Boxing- Should it be Banned

Boxing is a brutal sport in nature and it has two men going at each other. Boxing is a sport of the past. It was very popular through the early 20th century and has slowly died down to what it is today. Boxing created such legends as Muhhamed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, and they are great athletes, but when it comes down to it, the whole purpose is to beat someone up. It has become a sport that is dying as more and more information comes out about head injuries and concussions it will lead to discussions and investigations into whether we need to have a sport still going on that is causing diabilites and problems in the future. Muhhammed Ali with age has evident problems from his boxing past. These boxers are developing brain problems that are dibilitating to them as they get older. Getting knocked is not good and that is the whole puropose of the sport. As younger people are more aware of the risks that face them when they box, they might be skeptical about participating in the sport. Personally I do not think that fighting is a sport, it almost is childish to me that we have sports like boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, because you are putting a humans life on the line more so than any other sport by far.

Are College Sports Undervalued

I understand that college sports does have its problems that can make people skeptical of college athletes and of the programs that are recruiting the athletes that are getting paid, but college sports are good. The amount of players getting paid is very little when you look up how many athletes there are playing sports, so many people are judging the different sports on just a few individuals. There are many athletes who go unknown and use sports as a way to continue their passion along with getting the oppurtunity to get a college education. My sister was a rower and I can see that she throuroghly enjoyed continuing the sport at Texas and I believe that it was vital in her doing well in school. College sports are a great thing and to say that it is completly corrupt and is only their for the pure amusment of the fans is wrong. Ask all the rowers, bikers, swimmers, and all the other sports if the athletes did this for money. If anything these athletes should get some type of college credit for what they do because playing sports can teach a person more than most classes can.

Are We Fit Enough

The United States as a whole is a very fat country in relation to every other country in the world. In the Kraus- Weber tests it showed that the overall fitness of the children in the US is a lot lower than those of European countrie. To fix this problem, it seems that there needs to be more education of the youth of the country to teach them how to eat healthy along with getting daily exercise. People in our country promote the big athletes that compete in pro sports, but they do not really focus on making a system to teach the basics and have more funding towards equal oppurtunity for athletes. People in Europe have more oppurtunities to continue excercising by participating in sports, but in the US it is harder to continue to play a club sport because the oppurtunities are just not there. Obesity is a huge problem that we desperatley need to fix.

Head Injuries

Head injuries is a huge issue in football. This problem could be the sole reason that football is shutdown forever or changed so much that we would not be able to recognize it in the future. Head injuries are ten times worse than any other injury because for the most part a broken bone or pulled hamstring will not kill you. Head injuries could cause you to become paralyzed or even death. If it is not one specific moment that is bad it can be the fact that a football players hurts his brain little by little by playing for a long period of time. They can develop CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy which can cause memory problems or many other worse things. Football is a dangerous sport and if it wants to continue to thrive and be successfull they need to come up with theories to make it less dangerous without taking out the hitting because people like to see that. Whether it is to remove the facemask so the player is not so brave to go head first or trying to make head first hits illegal. As more and more information comes out about head injuries the closer football is to going down a windy path to failure.

Early African American Athletes

Early African American athletes suffered through much discrimination from the very beginning. They were paid, treated, or though of as equal athletes when they were competing. Some sports were required to have there only leagues such as the Negro baseball league. They were discriminated in the worst way they were advertised as animals and portray as animals such as a gorilla. Images that would disgust anyone that lives today. They were always thought of as athletes who could not and would never be able to compete with white athletes. They were also made to be very non-vocal or cocky if they were good athletes or they were hated by many of the white people, which would essentially ruin or finish his carreer. For example Jack Johnson was a great boxer and even beat many white boxers, but because he was so flashy and like white women people did anything to ruin him like putting him in jail for no reason at all. Any black athlete that wanted to succeed in the early part of the 19th century kept there mouths shut so that they could make a living. That is why Jackie Robinson was told to be quiet his first few years until he proved that he was a superior athlete and that black people could hang with white people. It was a long and difficult road for athletes but people like Jack Johnson or Jackie Robinson were the pioneers for athletes such as Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, or any succesfull athlete now.

Are Football and Dog Fighting Related?

This statement was pointed out and it is an interesting thought because of how they can be related. I think that they can be similar in some ways but for the most part they are not related that much. They are the same only in the fact that they are both very violent sports, which in drastic cases can lead to death in both. Dog fighting is different though because the dogs do not really have a choice whether they want to take part in what is going on, and are manipulated to by the owners to fight so that they can please them. Football is unlike that because they players do have their own choices and if they do not want to play or hit anymore they can quit. Sometimes players will continue to play through injury to not let down their teamates or the fans but players have been known to quit because of injury. For example Troy Aikman had to many concussions, and more recently Tre Newton retired from college football because of to many concussions. Both sports are very violent but cannot be compared in that the athletes are treated as gladiators who are fighting to the death to please the fans.                   
     

Are College Athletes Professionals?

College sports is supposed to be the purest form of whatever sport that is being played. For example College basketball is meant to be where you go to school and on the side you are an athlete that represents your school just for the love of it. There should not be any agents or money involved to inspire an athlete to play at his highest level and should not be the reason that they choose a school. If they are good enough it will come later in life. While everyone in the general public wants it to be like that, the truth is that it cannot be any farther. Players are being paid large amounts and are being bought things of monetary value. For example in college football Reggie Bush, Cam Newton, and many others have been involved with agents or the school paying them money. College sports is a huge industry, specially football and basketball, and I do also understand that these athletes spend many hours in the gym practicing, but they should not be regarded or treated like they are professional athletes. That is what professional sports are for, to get paid for being an excellent athlete. It is becoming a problem that people are thinking of them as entertainers and athletes, but they are forgetting the reason that they are where they are is to get an education. If agents or whoever is paying these athletes is doing this, it will cause them to not care about school because they believe that there is no reason to go to class. If this happens they are making the school bad for bringing them to the institution. Money should stay in professional sports where it belongs.