Sports Ethic

Coakley & Hughes refer to the "Sport Ethic" as the driving inclination for athletes to push the limits in an effort to be the best. Specifically on page 307 of Positive Deviance Among Athletes, the authors describe it as the need to sacrifice for the game, seek distinction, take risks and push the limits. While the sport ethic is seen as a positive influence at it's core, some see it as corrupting factor in the lives of many athletes. This has been particularly evident in modern sports with the emergence of P.E.D's (performance enhancing drugs). In the MLB players who have been caught using P.E.D's, cite their reasoning for using the drug as a necessity rather than cheating. They often claim that they only used out of a need to compete with the rest of the league. As a result, the steroid era was born in baseball. The sport ethic drove players to use P.E.D's out of a desire to climb to the top of the MLB totem pole. Players whom did not want to fall behind and lose the fame and the fortune were forced to use as well. The sport ethic need to be on top therefore tarnished an entire era of a professional sport. While this phenomenon has been most evident in baseball, it is a certainty that similar scenarios have unfolded in countless other sports.

The sport ethics negative effect on an athlete is shown through more than just use of P.E.D's. Nate Jackson, a former player for the Denver Broncos wrote a book titled "My Injury File: How I shot, Smoked, and Screwed my way through the NFL." The book is a recollection of Jackson's career and his compilation of injuries that his body had to endure in order to stay competitive at the highest level of football. Jackson states that he can barely walk today because of his long list of injuries. The driving factor in jackson's career marked with injury was the sports ethic. His risk taking in order to remain on top has left him nearly crippled for the rest of his life.

The victims of the negative effects of the sports ethic does not end there, just ask lance armstrong.