IN THIS ISSUE:

FRONT ROW

Youth- and School-Based Sports:
    • Bad Behavior Spurs Crackdown in CA, MA
    • Two Comments to Ponder
    • The Cost of Hazing Just Went Up
Collegiate Sports: Two Ways to Prevent Fan Misbehavior
Professional Sports: So…Bloodsports Are Okay If They’re Outside the U.S.?
Jocks Behaving Badly:
    • How Can You Toss a Coach Who Won’t Leave?
    • Think You Know Hazing? Welcome to Sumo
    • Too Bad It Wasn’t the Bates Motel
Jocks Behaving Exceptionally:
    • Three Ways to Honor Your Opponents
    • Player’s Sacrifice Helps Another Fulfill His Dream
    • Team’s Sacrifice Helps Opponent Win Crown
    • “This Is Something I Will Not Forget in a Long Time”
    • Sometimes Nice Guys – and Gals -- Finish First    
Michael Josephson Commentary: No One Gets a Free Pass


SIDELINES

Announcements
Trivia Test: What Famous Person Is This Story About?
Sportsmanship User's Guide: Sports Values Shape National Values
You Make the Call: Should Athletes Who Participate in Animal Bloodsports in Foreign Countries Be Prosecuted Here?
Principle of the Month: A Classy Way to Right a Wrong
Say What?
Upcoming Seminars
Trivia Test Answer
Feedback

FRONT ROW

YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS

Bad Behavior Spurs Crackdown in CA, MA

In Marin County, California, two recent incidents involving irate parents at San Marin High School basketball games proved to be "the final straw" for the school. Parents of all 19 spring sports athletes on varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams will now be required to sign a code of conduct contract.

Marin County Athletic League Commissioner Sue Woodall told the Marin Independent Journal, "What upsets me the most is that every incident has been on the junior varsity or freshman level. If we don’t change this culture of bad behavior now, we will have problems in the future."

In Massachusetts, legislators have introduced a bill that would provide schools and sports leagues across the state with free sportsmanship materials. It would also create a pilot program to help children develop "self-control in an effort to reduce violence, bullying, and other destructive choices" by teaching them how to visualize scenarios they’re likely to encounter during a game and how to respond.

Grayson Kimball, education director of Getpsychedsports.com and one of the bill’s backers, said he used the method during workshops with athletes and coaches in a Connecticut high school, and the school promptly won the best sportsmanship award in the league.

Josephon Institute also offers national sportsmanship training seminars, products, and publications for youth sports, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and the Olympic level. Click on these links or go to http://JosephsonInstitute.org/sports.

[www.marinij.com, 2/7/08; www.bostonherald.com, 2/10/08; www.metrowestdailynews.com, 2/12/08]

YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS

Two Comments to Ponder

After 40 years of lamenting about bad sportsmanship, Chicago Tribune sports columnist Barry Temkin wondered in a recent column if the battle was worth fighting anymore. Then he got this letter from a coach:

“When winning is more important than developing young people’s character, it forces coaches into making poor disciplinary decisions. Players who should be suspended are left on the floor simply to win a basketball game. We all know that winning one game is a very short-term goal. A day or two after the victory is achieved, the game is forgotten. Teaching acceptable behavior is a life-long lesson.

“As long as coaches are so caught up on winning, they will sacrifice the most important part of their job: the development of the moral character and responsible social behavior of young Americans.”

California Interscholastic Federation associate executive director Roger Blake told Signonsandiego.com that fans also have a responsibility: “You have to look at each situation as a classroom. If a student was making a presentation in the classroom, would it be all right to boo? No, that’s disrespectful.

“Kids watch TV, see the Duke crazies and try to emulate them or go to Qualcomm Stadium and see those fans. Those participants are adults. These are high school students – there is a difference.”

[http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com, 2/17/08; www.signonsandiego.com, 2/19/08]

YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS

The Cost of Hazing Just Went Up

Here’s a nice little nightmare scenario to contemplate. Let’s say a hazing incident occurs at a high school in your town. The parents of the victim decide to sue. But instead of targeting the school, they go after the town.

