Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
May 30, 2011
Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, arguably the top coach in college football with eight BCS bowl appearances in ten years and a national championship, resigned today. Tressel has been caught lying to the OSU administration and playing players he knew to be ineligible.
In the midst of an NCAA investigation into OSU athletics, and with several allegations of higher-ups condoning the rule-breaking, the university is trying to pin the entire rap on Tressel and avoid penalties against the Buckeyes’ top-rated football program. The school used the old trick of sugar-coating public relations pros by releasing the news on a holiday weekend, hoping that fewer people would notice.
A year ago the NCAA levied harsh penalties against USC for what appears to be a much lesser offense involving one assistant coach and one player, Reggie Bush. The OSU case involves the head coach, the director of compliance, and twenty-eight players over nine years. It may also involve the athletic director and the university President. Stay tuned for more transgressions and to compare penalties.
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Tags:Buckeyes, cheating, ethics, Jim Tressel, NCAA, NCAA penalties, Ohio State football, Reggie Bush, USC
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2011
Basketball superstar LeBron James broke new ground last week with an original kind of non-apology. Let’s call it a phantom apology, apologizing for a non-offense instead of for the real offense.
James left the Cleveland Cavaliers after last season to join two other superstars on the Miami Heat. No problem with that: he was a free agent. But he did it in a particularly ugly way that was gratuitously hurtful to his fans in Cleveland. The hurt damaged his image with fans everywhere.
Last Wednesday James led his new team to a victory in the quarter-final series of the playoffs over the Boston Celtics, the team that had knocked out his old team (the Cavaliers) last year. In the flush of victory he tried to repair his image. But a real apology would have admitted he did wrong. So James came up with the phantom apology.
Instead of apologizing for the ugly hurt he had caused, he semi-apologized for jumping to Miami—an act that was entirely honorable and ethical. Semi-, because he went on to explain that his move was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to get past the Celtics and compete for the championship, His entire statement is here.
So James gets credit for apologizing without accepting blame for what he did.
But no credit from EthicsBob: that’s not a real apology.
A real apology is (more…)
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Tags:apology, basketball, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, ethics, LeBron James, Miami Heat, n-word, non-apology, phantom apology, real apology
Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
May 5, 2011
In an era of selfish, insensitive, whiny, overpaid and unethical athletes, it’s refreshing to recognize Drew Brees as one who lives up to the highest ethical standards. Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, has taken on a leading role in the NFL’s labor dispute. When asked why he has been out front on such a divisive issue, his answer is right out of the ethics book: “If not me, who?”
Brees led the Saints to a Super Bowl win in 2010, and wants another. But the league has locked out the players: no use of team facilities, no coaching, no pay. Brees stepped up. “If not me, who? If not now, when?” According to this article in LarryBrownSports.com*, Brees has organized team practices and is footing most of the cost personally—he hired coaches from Tulane to help out, paid for insurance for the players, and carried in the Gatorade.
Lots of millionaire athletes could have done this. Brees did.
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*This site is an excellent source of information and gossip about all sport.
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Tags:Drew Brees, ethics, If not me, LarryBrownSports.com, New Orleans Saints, NFL labor dispute, NFL lockout, pro football, Tulane, who?
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 3 Comments »
April 11, 2011
We usually look to success and experience for inspiration, but once in a rare while we can be inspired by failure and inexperience. If character is sometimes defined by how we react to failure, then 21-year old Rory McIlroy is an inspiration, a man of real character.
McIlroy was on the verge of claiming one of sport’s greatest awards, the green jacket and the $1,440,000 that goes to the winner of golf’s Masters tournament. He had a four-stroke lead going into the last round, and a one-stroke lead with nine holes to play. Then disaster: a triple-bogey 7 on 10, a bogey 5 on 11, and a double-bogey 5 on 12 and McIlroy was out of contention, finishing with a score of 80 and a tie for 15th place.
Walking off the 18th green he was met by a sportscaster with a microphone. McIlroy didn’t run from the mike.
CBS reporter Peter Kostis asked what happened. McIlroy didn’t whine, didn’t complain, didn’t offer an excuse.
