Violence and antisocial behavior in sports--the American way

A pro baseball manager hurls a chair after a game. A pro baseball player waves a bat menacingly in an umpire's face. A number of cyclists, including the world's top cyclists, are banned from the world's biggest race because of doping.

A pro football player is arrested for failing to stop at stop signs, playing very loud music, and hauling marijuana (and a gun, but that may have been legal) around in his car. A pro baseball coach calls a sports writer a "fag."

And a very significant number of players (from many countries) in the World Cup punch, kick, trip, tear the shirts of their opponents, and fake injuries in order to turn the fate of the game around.

These are some sports news items from the month of June, many of them from the last few days. In a nation where a man convicted of rape and multiple vicious assauts is still idolized by sports fans, it is no wonder that some days, you have to look carefully to distinguish the sports page from the crime section of the newspaper.

Multiple reports of both college and pro ballplayers sexually assaulting women, abusing substances and punching and/or threatening other players and fans are everywhere. Again--no surprise. America is a violent country. We love guns, fights, war, punishment, and hitting children. We tolerate violence against women. We torture millions of animals a day at labs and factory farms. We say that a man who loves peace is missing his testicles and that having testicles somehow equals courage.

A man who can run very fast or hit a ball hard or use a gun against an enemy is a "hero," but a man or woman who negotiates peace or produces breathtaking art or tells the truth about governmental shams is either not a household name or is a "traitor."

Sports are part of our lives. We like to play them, watch them and follow them. For many of us, the athletes we enjoy watching are probably not people with whom we would want to have a serious conversation (I know that's true in my case), but we also should not consider it acceptable when they are violent, threatening and lawless.