That’s what happened in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After a football player at Fairhaven High School was physically and sexually abused by teammates at a training camp in 2006 and after he and his parents were "treated as criminals" for reporting the crimes, the family declared it wants $1 million from the town within six months. If Fairhaven doesn't cough up, the family will file a civil complaint, which could cost the community much more.

Ouch. "I kind of suspected sooner or later it would end up to this," said Michael Gagne, a School Committee member at the time of the incident. "Clearly, the school system dropped the ball on this poor kid."

And now on the entire community.

[www.southcoasttoday.com, 2/15/08]

COLLEGIATE SPORTS

Two Ways to Prevent Fan Misbehavior

With abusive fans becoming a recurring story around the country, it’s refreshing to see two schools taking action to preempt such incidents.

• Minnesota State University. In a press release announcing the launch of its new Fan Sportsmanship Initiative, MSU Director of Athletics Kevin Buisman said that although the campus doesn't have a fan problem, "We are implementing a few changes that can keep us moving in that direction."

The university’s new campaign includes: handing out a fan-behavior expectations letter to all students who buy on-campus tickets, reading student-athletes’ statements and the NCAA Sportsmanship Statement before every game, running public-service sportsmanship announcements before each game, displaying sportsmanship posters and flyers in high-visibility areas, and modifying or eliminating band music that promotes vulgar language.

• UCLA. After freshman basketball player Kevin Love and his family endured a barrage of obscene chants from "The Pit" at Oregon’s McArthur Court in January, UCLA officials were concerned that its student section might retaliate when Oregon played at Pauley Pavilion. It sent an e-mail to the student support group urging them to enjoy the game with class and refrain from making personal comments.

The student group’s president Matt Monges told the Los Angeles Daily News, "The last thing [we want] to do is be a poor representative of UCLA. We’re so proud of the way Kevin handled that, the least we can do is show the same maturity he showed on the court." No incidents occurred during the game.

[www.dailynews.com, 2/22/08; www.pe.com/sports, 2/22/08]

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

So…Bloodsports Are Okay If They’re Outside the U.S.?

Let’s see if we’ve got this straight: Football player Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for dogfighting, but baseball players Pedro Martinez and Aramis Ramirez got a free pass for cockfighting. Both bloodsports are illegal in the U.S.

There are several theories for this discrepancy, all of which have ruffled more than a few feathers:

It’s legal overseas, so it’s okay. In the Dominican Republic, cockfighting is not only lawful, it’s second in popularity only to baseball. Martinez was filmed ceremoniously starting a cockfight in the Coiseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo, the country’s largest cockfighting stadium where fights are tracked on an electronic scoreboard, waitresses serve beer and empanadas, and generals, politicians, and celebrities have their own parking space with their name on it.

It’s my culture, so it’s okay. Whoopi Goldberg argued that dogfighting is ingrained in the Southern culture so it’s excusable. She must have forgotten about slavery. Other wonderful cultural practices around the world that come to mind are cannibalism, human sacrifice, child labor, and genital mutilation (the last two are still with us).

Everybody hates roosters and bulls, so it’s okay. Nobody likes roosters, and bulls try to kill you. Plus we eat them. But dogs are lovable, are kept as pets, and we don’t eat them – unless we’re in Asia. By this logic, Major League Baseball would have said nothing if Martinez and Ramirez had been doing legal dogfighting in their country and the NFL would have still banned Vick indefinitely if he had been doing illegal cockfighting.

The final word goes to two bloggers at Finiq.com. Jubanator14 wrote: "No offense, but it is a cultural and societal norm of OUR culture to judge people and tell them about it, and it is legal for us to do so."

And hskrdave wrote: "What guy doesn’t like a cat fight?"

What do you think about this issue? Cast your vote in this issue's online poll at You Make the Call or e-mail your viewpoint to us at jwood@jiethics.org.

[www.msnbc.msn.com, 2/7/08; http://sports-law.blogspot.com, 2/7/08; http://joyofsox.blogspot.com, 2/8/08; http://askfig.blogspot.com, 2/15/08; www.faniq.com, 2/19/08]

JOCKS BEHAVING BADLY

How Can You Toss a Coach Who Won’t Leave?

