Bonnie Erbe

The Real March Madness: America's Obsession With Sports Harms Women, Society

March 18, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

My colleagues on usnews.com's opinion page are running a series of articles on March Madness. I have my own extremely opinionated thoughts on the subject that are way out of the mainstream of American culture. Before we get to mine, take a gander at Tim Otteman's thoughts:

My passion for sports and recreation has turned into a career as an assistant professor in the recreation, parks, and leisure services administration department at Central Michigan University. But, at one point in my life, this same passion started me down a dangerous path—sports gambling. I bet on sports as an undergraduate student, and also had family members who ran parlay card and bookmaking operations. I quit betting years ago and instead focused my efforts on educating the public about this potentially dangerous activity.

I would go much farther and say that America's obsession with pro and even college sports is an overall detriment to society. Playing sports is one thing. Turning mere, and often wildly flawed, mortals into sports heroes harms society in so many ways. It also turns too many of the heroes worshiped into megalomaniacs, gamblers, substance abusers, violent criminals and worse.

Macho sports culture denigrates women. It "spins" images of steroid abusers into cult heroes. We would be much better off without it in every way. Sports participation versus sports worship? Now that's an entirely different topic.

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+1

soundtracks of AL 7:10AM July 17, 2009

You're gonna get whiplash from all that jumping to conclusions, people. Wasn't one brain injury death enough this week?

Dana of OH 11:17PM March 20, 2009

While I understand what you are trying to convey, the text of your post seems to jump straight to the extremist argument and categorize this as the rule, not the exception.

For example, your reference to the individual with gambling problems does not necessarily articulate how his watching sports was the root of his gambling problems. The fact that he had family members who were heavily involved in gambling, and this in turn created unrealistic expectations and encouraged financial imprudence would appear to be more of a cause of gambling.

Further, you take the stereotype of the traditional male athlete, and use it as grounds to discourage watching sports. While it is true, that a large number of athletes cannot understand that they are thrust into the public and become role models by default, there still are a number that live exemplary lives outside the sporting arena.

Interesting Post of CA 1:53PM March 20, 2009

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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