Game-Day Gangsters: Crime and Deviance in Canadian Football by Curtis Fogel (review)

Game-Day Gangsters: Crime and Deviance in Canadian Football is a user-friendly examination. It is not only scholarly in its review of on-field violence, hazing, and use of performance-enhancing drugs, but it is also accessible for lay readers. While focusing on the Canadian leagues, examples from college and professional football in the United States make it relevant to readers in both countries.

Author Curtis Fogel interviewed eighty-one players, coaches, and administrators to examine their views on the degree to which individuals consent to the various forms of deviance occurring in football. This is an interesting point of examination, as Fogel makes clear in the first chapter that Canadian statute does not specifically define what consent means in a sport context. Fogel points out this ambiguous nature of consent as most of the people he interviewed believe that it is implicit when people agree to participate.

One challenge is determining liability for these offenses. Much like the 1963 Bob Dylan song “Who Killed Davey Moore,” Fogel doesn’t specifically state but definitely implies that it is the system that is really at fault. From the fans who cheer on their favorite athletes despite bad behavior and buy the products they endorse, to the media that endlessly covers the violence through replay after replay, the love affair with sport allows behavior that would otherwise be considered criminal to continue with little sanction.

Readers will likely be interested to learn that hazing is not illegal in Canada as it is in most of the United States. Similarly, it is legal in Canada to possess and use certain steroids without a prescription unless the quantity is of such a volume to suggest trafficking. Anabolic steroids are considered controlled substances; however, persons found either with prohibited steroids or with large quantities have not faced significant penalties in Canada. A similar surprise was that the Canadian Football League does not have a drug testing program.

Chapters 2 through 4 share the results of the interviews. Each shows that players generally believe these behaviors not to be excessively harmful and that, if any intervention is needed, it should be handled by sporting leagues, not police. Players do believe that referees should be held liable if their poor offi-ciating results in catastrophic injury, but the referees who were interviewed all stated they would quit officiating if that was the case. One player made an important point when he commented that while those who are fined or suspended for injuring others can appeal, those who are injured have no recourse. In regard to hazing, players said no one should be forced to do anything he found uncomfortable, but they failed to articulate the inherently coercive nature of hazing. Few expressed that Canada should enact legal prohibitions on hazing.