Referees hate when that happens. During a basketball game between Estacada and Molalla in Clackamas, Oregon, the 17-year-old referee called two technical fouls on Molalla’s coach Jeffery Scott Larsen and ejected him. Furious, Larsen slammed his clipboard down on a female scorekeeper’s hand, cutting her.

Compounding matters, he refused to leave the game floor, as prescribed by law. Standing in a corner of the arena, he continued to harass the referee and coach his players throughout the remainder of the game, inciting the fans of both schools.

Not surprisingly, both bleachers stormed the floor, the coach assaulted the referee, and his assistant coach went after Estacada’s principal. "Many girls were frightened, crying, and fleeing the building with their parents," Estacada’s principal told police afterward.

Oh, did we mention these were sixth-grade girl’s teams?

[www.salem-news.com, 2/17/08]

Think You Know Hazing? Welcome to Sumo

Swallowing sand. Lighting your feet on fire. Being beaten with bamboo swords. Just another day for apprentice sumo wrestlers in Japan.

When junior wrestler Takashi Saito, 17, collapsed at his sumo stable last September and died, his death was listed as heart failure. That was until his parents viewed his body. It was covered with bruises, deep cuts, half-torn ears, and burns on his legs. After an investigation, three senior wrestlers and the stablemaster were arrested for beating the wrestler to death.

Explaining that "this was an ordinary practice," stablemaster Junichi Yamamoto admitted striking the victim with a beer bottle during dinner. He also said he scolded the boy during the beatings: “I’ve never seen a jerk like you! You must feel sorry for your father, who bowed his head and asked me to take care of you!”

The boy had repeatedly pleaded with his father to take him away, but his father had talked him out of it. "He said he’d be a good boy," his father told reporters through choked tears. "I’m the worst parent."

The three wrestlers said that after the teenager had left the stable without permission, they forcibly dragged him back to the stable, denied him food, tied him to a pillar, assaulted him over two days with wooden sticks and a metal baseball bat, and subjected him to a 30-minute-long intensive sparring round – extraordinarily long by sumo standards – until he collapsed.

Sumo hazing, called petting, is a long tradition. Muneyoshi Fujisawa, a 55-year-old retired wrestler who spent 20 years in the ring, remembered having to endure salt and sand being shoved into his mouth and a bamboo sword used on him. "I was beaten and beaten," he told the AFP news agency. But that wasn’t the worst of it. "Tired after a long trip, I was taking a nap. I had a dream of my feet on fire and they actually were."

The Prime Minister has urged the nation to examine the sport, and the Japan Sumo Association says it will look at how young sumo are trained.

But it may be too late. Few men take up the violent sport anymore. The sumo authority approved only 87 new novices in 2006, down 60 percent from 1992. "Children take up golf, soccer, and other sports," said a veteran sumo journalist. "Their parents don’t send them to the scary world."

[www.cnn.com; www.hanknuwer.com/blog, 10/4/07; www.japantimes.co.jp, 9/27/07, 2/10/08, 2/14/08]

Too Bad It Wasn’t the Bates Motel

Hockey players know how to retaliate after a cheap shot. But not when they’re drunk.

When members of the Jamestown Vikings, a professional minor-league team in Jamestown, New York, who had not been paid for two months and were living in substandard housing, heard their owner Andrew Haines announce he was suspending the league’s 2007-2008 season to "reorganize," they decided to get even.

Hearing that Haines had just bought the town’s centuries-old Vikings Lodge, they got drunk and pillaged the historic building, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage, then passed out among the wreckage.

When they sobered up, they learned that the deal for the hotel had not yet closed and that they had trashed a Florida owner’s historic landmark. They face felony criminal mischief charges, are out of the league, and probably will be having their share of the damages deducted from whatever pay they get in the future.

[The Buffalo News, 2/16/08]

JOCKS BEHAVING EXCEPTIONALLY

Three Ways to Honor Your Opponents

• Georgia Vanquish Fastpitch Softball Association, Woodstock, Georgia. For the past five years, the Georgia Vanquish presents an MVP award to a player from the opposing team after every game.

