Deviance In Sports

In my American Sport in the 21st Century class, we discussed deviance in sports today. Deviance is an act/person that differs from the norm, especially behavior or attitudes that differ from acceptable social standards. The majority of the class thought that athletes had a higher delinquency rate than non-athletes and that delinquency rates were higher today than they were in the past.  However, we were wrong.  We learned that non-athletes have a higher delinquency rate than athletes and that there were much more delinquent acts in the past than there are now.  I know that there were some bad incidents in recent memory such as the fight between the Pacers and Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the fight between the Yankees and Red Sox where Pedro Martinez threw Don Zimmer to the ground, and the brawl between the Miami Hurricanes and Florida International football teams.  However, after recently watching the ESPN 30 for 30 on Reggie Miller, I realized that even in that time period things were much worse.  There was much more fighting and pushing and shoving in that time period than now.  Also, a lot more players got away with cheating and doing other illegal activities.  Now there are agencies and groups that test players and review incidents to try to prevent those things from happening.

I was shocked when I heard that athletes had a lower deviance rate than non-athletes.  I later learned that every time an athlete does something wrong, the media blows it up and makes it seem like a huge deal.  They do not do that for non-athletes.  I guess it just seems like more athletes get in trouble because their lives are under a microscope and everything they do is criticized.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bawa/deviance.htm

This link shows some of the links of why athletes may be deviant but also says it is much more likely that an athlete's background and the way they were brought up is the cause  of their deviant behavior.  Also, I personally think that the fame gets to some athletes' heads and they think they can get away with whatever they want so they do whatever they want.