Sports Justice: The Law and the Business of Sports

Sports and the Law

previous page New England Patriots players, Junior Seau and Pierre Woods, pause for a moment before a game in 2009, perhaps to reflect on the universal truths that control us all. ap Photo / Winslow Townson sports and the law Sport is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present. Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential. george a. sheehan [Sports] are good because they encourage a true democratic spirit; for in the athletic field the man must be judged not with reference to outside and accidental attributes, but to the combination of bodily vigor and moral quality which go to make up prowess. theodore roosevelt • • • There is no easy way to explain the hold that sport has on our psyche and everyday lives. It is, for many of us, just part of what we are, perhaps the most important part of our inner lives. Playing sports can be beautiful, fun and therapeutic. Hippocrates wrote: “Sport is a preserver of health,” at least when done in moderation. Watching others compete in sports can also be enjoyable, especially when those athletes are among the very best at their game. Sport, therefore, can be entertainment and a diversion, but it is more than that. We live for sports; we die, at least figuratively, with the failure of our teams, exalt in their victories, and spend days consumed by talk and thought about sport. Sports are not mere pastimes, like a good book, a cold beer, or a conversation with a friend. Sports are an essential part of human life and health; for some, they seem to be life itself. Sports are amalgams of myth, entertainment, wonderment, passion, and exaltation; they are quintessential human experiences and nothing less. If this sounds overly dramatic, consider the evidence, as a lawyer might say. Psychologists have studied the impact on public mental health of a loss Introduction • • • 3 by the home team in an important game. It can result in a generalized depression in a community. Most recover in fairly short order, but for others the misery of defeat lasts until it is replaced by the thrill of victory. Cities with professional clubs that are perennial losers suffer continuously. Mediocrity is a cancer without a cure. A game is not only for now, but also is part of a sequence of contests that spreads back over time. A study released in 2009 of death rates on Super Bowl Sunday showed that a loss by the home team was related to a spike in the death rate, due mostly to an increase in heart attacks. On the other hand, a Super Bowl victory was correlated with a decrease in death rate. The research recommended the use of “pharmacologic agents” or relaxation techniques such as deep breathing for those persons with cardiac risk factors. Deep breathing , of course, will not lead your team to victory. But when our favorite teams win, sports fans experience a tangible lift. According to President John Kennedy, a great sports enthusiast: “We are inclined to think that if we watch a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it.” After a victory, we all are champions and act as such, exhibiting triumphal behavior and a positive self-image in our interpersonal dealings, especially toward those who favored the team that our club has conquered on the field of play. We share in a communal euphoria. These are primal emotions that translate into civic pride, even if not one of the players on the winning team came from our town. Economists have measured the effects of sport victories and defeats. Communal self-esteem fostered by sports triumphs enhances productivity, creativity, and commerce. At the other end of the spectrum, entire regions suffer self-doubt and feelings of inferiority caused by losses at sporting contests; they might even experience declining economic indicators. On the college level, a dramatic success in a critical football or basketball game—Doug Flutie’s famous “Hail...