“I thought I hung in pretty well in the front nine, I was leading the tournament going into the back nine. Just hit a poor tee shot on 10 and I just sort of unraveled from there. Just sort of lost it 10, 11, 12, and couldn’t really get it back. It’s one of those things, I’m very disappointed at the minute and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it. I’ve got to take the positives, and the positives are I led this golf tournament for 63 holes. I’ll have plenty more chances, I know that. It’s very disappointing what happened today and hopefully it will build a little bit of character in me as well.”
McIlroy already has more than a little bit of character.
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Tags:accountability, character, ethics, failure, golf, grace, inexperience, inspiration, Masters, Peter Kostis, Rory McIlroy, sportsmanship, triple-bogey
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 3 Comments »
March 31, 2011
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The city of Anaheim, California isn’t easy to fool twice. In 1996 the city and the then-California Angels agreed to a long-term lease for Anaheim Stadium. The city agreed to spend $100 million to renovate the stadium, and the team agreed to change its name to include the word ‘Anaheim.’ Years later a new owner, Arte Moreno, weaseled out of the deal by changing the team’s name from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—or, universally known as the LA Angels. The city sued to reverse the change, but lost in court.
Now the Sacramento Kings NBA team is considering a move to Anaheim, and the Anaheim city council unanimously approved a $75 million bond deal Tuesday night to entice the Kings to move. The team would be known as the Anaheim Royals (there already is a Los Angeles Kings hockey team.) No Los Angeles Royals of Anaheim: the city won’t be fooled twice. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait said that the team name would have “Anaheim as its first word and sole geographic identifier.”
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Tags:Anaheim, Anaheim Angels, Anaheim Royals, Anaheim Stadium, Arte Moreno, California Angels, ethics, LA Angels, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Sacramento Kings, Tom Tait
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
March 2, 2011
Brigham Young is a regional basketball power, having gotten to the NCAA tournament 25 times, even though they never got past the round of eight. But this was to be their year: the Cougars are 27-2, rated third in the nation and in line for a top seed in March madness.
Their star is all-American guard Jimmer Fredette, who is supported by a solid group led by 6-foot-9 forward Brandon Davies, who averages 11 points and 6 rebounds a game. But Davies was dismissed from the Cougars team yesterday for an honor code violation. To the university the honor code is more important than a national championship.
Davies transgression, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, was having premarital sex with his girlfriend. That wouldn’t be a violation in most places, but BYU has its code and it takes its code seriously. BYU gets a Chip Kelly award for putting its code above winning.
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*Chip Kelly, Oregon Ducks football coach, suspended his star running back for poor sportsmanship right after Kelly’s first game as Ducks coach
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Tags:basketball, Brandon Davies, Brigham Young University, BYU, Chip Kelly, Chip Kelly award, Cougars, ethics, honor code, Jimmer Fredette, March madness, national championship, NCAA tournament, premarital sex, Salt Lake Tribune
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2011
If not me, who? If not now, when? That’s one of the ethical guides laid down by Hillel, the great Jewish scholar of the first century B.C.E. His other guide is his expression of the “Golden Rule.”
Hillel’s guidelines are aspirations of ethical people in all cultures, but they are aspired to more than adhered to.
But when Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter learned that freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan would likely die without a kidney transplant, and that Jordan’s family didn’t qualify as a compatible match, Walter got tested and found out last week that he was a match: his kidney might work for Jordan.
Yesterday at the Emory Transplant Center in Atlanta, Walter had one of his kidneys removed and donated to Jordan.
Both are recuperating nicely. Walter will be running in two months, and the docs have told Jordan that he could start to swing a bat in six to eight weeks.
Everybody thinks it was a big deal, but Walter demurs.
“I would do anything to help any one of my players and any one of my family members. Anything that I could do in my power that I could do (more…)
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Tags:baseball coach, Emory Transplant Center, ethics, Golden Rule, Hillel, Kevin Jordan, kidney donor, kidney transplant, Tom Walter, Wake Forest
Posted in Ethics-general, Health care, Sports | 1 Comment »
January 6, 2011
Auburn’s football team is rated #1 in the nation as it prepares for the national championship game Monday against the Oregon Ducks. Academically its team is rated #85 out of 120. It was rated #4 until a sociology professor spoke truth to power.
