Unethical conduct in sports is as much a systemic problem as it is one fed by individual greed, and athletes don't deserve to shoulder all the blame for ethical miscues.

The Sports Operating Environment

The world of sports is not confined to a plane nor are its relationships linear. The sports universe is more like an onion with multiple layers, some more visible than others.

Fans see professional sports as teams, players, stadiums or arenas, records, uniforms and, often, sources of community pride or embarrassment. Sports are diversions from the mundane and provide excitement and enjoyment as well as occasional anguish. Fans are proud of their teams and the players and coaches who contribute to their success. They spend willingly to attend games, be swept up in a swirl of excitement and put aside daily worries for awhile.

To athletes, sports mean personal accomplishment, lucrative employment and a potential source of pain. Professional sports can open doors to endorsements and commercials and act as stepping stones to meaningful careers when their athletic careers come to a close due to age or injury. Being part of sports is much like being anointed - fans admire you; you are a role model for kids whether you want to be or not; you are elite. Athletes are also under pressure to perform at peak levels and to "play through the pain". Careers may be brief and departure from the limelight very sudden.

Coaches, trainers and staff see sports as an occupation, and for some, as a source of great wealth and fame -- or notoriety. Coaches seem to be habitually overworked. Trainers are challenged to help athletes perform beyond their normal limits. When the challenges are most intense, some players try to extend themselves and their playing shelf-lives by turning to human growth hormones, steroids, food supplements or other performance enhancers.

Team owners view their teams as investments, toys and doors that open the way to the real money -- stadium or arena naming rights, endorsements, private box sales, television revenues and merchandising. They may see players as avaricious or franchise makers, and frequently see the same players as both. The media reports frequent disagreements between owners, general managers, coaches, players and agents over compensation, perks, expenditures, trades, playing time and image.

Officials and league or association executives look at sports as regulatory and administrative challenges. They view themselves as natural antagonists of team owners, who ironically enough are often deeply involved in league or association leadership. In the case of officials, they feel unappreciated by players and vilified by coaches and team owners alike.

Challenges Facing All Layers of the Sports Onion

The sports universe, or onion, if you will, brings all of these personalities together in a culture characterized by:

Pressure to succeed at any cost

It is no longer enough to play well. Players, coaches, trainers, and staff all stake their futures on team or individual performance. The pressure to succeed at any cost opens the door to compromise of ethical standards.

The lure of tremendous fortunes

Young players, many just out of high school or college, find themselves negotiating contracts that may include seven-figure signing bonuses, cars, condos, unimaginable perks and opportunities. Some players are ill equipped to handle new-found wealth and luxury and may not have ready access to trustworthy individuals who can help them. Wealth absent maturity or wise counsel can lead to the compromise of ethical standards.

High expectations coupled with stinging criticism for failure

Fans, coaches, owners and others demand 100% dedication from athletes. Fans, owners and others apply the same standards to coaches. Unrealistic expectations without recourse may cause desperate individuals to compromise ethical standards in order to be perceived as successful.

Ethical problems in sports governing bodies

The compromise of ethical standards is not limited to teams and players. The recent scandal involving the US Olympics Committee illustrates that governing bodies may also put aside their ethical standards with disastrous results.

So, What is the Solution?

Sadly, there is no easy fix. Ethical compromises in sports will continue as long as fans tolerate them. Scandals and shortcomings are tolerated as part of the way sports "work." Raising awareness would mean that fans first have to admit there is a problem and then have to demand that the problem be fixed.

Fans need to pay as much attention to their teams' ethical performance as they do to its win/loss record. It is far easier to have pride in a team composed of young heroes and heroines than it is to dismiss the problems caused by teams of young hooligans. Fans may be perceived to be at the bottom of the sports food chain, but they are actually at the top. If fans voice their disgust at ethical lapses, individuals who play sports, manage players, own teams, and regulate the industry will begin to see the connection between ethical performance and financial success. Fans hold the key and can enforce ethical standards by voting with their wallets.

Players need to reevaluate the pressures to which they allow themselves to be subjected. They need place their emotional and physical well-being above their desire to play. If the choice comes down to catastrophic injury, addiction to painkillers or performance enhancers and early disability or death, the choice should be obvious. Athletes should not be excoriated if they choose a healthy life over the alternative. The same is true of ethics and sportsmanship. Choosing to compromise ethical standards for the sake of the game is not a game. It is setting aside character and honor for the sake of money or fame.

Coaches must commit themselves to respecting players as individuals and accept responsibility for protecting players from the pressure to perform without regard to their safety and well-being. Coaching is custodial work as much as it is developmental work. Part of being a good coach is developing players with strong character who can make sound independent choices. Coaches need to establish relationships with players based on mutual trust and respect and ought to help players develop the maturity to manage themselves and their careers wisely and ethically.

Officials should accept the responsibility for calling games fairly and impartially without personal bias. They need to step up and enforce rules that protect players from each other and themselves. In view of recent attacks on officials by fans, they also need to recognize that the work they do evokes extreme emotion, which may be exacerbated by alcohol or drug consumption. To protect themselves as well as players, they need to maintain a reputation for ethical performance at all times.

Team owners and managers should examine the motivation for some of their decisions. As do all participants in the sports universe, they need to remember that winning is important, but it can never replace honor.