I'm a lover of sports and think it has an important place in education to develop fully functioning adults. Some sports cultures contribute to the growth and development of society while others are more focused on developing inappropriate social norms. The difference between that which works and that which doesn't becomes increasingly apparent when such cultures become inward leaning, socially rigid, and encourage adult racism and bullying. Let us consider a few ideas on how we might better manage such groups.
First, one of the reasons why I'm writing about this is because I believe in education and I believe that all of the tax payer dollars we spend should be focused on developing our youth to be happier, brighter, independent thinkers with self confidence. A number of members with extremist leaning views are part of a sports club based in dysfunctional childhood social networks. There was something about this group that set them apart from the many other positive sports clubs/groups we may have seen in other places.
Without exploring the difference between healthy and unhealthy sports culture we won't be able to ensure it becomes a contributor to our communities and peoples. To be fair, this group is in a rural area so there isn't much interaction with the outside world so they have sort of developed their sports culture around a few "chip on shoulder" personalities (This is not a blanketing of everyone as most people are perfectly good people, but they follow the more dominant personalities of the members.) However, on prompting, some members support and acted on what appeared to be un-American values.
Sports Clubs that Resist Diversity/Difference
A study in Sports Management Review discusses that personalities within voluntary sports club of key leaders are the ones who resist allowing others (deemed different) from being involved (Spaaij, Knoppers & Jeanes, 2020). They contend that six discursive practices where club leaders resist diversity in speech acts, moral boundary work, in-group essentialism, denial/silencing, self-victimization, and bodily inscription. Dysfunctional groups have certain characteristics that researchers can pick up on (I encourage researchers to sort of look at a few key members of the group and how their social networks seem to revolve around these inflated personality archetypes.)
Fixing this issues is often a micro and macro issue with the top of the organization may have official rules but it is the micro engagement that warps those values to create non-inviting or hostile environments. In this case we are talking about a few dominant-aggressive personalities lots of small minded followers (...again not all.). Thus most of the poor behavior resides on the social level in the day-to-day identities and ethnocentric social networks in which they live.
The "Toxic Jock" Study:
I came across this term "Toxic Jock". With distorted self-perceptions (something we talked about prior) there is going to be issues as they relate to poor behavior to ensure those delusions are reconfirmed. Looking at a few psychological pieces of literature I came across a study that helps to describe the behavior of this "super cool" hate oriented members that would help to explain aggression, bullying, immaturity, constant comparison (and put down), ego centric behavior. 🥁.......to the study.......
A researcher by the name of Kathleen Miller published the study, "Sport-Related Identities and the “Toxic Jock” and the differences between a "jock" and an athlete perception in the forming of a sports oriented identity (It should be noted that many of the group have more sports oriented identities that are healthy but there is a significant amount of less than stellar performing "toxic jocks" with the big attitudes. Its interesting I met a few football players, a team owner, 2 world champ boxers, professional dancers, martial artists, MMA fighters, swimmers, volley ball players, BMX racers, and other more noteworthy athletes and almost none of them had a big ego. Its bazaar! I'm kind of still waiting on meeting a curling champ to see if they might have big egos!🤷).
One of the biggest differences is that athletes focus on skill development while "toxic jocks" focus on proving their great value. Athlete perceptions focus on putting effort into learned skills (i.e. meaning they practice a lot and have a better chance at being professional) while "toxic jocks" want the perception of feeling better than others through natural talent (cheating if necessary). That might help explain how the people that I have met who were advanced in skill knew the commitment it takes and moved up into professional status while the mediocre "star" players with the super large egos haven't moved past rehashing the few points they got during a highschool game (By pure randomness they are likely to get a few points, even if it means tripping through the goal line. If I owned a professional sports team I would avoid people with super large egos who promote racist/bigoted rhetoric.).
No one likes jock itch!
Fixing Sports is Beneficial
I'm a supporter of life long benefits of sports to encourage good mental and physical health. We have an obesity problem in this country and inclusive life-long sporting activities are beneficial. It is hard to prepare our youth for meaningful careers in various duties such as the military, police officers, and general societal health without positive pro social sports cultures. Thus, sports is preparation for a healthy life and for careers that rely on the skills learned during practice and team work.
Athletics moved from being a necessity in developing the skills of our youth for war and physical work (skill development) to taking on primary entertainment value for the parents. Only certain kids are played regularly (In this case its not even the best players but the one's most connected to some of the coaches. Again, its not a blanket statement.) and an over focus on winning at the expense of its greater purpose of developing youth. When we stop using it as preparation we are wasting a lot of time and money on pleasing parents versus developing kids (Cheaper to have them take a health class, buy a pair of jogging/walking shoes, and read a nutrition book. I'm not advocating for it but I'm highlighting the point that if we can't use sports for positive pro-social healthy purposes there are cheaper ways to get the very basics done. That would not be the preferred route.)
We should be able to balance the need for winning championships and developing young adults to their fullest potential. However, when the dysfunction of key club leaders becomes apparent and there is a warping of values we then run into problems where sports clubs are no longer focused on their primary purposes but on appeasing internal stakeholders. This is where sports clubs move from being a contributing factor to society to taking away from the educational development of theirs and other kids that want to have healthy physical outlets without the negative influence of their parents (In this case some of the parents tried to teach and engage kids in hate based behaviors. Not a single member can say me or my children have done anything to them but that didn't stop them from teaching children, and other adults, how to act and behave toward the the other 51% of Americans.). Such a group should be focused on the full development of youth to adults.
Miller K. E. (2009). Sport-Related Identities and the "Toxic Jock". Journal of sport behavior, 32(1), 69–91. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107047/
Spaaij, R. Knoppers, A. & Jeanes, R. (2020). “We want more diversity but…”: Resisting diversity in recreational sports clubs. Sport Management Review, 23 (3). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1441352318305813