"We travel all over the Southeast, and it never fails that someone has heard about the medals," Vanquish president Brett Bunch told us. "We have athletes and parents come up to us at tournaments and talk about the medal they got or their child got. This is a critical time when kids are trying to decide whether they want to keep playing or not. If we can help by giving them a reward, I’m all for it."

• O’Gorman Intermediate School, Timmons, Ontario. The following letter was written to the Timmins Daily Press:

"My son’s team played against O’Gorman knowing they were going to get wumped. But the coach of the O’Gorman squad has taught his team great sportsmanship. They never let their lead get to more than a 10-point difference, and whenever one of our players would score, the whole O’Gorman team would clap. It ended with overtime and smiles on the boys’ faces. The parents in the stands enjoyed the game and commented on the sportsmanship displayed by the boys and the coach."

• San Lorenzo Valley High School, Felton, California. The following letter was sent by a St. Francis Central Coast Catholic High School parent to SLV swimming coach Aron Conger:

"My son Taylor is a swimmer for the St. Francis Sharks. Your athletes put sportsmanship first in front of competition. Some of the Shark swimmers were worried they would be laughed at because some are slower swimmers. Even when an SLV swimmer would finish far ahead of a St. Francis swimmer, they would stay in the pool until all swimmers finished and made a point to congratulate them. Seeing this behavior in high school students was very inspiring. Your coaching and your team definitely set a great standard of excellence for all to follow."

[www.timminspress.com, 2/14/08]

Player’s Sacrifice Helps Another Fulfill
His Dream

Two days before the Little Athletics carnival last month at Narrabeen Academy of Sport in Sydney, Australia, favored 100-meter sprinter Kane Thompson, 15, tore a hamstring. But he showed up anyway, hoping for a miracle.

He was one of five runners to compete; only the fastest four would qualify. Since Thompson could not run, he walked the 100 meters distance. It took him 33 seconds to finish. He did not qualify.

Matthew Mountfort, 14, who had already qualified for the discus and shot put, finished fourth in the 100. But he knew after the race what he wanted to do. "I spoke to my friends and my mum and said I should probably withdraw for him. If he hadn’t been injured, he would have made it through to state and broken a couple of records along the way. He’s been working for this for half his life, and I knew this was the last chance he’d get to go."

When he walked up to Thompson and told him what he was doing, Thompson couldn’t believe it. "I was shocked. I never would have expected a competitor from another club to do that for me."

[www.northshoretimes.com.au, 2/8/08]

Team’s Sacrifice Helps Opponent Win Crown

At the end of the Mission Trail Athletic League boy’s high school soccer season in California Interscholastic Federation’s Central Coast Section, two teams finished on top: Gonzales (8-1-1) and Soledad (7-0-3).

Some officials thought the new bylaw was in effect, which rewards three points for a win. In that case, Gonzales would win. Others felt the old bylaw still applied, which rewards two points for a win. In that case, the two teams would tie and Soledad would win based on head-to-head record.

The MTAL rulebook revealed that the new ruling had mistakenly not been put into effect.

Gonzales High, which had benefited from the old ruling two years ago in a similar situation, took the position that the league should use the system this time as well, even though it would cost them the championship. "Kudos to Gonzales," MTAL Commissioner Tim McCarthy wrote to the CIF. "What a wonderful sportsmanlike stance to take and to model for their students."

Other schools seconded their gesture. Soledad’s Principal Roberto Nunez wrote: "That is nothing short of showing a class act, and we are honored to be mentioned in the same breath with Gonzales."

Anzar Athletic Director Chris Wardlaw: "I was impressed with the altruistic nature of the coaches during the Anzar v. Gonzales matches this winter. I witnessed coaches demanding that their players assist fallen Anzar players. Doesn’t surprise me that Gonzales would take this stance in this matter."

"This Is Something I Will Not Forget
in a Long Time"

In the Mid-Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, New York, Millbrook and Webutuck high schools are bitter rivals. But a little-noticed gesture during a recent basketball game changed one Millbrook spectator forever.

At one point in the game, a Millbrook player collapsed to the floor with cramps in both legs. During the injury time-out, the Webutuck coach gathered his players to diagram a play. All except one. All-star player Alex Kravchuk remained on the floor. He was helping Millbrook’s coach stretch out the injured player’s legs.

