The Sport Ethic

Although everyone is familiar with the word "ethic", sports ethic seems to be a very particular phenomena in which athletes are so committed to their sports ethic that it becomes problematic. Sports ethic is an "exclusive guide for their [athletes] behavior, sport and sport participation" (Hughes & Coakley 307). With Sports ethics there are four major points that go along with these guidelines: 1. sacrifice for the game, 2. seeking distinctions, 3. taking risks, and 4. challenging limits. Although these are positive ethics, its normativity has itself become a way for it evolve behavior. When Hughes and Coakley discuss Positive Deviance, and its relation to Sports Ethics, they are not using deviance as a negative word. It is more so to describe how athletes positively stick to these ethics so much that they care too much for sport to the extent that they begin to neglect their family. Athletes are committed to what they have learned from these ethics and look up to those who are exemplary sportsman. 

Athletes conform to these set of beliefs because of the "thrill" that comes when playing a sport and the desire for a sponsor and other perks that are given to star athletes. There is so much embedded in the hope of being recognized that they stick to these ethics soo strongly. Athletes are major members of our economy. The pressures they face and the "uniqueness" they feel, increases their ego (Hughes & Coakley 313). Hughes and Coakley argue that there is a need for the abandonment of these ideal values and instead add more value of "moral" behaviors.