I know this is a risky venture, since most readers are used to short, concise sports reporting or opinion, but I am going to give it a shot anyway.
This is a piece I wrote about some causes for violent and aggressive behavior in and at sporting events.
I am presenting it here in three parts and I hope you all find the time to gain some knowledge on this subject.
It has been said of sport, "It does not create the conditions for war, but it does maintain the possibility of those conditions, and adds its own efficiency to the other forces which produce a social order in which trails of strength are seen as part of the natural course of things" (Holt, 2000, p. 88). George Orwell (1950) once made the observation, "Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence; in other words it is war minus the shooting." Competitive sports such as football, basketball, and baseball may involve aggressive tactics, but actual violence is considered to fall outside the boundaries of good sportsmanship. Contact sports, such as American football, ice hockey, r...
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