"In the heat of the moment in an intense game, this kid stopped and helped a player in need for the other team," spectator Shawn Stoliker wrote in a letter to the Poughkeepsie Journal. "As a coach and teacher who loves to stress sportsmanship, this is something I will not forget in a long time. I will never remember the score or who won in years to come, but this was awesome to watch. If there was some kind of award I could give him, I would. I hope this gets back to him."

[http://pojosheahan.blogspot.com, 2/9/08]

Sometimes Nice Guys – and Gals – Finish First

Hollywood loves to make heartwarming sports movies like Hoosiers and Rocky, but they have nothing on the real thing.

• North River High School, Brooklyn, Washington. A white picket fence encircles it. Its largest graduating class was 24 – in 1936. Its nine-man basketball roster comprises three-quarters of the boys in the school. Its tiny gymnasium’s basketball court is 10 feet narrower and 20 feet shorter than regulation size. Two years ago it had back-to-back winless seasons.

Despite these challenges, the Mustangs are renowned for their sportsmanship, winning the league’s sportsmanship trophy three years in a row, including one season in which they lost every game by blowouts.

"They’re just such wonderful kids," rival coach Jamie Berg of Oakville told the Yakima Herald-Republic. "All clean-cut, polite, respectful. They don’t talk trash. It’s hard to find that nowadays."

Another coach calls them "the real Hoosiers." Officials routinely comment that the kids are the nicest ones they encounter anywhere.

Last year, the team started to impress people on the court, too, winning five games. This year they won six out of nine home games in front of crowds that approached 150 people (up from 3 a few years ago) and have made it to the Class 1B state championship tournament. No matter how they fare, their story can have nothing but a happy ending.

• Pentucket Regional High School, West Newbury, Massachusetts. Despite having no track facility (sprinting and hurdling practice is done in the hallways), Pentucket’s girl’s track team went undefeated this year. But it’s not the wins that the girls care about. It’s their behavior.

With more than 40 of the 62-girl roster on the honor roll and high honor roll, the team has won the Cape Ann League sportsmanship award four of the last six years. The girls shake hands with their opponents before and after each event and pick up leftover equipment after each meet.

"The other day one of the boys from the other school said it was the first time he had seen another team pick up after his team,” senior captain Christine Roy told the Newbury Port News.

Coach Steve Derro says that’s what gives him the greatest joy. "What I tell every team before the season begins is I don’t care what our record says at the end of the year. If we improve week to week and compete with good sportsmanship, then we will have had a successful season."

[www.yakima-herald.com, 2/20/08; www.newburyportnews.com]

Want a Free Sportsmanship Patch?

We sent each of those who contributed an item a free Pursuing Victory With Honor patch for telling us about honorable deeds on and off the field of play.

We'll send you one, too, if you send us your stories at CharacterCountssports@jiethics.org. Put "Jocks Behaving Exceptionally" in the subject box.

You can also report acts of good sportsmanship to the NCAA's Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct by clicking here.

COMMENTARY BY
MICHAEL JOSEPHSON

No One Gets a Free Pass

Even though the recent Congressional hearings featuring baseball pitcher Roger Clemens and his former trainer may have been a case of political grandstanding, we shouldn’t underestimate their value.

Without political pressure, there would have been no Mitchell Report, and Major League Baseball may still be denying it has a serious drug problem. On the other hand, professional sports can’t endure too many more embarrassing public hearings or government mandates. Instead of criticizing Congressional motives, they should undertake a serious effort to clean up their own mess.

Sports play too important a role in shaping social attitudes about fair play and integrity to trivialize decisions by high-profile athletes to cheat and then lie about it. We have a right to expect that our highest achieving athletes will pursue victory with honor, and those who taint the game and their careers should be exposed and held accountable.

Setting a poor example by cheating with unhealthy performance-enhancing drugs is bad enough, but lying under oath is a felony that can’t be dismissed with a cynical "who cares?" attitude.

I may be wrong, but I’m convinced Clemens, Barry Bonds, and others took drugs and then lied about it to protect their legacy. I suspect they justified their conduct because they knew many others were doing it and assumed if they got caught, their denials would be enough.

