Reading the sports news can be demoralizing and make you question the integrity of our game. In the past few weeks alone, there have been reports of doping, racism, sexism, homophobia, sexual assault scandals, human trafficking related to sports, more questions about concussions and CTE outside of football, more scandals in FIFA, murder, and more.
I teach a course on ethics in sport for our graduate students in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida. We ground our students with a strong business curriculum but also want them to value the importance of ethics and diversity.
This course is designed to provide a broad understanding of the moral and ethical issues in sport, including a special focus on the responsibility of governing bodies and decision-makers in sport including faculty, coaches, athletic directors, presidents, league commissioners, the NCAA and the media. Issues also include equity for women and people of color, academic abuses of student athletes at the high school and college level, illegal recruitment of student athletes, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, agents and gambling. We discuss the relationship between ethics and planning, organizing and evaluating; who is ultimately responsible for the ethical behavior of an organization; and the consequences of ethical misconduct. We want to prepare our graduates with the knowledge of how to deal with ethical and moral issues as leaders.
Here is a recent short list of issues in May alone.
Performance-enhancing drugs remained in the news:
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The Russian doping scandal kept expanding with implications for the Rio Games.
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MLB suspended the Royals’ Raul Mondesi for 50 games for drug violations.
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23 more athletes reportedly may miss Rio because they are suspected of doping.
Some of our institutions of higher education failed to inspire anyone with high ideals:
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A study was published saying big-time college sports hurts academics but refuses to take the blame.
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More stories about the sexual assault scandal at Baylor, where football fame and glory ruled versus the ethics and morals of the Christian university previously held in highest esteem. It finally led to the fall of the president, football coach and athletic director.
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Rutgers University settled a lawsuit brought by a former basketball player because of the abusive behavior of a former coach.
There were sports stories related to human trafficking:
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State and federal officials saw an increase in human trafficking cases ahead of the Indy 500.
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Two people were arrested on charges of promotion of human trafficking of a 17-year-old girl at the Kentucky Derby.
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Arrests of two people and an investigation of alleged human trafficking of high school athletes in Alamance County, N.C.
Regarding diversity and inclusion:
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MLB was down to two managers of color and no Latino managers.
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Sport at all levels from professional to college intersected with transgender bathrooms in North Carolina.
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The Padres had to apologize to the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus for disrupting their presentation of the national anthem.
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There was a report on the lack of diversity in lacrosse.
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A group of white high school student athletes was charged with raping a black disabled teammate.
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A Mormon student athlete sued Idaho State University for being anti-Mormon.
Then there were issues of sexism in sport:
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U.S. Soccer and the national women’s team were still in court over the CBA.
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Howard Bryant compared women sports to men’s sport and was called sexist.
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The Muirfield Golf Club forfeited its right to host the British Open because it decided to continue to bar female members.
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The owner of the Madrid Open, Ion Tiriac, made sexist comments on women’s pay.
On the concussion nightmare:
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Several student athletes sued the NCAA over head injuries.
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The NHL lost a motion to dismiss a concussion lawsuit brought by former players.
■ Dave Mirra became the first action sports athlete diagnosed with CTE.
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A congressional study charged that the NFL tried to influence concussion research.
Elsewhere, the leadership of FIFA took yet an additional blow as it fired another top official.
Finally, the death of New Orleans Pelicans player Bryce Dejean-Jones shocked the NBA after he was shot when he broke into someone’s apartment.
In less than a month, an array of ethical crises appeared in universities, in high schools, on pro teams, in league offices, on national teams and Olympic teams, at sports venues and in international sports federations.
It is incumbent on those of us who are helping to prepare the next generation of sports leaders to get them ready to confront unethical people or circumstances. They may be ultimately responsible for the ethical behavior of their organization and must have the knowledge of how to deal with any and all ethical and moral issues as leaders.
Richard E. Lapchick (rlapchick@ucf.edu) is the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, which annually publishes racial and gender report cards on MLB, the NBA and WNBA, NFL, MLS, college sports, and the APSE. He is also chair of UCF’s DeVos Sport Business Management Program. Follow him on Twitter @richardlapchick.
