The Sport Ethic

According to the reading by Jay Coakley, sport ethic is a variety of set norms or standards that are used to guide, evaluate ideas, traits and actions for sports. In other words, this is the team motto, the do's and don'ts of the sport. The four dimensions of this concept is:

1.  The dedication to the game: no matter what sports comes first, they hold a priority over everything else in your life. My little sister tore her ligament in her thumb, and both her ACLs. She had the surgeries and the doctors told her to stop playing. She turned down a full ride academic scholarship to a D1 university, for a D3 full ride sport scholarship to play basketball. 
2. Athletes strive for distinction: No matter what you are always competing, whether it is for a starting position, or to beat a previously set record. You have that drive to be better and stop at nothing.
3. Athletes accept risks and play through pain: During the game your eye is on the prize, you always say to yourself after the game I will take care of it, or just keep playing the pain will go away. I know from personal experience, I had a concussion and played in the regional championship game. I should have set this game out, but it was senior year. I took another charge, and blacked out. I woke up in the hospital to the doctor telling me I cannot play aggressive sports anymore, because one more concussion, or bump of my head can result in serious brain damage. Did this stop me? No, I still played until the end of the season. I just made sure to hold my head up when I fell to the ground instead of "flopping".      
4. Athletes accept no obstacles in the pursuit of success in sports: As the pictures below show, Willis Mcgahee  and his knee injury during the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. This is a prime example of this. In college he was hit and had a severe career ending injury to his knee. Through lots of hard work, drive, and dedication to the game, he came back and finished playing football and is now playing in the NFL. To watch the video of this knee injury click the YouTube link below.

http://a.espncdn.com/ncf/bowls02/s/fiesta_mcgaheesurgery.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_wPOfTGegA

Many athletes conform to these norms, because "only when players show they're willing to put themselves on teh line for the sake of their sport will other players recognize and respect them as athletes." Think about it, whenever an injured player is taken out of the game, this is usually the point where the rest of the team realizes their respect for this player.