According to an article in today’s New York Times, one day in 2006 professor Jim Gundlach saw on TV that an academic player of the week was a sociology major. Gundlach had never had him in class, and two other sociology professors said they hadn’t either.
Gundlach smelled a rat in the football world, and dug around to expose widespread academic fraud in the Auburn football program. The Times broke the story back then, and Auburn, under pressure from the media and from the NCAA cleaned up its act—some—to publish honest academic ratings.
Gundlach didn’t get hero status at Auburn for correcting the football program: he was hounded out of the university by hate mail and calls assailing him for hurting the university. Gundlach doesn’t see it that way. The Times quotes him this way: “The things that I did in the process of going out was one of the best things I’ve ever done for Auburn,” (more…)
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Tags:academic fraud, academic ratings, Auburn football, hate mail, Jim Gundlach, national championship game, NCAA, New York Times, Oregon Ducks, Sam Goldwyn award, sociology major, Tiger football
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
December 29, 2010
Leadership isn’t saying what’s popular, it’s following one’s conviction. Barack Obama believes that our society needs to do a lot more to help felons reenter society productively after serving their prison time. He took this position as a Presidential candidate in 2008, and this week commended Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Michael Vick a second chance.
Vick was college football’s player of the year in 2000, and was the first player chosen in the NFL’s 2001 draft. He got out of federal prison fifteen months ago after serving 23 months for felony dogfighting and cruelty, then was hired by the Eagles as a backup quarterback.
His hiring was controversial. His crimes were especially vile, and many dog-lovers will never be able to accept that he should ever have a second chance.
Into this stepped President Obama to openly praise Lurie, who recalled their conversation:
“He said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance. It’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.’ And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”
Illustrative of the opposition to Vick’s hiring was this opinion expressed today by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson:
“I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a cruel, heartless way. Personally, I think he should’ve been executed (more…)
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Tags:dog-lovers, dogfighting, ethics, Fox News, Jeffrey Lurie, level playing field, Michael Vick, Obama, Philadelphia Eagles, Presidential leadership, second chance, Tucker Carlson
Posted in Media, Politics, Sports, Tolerance | 2 Comments »
November 29, 2010
Real fans take football seriously. Some fans used to wait outside their team’s dressing room and beat up their field goal kicker after he missed an important kick. Fans of the coulda-woulda-shoulda Boise State Broncos are different. They know that football is a game and college players are college kids.
Saturday Boise was nine yards away from its first major bowl game—a certain Rose Bowl bid, and possibly a chance to play instead for the national championship. It was Boise 31-Nevada 31 with one second left, and reliable kicker Kyle Brotzman trotted on to kick a game winner. An easy “chip shot” like a thousand he had made. But he missed. Overtime.
The Broncos’ first possession fizzled at the Nevada 12 yard line. Another chip shot. Kyle missed again. Nevada promptly moved into position and their kicker kicked the winning field goal. Boise’s dreams were dead.
But Bronco fans didn’t beat up Brotzman: they came together with a display of love for their hero-turned-goat. As of this minute, less than 36 hours after the fiasco, a Facebook page called The Bronco Nation Loves Kyle Brotzman has over 18,000 fans.
Boise fans have earned a mythical Marv Levy award, named for the Hall of Famer and former coach of the Buffalo Bills (more…)
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Tags:Boise State Broncos, Boise State fans, ethics, Facebook, field goal kicker, Kyle Brotzman, Marv Levy http://larrybrownsports.com, national championship, Nevada, Rose Bowl, The Bronco Nation Loves Kyle Brotzman
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 1 Comment »
Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, arguably the top coach in college football with eight BCS bowl appearances in ten years and a national championship, resigned today. Tressel has been caught lying to the OSU administration and playing players he knew to be ineligible.
Ethics Bob 