After reading Chapter 6, please look over the following discussion questions and be able to address these questions from a sociology of sport perspective.

1.            One of your classmates in a sociology course on deviance in society decides to do a paper on deviance in sport. He cannot find research on the topic. He comes to you for an explanation. Explain to him why studying deviance in sport presents unique problems and why few people have published studies on the topic.

2.            After reading a news article on pro and college athletes who have been arrested, your father tells you that deviance is out of control in sports today. He also says that if he controlled sports, he would eliminate deviance among athletes by strictly enforcing rules based on the ideals of sport, and that he would punish anyone not following the rules. What conceptual approach to deviance is your father using, and how would you explain to him that his approach has serious weaknesses?

3.            One of your friends who is always talking about the need for a strict “law and order” approach to crime tells you that athletes who take testosterone, anabolic steroids, or growth hormones are no different than heroin addicts who shoot up in the streets. How would you use critical and interactionist theories to explain that there are differences in the dynamics of these two types of drug use, and that these differences must be recognized if drug use in sports is to be controlled?

4.            Many people have learned to think about deviance in absolutist terms: norms represent unchanging ideals, deviance occurs when norms are violated, and those who violate norms must be punished to preserve ideals and the society that is based on them. This is a clear and unambiguous way of thinking about deviance, but people who think about deviance in constructionist terms say that it distorts reality and prevents us from dealing realistically with deviance in society. Using sports as a focus, explain a constructionist approach to deviance and how it helps to see deviance in realistic terms.

5.            Your son cut off the toes of his right foot while cutting your lawn. To enable him to continue playing football, a doctor designs a special shoe with a titanium toe. The shoe allows him to continue playing, and it enables him to become a record-setting place kicker in the state. Before the state championship game, the coach of the opposing team calls your son a cheater, and state authorities rule that your son is ineligible. Is your son deviant, and should he be punished like this?

6.            An officer in your school’s ROTC program gives a speech in which he praises soldiers who risk injury, make sacrifices, put their lives on the line, and sometimes die for their countries. Later in the speech, he condemns the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport and accuses the athletes who use them of lacking character and discipline. As a reporter for your school newspaper, how could you use the material in this chapter to critique the officer’s speech in your article?

7.            After reading the material on deviance based on overconformity, use your own experience (as an athlete, spectator, or friend of an athlete) to identify a form of this deviance in sports. Then explain the origins of the deviance and a course of action a coach might take to control this form of deviance among his/her athletes.

8.            A youth football coach tells your son and his fellow teammates that if they want to play football, they will have to make sacrifices, learn to play with pain and ignore injuries, and generally “pay the price” to be an athlete. You want your son to conform to the norms of sport, but you realize that overconformity to norms could lead to serious trouble. How might overconformity become a problem for your son, and what would you tell your son about following the coach’s advice?

9.            As a reporter for your school newspaper, you are asked to do an investigative story about off-the-field deviance among members of the varsity football team. You review the research on the topic and decide to conduct a study on your campus. What did you learn from past research, and how would you use that research as a basis for designing your own study?

10.            Rates of alcohol use and binge drinking seem to be higher among athletes than among other college students. Athletes claim they are no different than other close-knit groups on campus, including fraternities and sororities. What are the characteristics of these groups that might be related to these forms of deviance? What interventions might effectively control alcohol use and binge drinking?

11.            Your local newspaper publishes a list of male athletes who have been charged with various forms of assault, including sexual assault. One of your friends uses the list to argue that athletes have rates of sexual assault that are unusually high. Using the material in the chapter, respond to this person and discuss the issue of sexual assault among athletes and in society as a whole.

12.            As a new worker in a juvenile treatment center, you have been asked to design a sport-participation program for delinquent adolescents. Your supervisor says all the boys in the program measure high in aggressiveness, and he wants you to organize a “nonaggressive” sport experience for them. You suggest a traditional tae kwon do program, and he asks you why you think a martial art could ever lead to decreases in delinquency rates. How would you defend your suggestion?

13.            Athletes are not the only people in sports who violate norms. Using information from your own experience or from what has occurred recently in sports in your country, community, or on your campus, identify examples of deviance among people in sports other than athletes. Are these forms of deviance new, or have they also existed in the past?

14.            Your local newspaper prints an editorial in which the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is blamed on profit motives, commercial interest, television coverage, and the erosion of traditional values. You decide to write a letter to the editor disagreeing with the editorial. How would your letter read?

15.            The definition of what constitutes drug use in sports and what should be done to control drug use is a controversial topic. “Doping” (i.e., drug use) was first defined by the IOC in 1967, and the first drug tests were administered in 1968. However, it is clear that the use of performance-enhancing drugs has increased since the time of the first tests. Why hasn’t testing been a major deterrent?

16.            You have been appointed the chairperson of a President’s Commission on Drug Use in Sport. In setting the agenda for your committee members, you indicate that the major task will be to critically examine the norms and structure of sport. How would you convince the committee members that this is important to your goal of developing policy recommendations for controlling drug use in sport?

17.            You must have a good grade on a final sociology test to maintain the GPA that you need to keep your scholarship. You take an over-the-counter caffeine supplement so you can study all night. You get an A, but your instructor discovers that your test score was drug-aided. Should your A be turned to an F? Should you be put on academic probation? How is your situation different from the distance runner who was discovered to have used EPO before a race he won at a track meet?

18.            A doctor prescribes a testosterone patch for your father. It enables him to continue working in a highly paid, highly demanding job. His annual performance bonus pays for your college tuition. Using the “patch” enables your father to outperform his competitors in business. His boss discovers this, takes away his bonus, and suspends him from his job for a year. There is no more money for your tuition. What are the similarities and differences between your father and an athlete who uses performance-enhancing substances and is suspended for doing so?

19.            Athletes from an Asian country win many medals in distance events in running and swimming. It is discovered that they use a special herb in their diet, and the herb only grows in the special high-altitude environment in which the Asian runners train. Should the herb be put on the banned-substance list? What are all the issues that need to be considered when answering this question?

20.            After reading Chapter 6, do you think it is possible to have elite sports in which the use of performance-enhancing substances does not occur? If you say yes, then explain how you would maintain a “substance free” environment. If your answer is no, then explain why it is not possible.

21.            You are a high school principal, and some parents have asked your position on drug testing for athletes. What is your position, and how would you justify it? What would be the main objections to your position?

22.           The year is 2020. Your 15-year-old daughter comes to you and says she wants to take a new drug that will help make her a track star in high school. The drug is cheap, it has no known side effects, it is not illegal, and other athletes are taking it. You tell your daughter you don’t want her taking the drug, and she demands an explanation. How do you justify your position?

23.            The athlete who wins the gold medal in the decathlon in the 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing admits that he underwent a form of genetic manipulation to produce high amounts of growth hormone in his own body. Should his medal be taken away? Explain your position regardless of whether it is yes or no.