Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
July 8, 2010
I credited USC’s football coach, Lane Kiffin, with ethical behavior for releasing top recruit Seantrel Henderson from his commitment to play for the Trojans. I praised Kiffin for putting the player’s welfare first.
Jack Marshall pointed out that I had it wrong. His comment:
“But Bob—doesn’t that just encourage student athletes to renege on their commitments, or suggest that the “right thing to do” is allow students to break their agreements while the institution is held to them? Doesn’t sound right or fair to me. What happened to teaching students that a word is a bond, and that living up to a promise sometimes requires sacrifice?”
I stand corrected.
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Tags:commitments, EthicsBob, Jack Marshall, Lane Kiffin, Seantrel Henderson, USC
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
July 8, 2010
USC and its new football coach, Lane Kiffin, deserve big-time credit for ethical behavior. The athletic department, headed by ex-Trojan great Mike Garrett, has for months been reeling from scandal involving former Trojan stars Reggie Bush and O. J. Mayo, and from the sudden departure of coach Pete Carroll.
Carroll’s replacement, Lane Kiffin, soon looked like a miracle worker, assembling a group of high school seniors that ranked among the top recruiting classes in the nation, headed by 6’8, 337 pound Seantrel Henderson of Saint Paul, Minnesota, everybody’s choice as high school player of the year. Sports Illustrated described Henderson as “probably the most polished lineman of the past decade.” He plays left tackle, the position glorified by The Blind Side.
Henderson has now decided he doesn’t want to go to USC. If he transfers to another school, having signed a formal commitment to USC, NCAA rules require him to sit out for a year before becoming eligible to play. Unless the Trojans release him from his commitment. Which is what Kiffin just did.
Here’s a coach putting the good of the player first. Good news for a fan of both ethics and the Trojans.
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Tags:ethics, football, Lane Kiffin, Mike Garrett, NCAA rules, O. J. Mayo, Pete Carroll, player of the year, recruiting, Reggie Bush, Seantrel Henderson, Sports Illustrated, The Blind Side, USC
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 3 Comments »
July 5, 2010
The World Cup has offered a lot of exciting soccer plus some serious controversy. The most controversial incident came in the quarter-final match between Uruguay and Ghana, in the 120th minute (that is, the last minute of overtime).
Ghana had been awarded a free kick, and the Ghana player unleashed a strike toward the net. The Uruguayan goal keeper leaped and missed the ball. It was the game-winning goal, until…Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez stretched his hands up and slapped the ball away.
Suarez’s action violated Law 12 of soccer’s official rules:
A player is sent off if he …denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball (this does not apply to a goalkeeper within his own penalty area)
So Suarez was sent off (i.e., kicked out of the game) and Ghana was awarded a penalty kick—an unchallenged kick from twelve yards from the goal. Penalty kicks are converted to goals about three quarters of the time, but Ghana’s star striker, Asamoah Gyan, hit the crossbar with his kick. The game then proceeded to a shootout (alternating penalty kicks by either side), which Uruguay went on to win, 4-2. Ghana was eliminated from the World Cup, while Uruguay goes on to play the Netherlands in Tuesday’s semi-final match, but without Suarez, who was suspended for one game.
Did Suarez cheat? Not according to his coach (more…)
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Tags:cheating, ethics, football, Ghana, Gyan, hand ball, Law 12, penalty kick, quarter-final, Rajevac, red card, shootout, soccer, Suarez, Tabarez, Uruguay, World Cup
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
June 29, 2010
When you make a mistake the ethical thing to do is to correct it as best you can and take action to prevent a recurrence. Right? Not if you’re the head of FIFA, the world’s soccer federation (football everywhere but in the USA) running the world’s biggest—by far—sporting event.
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa has been beset by ugly and blatant refereeing errors that cost the USA team a win against Slovenia, and disadvantaged England and Mexico in their losses to Germany and Argentina.
The most egregious error was the referee disallowing a clear England goal when Frank Lampard’s shot hit the crossbar and bounced a good yard beyond the goal. Instead of tying Germany, 2-2, a disappointed England team went on to lose, 3-1. Just three hours later, another referee gave Argentina a go-ahead goal on a ball hit by a clearly offside Carlos Tevez (see photo).