On one level we can sympathize and understand why they chose the well-worn path of moral compromise, but we can’t condone or ignore their choice.

Lying is a big deal. Ask media darling Martha Stewart, Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, or Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling – all of whom were jailed for making false statements.

No one gets a free pass.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

For an archive of Mr. Josephson’s commentaries, go to: http://charactercounts.org/michael.

To receive free weekly e-mail, including all five of Mr. Josephson’s commentaries from that week, please sign up at: http://charactercounts.org/forms/free_e_newsletters.php.

CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports, a project of the nonprofit Josephson Institute, leads the Pursuing Victory With Honor sports campaign, which is endorsed by the country's leading amateur athletic organizations.

The campaign's purpose is to help administrators, athletes, coaches, legislators, officials, and parents improve personal and organizational decision making and behavior in sports.

Archives of Past Issues

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Have You Checked Out Our
New Website?

Last month our newly designed website went live, and we want to tell everyone about it.

Go to http://JosephsonInstitute.org and take a look around.

Be sure to click on "Sports" to tour our new Center for Sports Ethics. Print out the Arizona Sports Summit Accord and the Gold Medal Standards. Read our national sportsmanship surveys of high school athletes. Sign up for a Pursuing Victory With Honor sportsmanship training seminar.

And view our library of sports quotes, one of the largest repositories on the Web.

Give Your Sports Program a Boost With Our Ultimate Sportsmanship Toolkit

This all-in-one resource provides materials to help you set up an entire sportsmanship program from pre- to postseason.

The manual includes codes of conduct, mission statements, evaluation tools, press releases, PSAs, meeting agendas, and a library of quotes, anecdotes, and lessons.

The toolkit is available in two versions: youth sports edition or interscholastic edition. Each is just $29.95. For more information or to order, call 800-711-2670 or click here.

What Famous Person Is This Story About?

A man’s wife and private secretary were waiting for him at a train station. As the departure time approached, his wife began to worry that he would miss the train.

"He’s such a sportsman," the secretary said to console her. "He always gives the train a chance to get away."

What man were they talking about?

See the answer below.

Sports Values Shape
National Values

Many people believe that sports, education, and politics are the three most dominant social forces that influence the character of American culture.

This places a significant social responsibility on those who influence sports – administrators, coaches, athletes, and officials – to assure that athletic competition builds character. They can uplift and improve the nature and character of our society in the following ways:

• Winning is important. It is demeaning to dismiss the importance of victory by saying “it’s only a game.” Trying to win is essential. Without the passionate pursuit of victory, much of the enjoyment as well as the educational and spiritual value of sports would be lost.

• Winning ethically is better. The best strategy to improve sports is not to de-emphasize winning but to more vigorously emphasize the honorable pursuit of victory. It’s one thing to be declared the winner; it’s quite another to truly win. Victories attained dishonorably are hollow and degrade the concept of sport.

• Ethics and sportsmanship are ground rules. Demonstrating and developing good character should never be subordinated to the desire to win. The vital lessons of sports are learned from competition itself rather than the outcome.

To read more about ethics, sportsmanship, and character-building, click here.

Should Athletes Who Participate in Animal Bloodsports in Foreign Countries Be Prosecuted Here?

That includes such sports as bullfighting, dogfighting, cockfighting, fox hunting, etc.

• Yes.
• No.
• I’m not sure.

Click here to vote

Results of Last Month's Poll

Should Athletes' Personal Items Be Sold for Charity? Yes. No. I'm not sure.

PRINCIPLE OF THE MONTH

Principle Six: A Classy Way
to Right a Wrong

An interesting item on Bloghostingpro.com/fitness caught our eye recently. Writing about tennis, blogger "Ilovetowork" said, "When you are the favored one in a decision you know is wrong, strive to equalize it by unostentatiously losing the next point."

Principle Six of the Arizona Sports Summit Accord states that "All sports participants must consistently demonstrate and demand scrupulous integrity and observe and enforce the spirit as well as the letter of the rules."

In this case, it’s not only righting a wrong with a sportsmanlike gesture, but doing so in a subtle, courteous manner. "Never do it for effect," the blogger continued. "Do not hit the ball over the backstop or into the bottom of the net with a jaunty air of ‘Here you are.’ Just hit it slightly out or in the net and go about your business. Your opponent always knows when you extend him this justice and appreciates it."

