Final Reflections

Before I took this class, my perception of US sport was that there is a lot of money involved, there's a lot of ugly things going on that are invisible to the common consumer, and that I knew there was a dark side to sport but never really looked into the actual details of it. As a fan, it can get easy to get washed up in everything about sports and not take a critical look at how mass entertainment can influence our values and the way we think about the world and each other. I've definitely grown in how I understand sport, but almost more so from the athletes in the class themselves. I used to be on a highly athletic path and I could just as easily see myself in their shoes; various circumstances have put me where I'm at and them where they're at, and I have enjoyed seeing how our perspectives have changed and developed over the years since I've left the realm of participating in sport and crossed into the consumer realm.

It's hard to predict the influence this class will have on whether or not I will ask more critical questions concerning sport moving forward. On the one hand, consuming sport and being a sports fan can be a very fun and engaging hobby (or way of life, really) and to acknowledge a lot of the things we talk about can serve to diminish the pleasure one gets from consuming their sport. But not to acknowledge some of these things is to turn a blind eye and be an ignorant sheep, a part of the herd. It comes down to enjoying the sport we love while doing what we can ourselves, as fans, to help these issues find solutions.

I'm not sure of the applicability of skills from this class to my future career. For one, I'm still not entirely sure what I want that career to be, and two, I've taken a couple other sociology classes and the general skills are similar, differing in what they're applied to. But I can say that as a psychology major, if I pursue a career in psych I will definitely be a better informed psychologist having taken this class. Intersectionality is a huge take away for me, from all sociologically-minded classes including this one, and I think it will be an important concept to keep in mind throughout my life, as a young middle-class white male able-bodied person, in assessing to what degree my accomplishments are wholly merited or thanks in part to my social privileges.

Why the 'Mans Mans' Game is an Insult to Men

In the documentary Training Rules, the coaching tactics of Rene Portland are used to illustrate widespread homophobia in women's collegiate sports. Portland's three rules were No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians. An important point the movie notes is that even though Penn State passed non-discrimination policy in 1991, which included discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Portland was allowed to continue her policy of dismissing any player found out to engage in lesbian activity.
Sport is not, at the moment, a safe place for an LGBTQ athlete to occupy. I might guess that there are a small number of coaches and teams in the US who foster a safe environment for the LGBTQ community, but I would also guess these coaches and teams to be in specific leagues/places whose mission is to provide such a safe place. In other words, no school teams, travel teams, pro teams, or any team traditionally consisting of "normal" athletes have tolerant coaches and atmospheres. Although this is shifting--Jason Collins and many other pro players are now openly gay--sport is still not a safe place. Maybe in 20 years, if this paradigm shift continues unhindered, sport will be able to be a safe space for LGBTQ athletes.

Hockey and football still lack any players who have openly come out as gay. The NBA's Jason Collins came out last year, and so did soccer's Robbie Rogers. Michael Sam is an NFL draft prospect who has come out, but no current NFL player has come out. However, several NFL players have been quoted that sexual orientation would pose no threat in NFL locker rooms. It's like race or religion, Clay Mathews of the Packers said. He detailed that it doesn't matter what color a person is, or what religion they follow, or what their sexual orientation is. For him, it's all about the production a player makes on the field; whether or not they actually play well. This is an admirable viewpoint, but can we assume the majority of his fellow NFL players agree?

I think not, because if that was the general sentiment throughout the league we would have already seen a current NFL player come out. Clearly there's still some prejudice and discrimination going on an NFL player still doesn't feel comfortable being the first openly gay footballer and accepting all the attention that comes with it.

The primary strategy I would use in making sport more inclusive isn't as much a strategy but a phenomenon, a paradigm shift, and we are seeing the beginnings of it now--players coming out to the public and feeling comfortable doing it. Since the first straw has broken (Jason Collins), many many more will follow and soon everybody will know just how common gay pro athletes are (and maybe society will realize how common homosexuality might be). An environment of tolerance and inclusiveness must start with the players and extend up through the coaches and into administrations and owners. Eventually, tolerance will be the norm (hopefully).