When the Tevez play was replayed on the stadium’s giant TV screen, the fans erupted and the Mexican players protested to the referee. But the referee held his indefensible ground.
FIFA’s response? “FIFA will not make any comments on decisions of referees on the field of play.” But they did admit one mistake: close plays are not to be shown on stadium TV screens anymore, because it incites fans and leads to on-field arguments. Yes, the truth often does that.
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Tags:Argentina, Carlos Tevez, cover-up, England, ethics, FIFA, football, Frank Lampard, Germany, Mexico, offside, questionable plays, referee errors, replay, soccer, South Africa, stadium TV, World Cup
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
June 28, 2010
I watched the USA soccer team win its group in the World Cup, then lose to Ghana in the knockout round. Then I turned to my second favorite team, Brazil. I’m part of a World Cup television audience of more than a billion fans, and like most of them I lusted after the official team jerseys—a white USA shirt, perhaps, with number 10, Donovan, on the back, or a brilliant yellow and green Brazil shirt, also with number 10, Kaká. No, I think I like best the red and green number seven jersey of the world’s best player, Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo. Seventy dollars for the home jersey, sixty for the more colorful away version. But I won’t be buying any.
All these official jerseys are made by Nike. Well, actually, Nike doesn’t make any sports gear. The shirts are made by a Nike contractor in Indonesia, whose workers earn $4/day, barely enough to pay rent, transportation, water, and two small bowls a day of rice and vegetables.
Nike long ago took the position that it has no responsibility for the pay or working conditions in the factories that make Nike gear, but over the past ten years it has slowly (more…)
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Tags:Brazil, Business ethics, Christiano Ronaldo, ethics, Indonesia, Jim Keady, Kaká, Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Times, Nike, Nike contractor, Portugal, team jerseys, USA soccer, working conditions, World Cup
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, International, Sports | Leave a Comment »
June 11, 2010
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has imposed harsh penalties on the USC athletic program for disregarding NCAA rules and for permitting a general campus environment that made compliance efforts difficult.
USC is barred from post-season bowl games for two years, is losing ten scholarships a year for three years, is on probation for four years, and is docked 14 victories and probably the 2004 national championship, The bowl ban could be especially costly: the Rose Bowl paid its participating teams $13.5 million each last year.
USC’s sin: allowing super star Reggie Bush and his parents “impermissible benefits in the form of cash, merchandise, an automobile, housing, hotel lodging, and transportation…worth many thousands of dollars,” and allowing basketball star O. J. Mayo to collect “benefits in the form of cash, lodging, merchandise, automobile transportation, meals, airline transportation, and services.”
Pete Carroll, arguably the most successful football coach in America for the past nine years, was “absolutely shocked and disappointed” at the NCAA decision. He protested that “We didn’t know, the University didn’t know” about the Bush violations. Carroll may not have known, but Todd McNair, a USC assistant coach did. And athletic director Mike Garrett made it clear that he didn’t want to hear about the Mayo affair. (more…)
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Tags:2004 national championship, bowl games¸ scholarships, compliance, envy, ethics, integrity, Mike Garrett, NCAA, NCAA sanctions, O. J. Mayo, penalties, Pete Carroll, probation, Reggie Bush, Rose Bowl, Sport, Todd McNair, Trojans, USC assistant coach, USC basketball, USC football
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
May 25, 2010
What a joy it was to watch USC football. The lightning-speed acrobatics of Reggie Bush. The instinctive pursuit of Brian Cushing. The hard hitting of Kevin Ellison. The exuberance of Pete Carroll. The elusiveness of Joe McKnight. So maybe the basketball program was corrupt, what with the underhanded payments to O. J. Mayo, the sneaking out of town by coach Tim Floyd, and the forfeiting of an entire season. Not good, but Trojan football! There was something to believe in.
Yes, there was the repeated taunting, showing off, and poor sportsmanship . There was the rub it in last minute touchdown pass en route to a pasting of UCLA. There was the suspicious ownership of a new car driven by Joe McKnight. But we never believed the charges of illegal payments to Reggie Bush’s parents, charges made by unsavory characters against All-American Reggie.