[http://bloghostingpro.com/fitness/?p=70]

Nearly 50 influential leaders in sports issued the Arizona Sports Summit Accord in 1999 to encourage greater emphasis on the ethical and character-building aspects of athletic competition.

There are youth/interscholastic and collegiate/Olympic versions. Read the full texts here.

"We’re not playing cricket in the 1950s. As far as sportsmanship on the field is concerned, that is a little bit off the mark."
– Australian captain Ricky Ponting after officials called for more civility on the field

"‘It’s just a game. Hockey: It’s more than just a game.’ So can we throw things at the refs or not? I don’t know what to think!"
– Reaction by a blogger to a TV ad campaign for Michigan amateur hockey

"Even Richard Nixon waved goodbye before he got inside the helicopter."
– Comedian Argus Hamilton on New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick walking off the field with two seconds left on the clock after his Super Bowl loss

"Tonight I just needed to make my presence felt a little. Make him think about something other than how well he’s been playing….I’ve been a brat for a long time. He’s probably not that happy with me for doing that. But I don’t need any young friends."
– Tennis player Andy Roddick after bullying opponent Kei Nishikori in a match in San Jose

"I don’t preach a bunch of citizenship and sportsmanship. Sportsmanship awards are for the last-place team because they didn’t win anything. I remember when I was young, I got a sportsmanship award because our team was sorry. I don’t mean to be dirty, but I’ve never liked sportsmanship awards."
– Fort Worth Southwest basketball coach Scott Gray, who retired after 13 seasons, when asked what his players learned from him

"Once a year, pro sports commissioners have to appear to be blind or they lose their right to park in handicapped spots."
– Comedian Argus Hamilton after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell let New England off the hook so easily after spying on other teams

"Anyone that knows anything about basketball knows he’s one of the best teachers of the game in all aspects. The only thing about his teaching was his methods, his language, and being physical."
– John Wooden on Bobby Knight after Knight announced his retirement from coaching

“I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony. I know what to do. I just don’t know where to start.”
– Miami Heat coach Pat Riley describing his happiness after the Heat ended an 11-game losing streak

“There’s nothing wrong with pro sports. Most guys are great people, but when something bad happens, the news makes it sound like the end of the world. We’ve got more than 400 guys in the NBA. If 10 of them act a fool, the media act like they’re all bad.”
– TNT analyst Charles Barkley on sports scandals

"By next week, Archie Manning will be commanding higher stud fees than Secretariat."
– Comedian Argus Hamilton after Archie’s two sons, Eli and Peyton, led their teams to consecutive Super Bowl victories

~ Classic From the Past ~

"Finish last in your league and they call you idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you doctor."
– Abe Lemons, basketball coach (1922-2002)

Winston Churchill.

[www.anecdotage.com]

FEEDBACK

Below are letters from readers regarding last issue’s article about role models ("Do Role Models Deserve a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card?")

Too bad that several New England Patriots have no sportsmanship or character as displayed by their quarterback and head coach at the Super Bowl. What role models for our children!!!!

Nancy Trillow
Daytona Beach, FL

Role models should get no special treatment. That is the problem. They have had special treatment all their lives. They sometimes have been pampered and therefore they lose sight of the real world. Should they be punished if they break the law? Definitely!

However, the law should treat them the same as any other person. If they are convicted, they should have the right to get the recommended sentence for the crime. Don’t make it any tougher or any easier for them than you or me.

Larry Gallagher
Retired teacher in Minnesota

Those in the public eye are afflicted with the human condition no more or less than all others. They are susceptible to mistakes. In the eyes of the law, all should be treated equally.

Rod Mesa

Please let us know what you are doing -- or what you see others doing -- so we can share your stories to strengthen character-building efforts everywhere. Go to: CharacterCountsSports@jiethics.org

Josephson Institute
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Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 846-4800
(800) 711-2670
(310) 846-4857 (JI fax)
(310) 846-4858 (CC! fax)
http://CharacterCounts.org/
http://JosephsonInstitute.org/

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