Adelphi's Sports Leadership Institute:
Returning Altruism to Sports

by Don McPherson

"Do you think sports is good for kids?'
Without much thought, each member of the class raises their hands. The class is a graduate seminar on sports and violence. Most of the students plan professions as teachers and coaches. They are certain that sports are good for children.

They are stunned, when I assert my belief that sports have become a cancer in American Culture.

Adding to their disbelief of my assertion, is that I stand before them as the beneficiary of successful sports career. Football provided a scholarship to Syracuse University, award-winning success on the field, celebrity status and a seven-year professional career in professional football. I used my status as an athlete to reach out to millions of young people in community service and educational programs designed to use sport to help make a better society. As founder and Executive Director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University, why would I believe that sport is a cancer in our society?

The Sports Leadership Institute was created by Adelphi University, in summer of 2002, in collaboration with Athletes Helping Athletes, Inc. (AHA). For more than 20 years AHA, also housed at AU, has implemented the Student Athlete Leadership Team program, training high school athletes to serve as mentors and peer leaders on issues ranging from bullying to substance abuse prevention. The underlying premise of our programs is that sport is a powerful teaching tool and provides innumerable teaching moments to address important social concerns.

In recent years, however, the role of sports in our society has become increasingly distorted. The altruistic qualities of teamwork, sacrifice and dedication have given way to collective bargaining agreements, endorsement deals and scandals involving the worst of (anti) social behavior. The altruism has been lost, on all levels.

The most glaring examples are at the professional level. Currently, criminal trials involve two of the National Basketball Association's brightest young stars Kobe Bryant (rape) and former player, turned media star Jason Williams (murder). Major League Baseball is in the midst of a steroid investigation that questions the integrity of its home run champions of the past several years and dozens of prominent players.

On the college level, the University of Colorado is the focal point of what many are calling a "recruiting scandal." However, the reality of Colorado's problem doesn't lay in recruiting, but the culture that has enabled football players to rape several (10 and counting) female students in the past seven years. And, as we conclude another basketball tournament, AKA "March Madness," the NCAA continues to serve as the governing body of college athletics designed to protect student athletes. Oh, by the way, the NCAA is also the negotiating arm of college athletics that signed the eight billion dollar deal with CBS television to air the tournament. In return student athletes receive a free education. The problem here is that more than 55% of the student athletes involved in this year's tournament will not graduate; a fact that has not changed or been addressed despite continue claims of exploitation.

On the high school level, Long Islanders are far too familiar with the case of three boys being sodomized by their teammates at Mepham High School in what people continue to call a "hazing" ritual. The fact is, these boys were not being "hazed," they were being sodomized. However, this difficult word and our inability to confront the "football machine" have distracted us from dealing with the reality of the problem. As a result, the school district is being sued and the coaches are suing the school district. Meanwhile, what has outraged most people is not the incident, but the silence about it.

On the youth sports level we continue to see the growing problem facing sport in American society. Seventy percent of children participating in youth sports drop out by the age of thirteen. The primary reason, 'it's no longer fun.' The primary result is that young people are not cultivating life long habits of physical activity and sports participation. With an increasingly alarming obesity problem, particularly among our youth, this is an important problem to be addressed. The fact that "play" and "games" are no longer fun for children should cause alarm.

Young people are not learning citizenship, teamwork, loyalty and sacrifice through sports. They have adopted the winner-take-all mentality and leave their social and legal transgressions to their lawyers. In each of these cases, there are deeper issues at the core, sexual violence, gambling, drug use and a lack of parental (and adult) responsibility and accountability.

I'm often asked about the connection between sexual violence and sport. My response is simple, early in life most boys hear the "insult" 'you throw like a girl' or something of this nature. I call it the language of sport as it attacks ones masculinity in an effort inspire or degrade. The reality is that it teaches and perpetuates sexist and misogynistic attitudes and until it's addressed, sport will continue to be a breeding ground for narrow masculinity and misogyny.

The Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University was created to return altruism to sport by proactively teaching the altruistic qualities we assume are inherent in participation. High profile cases and national statistics are not enough to change the ways in which we take these things for granted. Comprehensive educational programs and public education campaigns are necessary to address a society living the illusion and lie of sport.

Kobe Bryant's image was sold to us by Nike and the NBA. Why don't we hear from these entities now to vouch for his credibility? And, as young boys wear his jersey, how do parents explain that their hero is facing charges of rape, when you they haven't even told their son about puberty?

The question is not whether sports are good for children, but rather, what are we teaching them through our obsessive and preoccupied sports culture.

[Editor: To find out more about the Sports Leadership Institute, explore their website below.]

http://sli.adelphi.edu/