Now we’re rethinking the Bush situation, now that Brian Cushing, star linebacker for the Trojans before becoming the NFL defensive rookie of the year, was suspended for 2010’s first four games for using banned “performance-enhancing substances.” And now that former Trojan safety Kevin Ellison has been pulled over for speeding in a school zone, then arrested for possession of 100 Vicodin tablets. With so much wrongdoing involving Trojan footballers, why not believe Saint Reggie was corrupt too. Especially with USC’s (more…)
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Tags:Brian Cushing, Cheaters, defensive rookie of the year, illegal payments, Joe McKnight, Kevin Ellison, NFL, O. J. Mayo, performance-enhancing substances. Vicodin, Pete Carroll, poor sportsmanship, Reggie Bush, Tim Floyd, Trojans, UCLA, USC football
Posted in Education, Ethics-general, Sports | 16 Comments »
May 9, 2010
If you’re in business you don’t want to offend your customers. Not even half of them. That’s why you avoid taking a public position on controversial issues. If asked you just say, “I don’t know about that,” or That’s politics, my game is basketball,” or whatever.
So what do you do when you think your state has acted against “our basic principles of equal rights and protection”? If you’re in business in Arizona you keep your mouth shut. Why alienate the 70 percent of Arizonans who favor the state’s new legislation to crack down on illegal immigrants and those who help them or hire them? Or else why alienate the majority of Latinos who despise the new law?
Why? Because you believe in something and you believe it’s your duty to speak up. Robert Sarver, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, had his team wear special jerseys emblazoned with Los Suns for the playoff game on May 5, Cinco De Mayo, the day that Mexican Americans celebrate their Mexican heritage.
Amid the rancor over the new law, Sarver said he was taking the controversial action “to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation.”
Hooray for Sarver and Los Suns.
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Tags:Cinco De Mayo, illegal immigrants, Immigration law, Latinos, Los Suns, Mexican Americans, National Basketball Association, Phoenix Suns, Robert Sarver
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics, Sports, Tolerance, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
April 19, 2010
Sport builds character. So we say, and we stick to the idea even as our favorite slugger takes illegal performance-enhancing drugs and lies about it, and our favorite football coach grins while his players taunt an outmatched opponent. But there are people of character in sport. Today’s ethical sportsman is English golfer Brian Davis, who called a two-stroke penalty on himself that ended his chance to win the Verizon-Heritage golf tournament. Davis’s violation was to barely—imperceptibly to anyone else—nudge a reed that overhung his ball in a sandy hazard. Davis finished second, and earned $411,000 less than Jim Furyk, the winner. There’s an excellent report of the incident in The New York Times.
Golfers tend to downplay their ethical behavior, shrugging it off as part of the game. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were part of all games!
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Tags:Brian Davis, character, Jim Furyk, lying, performance-enhancing drugs, Sport, taunting, The New York Times., Verizon-Heritage tournament
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
March 18, 2010
Seton Hall University is the oldest and largest Catholic university in New Jersey. It also has been a basketball power, on and off, for the past 60 years. This year the Pirates seemed on the verge of returning to the elite of college basketball, posting a 19-13 record, including 9-9 in the Big East Conference, the nation’s toughest.
The return was led by coach Bobby Gonzalez, who posted a 66-59 record over four years. But Gonzalez brought a mixed blessing to Seton Hall: the university often had more reason to be ashamed of the Pirates than to be proud of them. Gonzalez repeatedly clashed with everybody: his players, opposing players, his coaches, opposing coaches, game officials, and his superiors at Seton Hall. Players he recruited were charged with serious crimes.
Tuesday it ended. In the afternoon a player Gonzalez had just kicked off the team was arrested (more…)
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Tags:basketball, behavior, Big East, Bobby Gonzalez, conduct, ethics, Oregon Ducks, Patrick Hobbs, Pirates, Seton Hall, Texas Tech
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
I credited USC’s football coach, Lane Kiffin, with ethical behavior for releasing top recruit Seantrel Henderson from his commitment to play for the Trojans. I praised Kiffin for putting the player’s welfare first.
Ethics Bob 