Thanks for a great semester everyone!! Ryan, you da man!!!

I really enjoyed reading all of my classmate's articles on "Any Given Sunday", I noticed that there were a lot of different perceptions of the movie.

As a conclusion to the course, Sports and Society, we were asked to write about one of our finals movies and how it tied into any aspect discussed throughout the course in particular. The movie I choose to discuss is �??Any Given Sunday.�?� This movie to me is considered one of the closets accounts in a movie depicting the truths and problems that occur during the course of a professional athlete.
Many athletes today have been in trouble with the law in some way or another. Whether it range from muscle-enhancing drugs, possession of substances or weapons, assault, rape, and domestic violence, the athletes who commit these crimes sometimes are influenced because of their social or economical background. There are athletes who do not come from fortunate areas and are susceptible of causing problems for many professional team owners. Throughout the movie, there were accounts of players being involved in rape and drugs. This is the hardship that can ultimately be involved when an athlete is the face of an entire organization, and the way he represents the organization is the way the public eye views them as a whole. Athletes strive to be better not only for themselves, but as well as for their team, which in term creates a family. Some athletes who enter a professional sport bring with them past issues. Whether it is trouble in the streets from a high-crime community or former involvement in sales/use of substances, these instances seem to follow every player, and eventually in turn it ends up being very disturbing towards the player. In the movie, Willie Beaman, the starting quarterback, was stereotyped like most black athletes sometimes are in professional sports. They thought that because he was black, he must of grew up in low social or high-crime conditions. This is where race sometimes conflict sports in a very obscene manner. This has occurred many times in professional sports were athletes are being ridiculed because of race for instances like Yao Ming mockery, Michael Vick controversy, Danny Almonte, early Lebron James, and early Tiger Woods. The day when race, politics, gender, ethnicity, social or economic class to not all coincide, will be when the world has finally learned equality.

The issue from this course that I came to agree is that sports have brought each athlete or fan a sense of being a part of something. The term learned in the course was called topophilia. Topophilia is when individuals experience the love of a place. Whether this is a specific area, a football field, a sandlot baseball field, a swimming pool, or the neighborhood basketball court, an athlete always has memories when thinking of this place. It gives an individual a sense of belonging to something even when all else has seem to abandon him/her. Many sports fans have topophilia by simply watching their favorite team play on television, regardless if they have ever even been to a live game. Topophilia for exists everyone I see the color gold. It reminds me of the purple and gold colors of LSU, or even the gold and black colors of New Orleans, the city I am native to. It is a sense of home, a sense of belonging.
On all of the issues in this course, I have to disagree on issues of racialized symbolism. Being from the south, where racialized symbolism is a common problem, there were many instances were I have seen over exaggeration of racial problems. One main problem in Mississippi is that there are several protestors towards the state flag. Many people babble about how this flag is a symbol of white hatred towards black. In some small cases, there are some who adhere to that ideology and fulfill it to the max, hanging it in places where there are prominently black societies. Many black friends of mine have no opposition towards the flag. It basically represents the state and the pride of the confederate south. They commonly say it has no symbolic meaning to them and even if it does, they do not care about it being up because it is simply the state flag. They chose to live in the state, and in that meaning they chose the symbol of their representation. As the same idea, after hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, decided to name the crescent city, �??chocolate city.�?� New Orleans was a city inhabited by the French and an area rich with Cajun French traditions. Whether a person is black, white, or Hispanic in New Orleans, one is always considered Creole, Cajun, or �??coon-ass.�?� While at my job here in Maryland, a customer watching the television decided to make the comment, �??I never knew black people existed in New Orleans.�?� Because of the hurricane, society has come to believe that New Orleans is particular made up blacks. This is completely untrue; it is a city of rich culture and diversity with a heavy French and Spanish influence. Its people are considered as one and idealize themselves strictly as Cajuns or as the defining term �??Ragin-Cajun.�?�

Before the beginning of this course, many aspects ran through me about the idea of criticizing sports. Sports have always been a huge part of my life, and they are something that keeps me going everyday. From this course, a new perspective has been bestowed upon me. There are many problems within sports that sometimes cause or influence many of the problems circulating our society. This is a problem that is not recent, but it has been a problem within our society for many years. Politics, economics, and social standing all apply towards the way individuals differently experience sports. Sports and society itself are dependent upon each other.

This course and the information taught definitely made me think critically about sports, and the way I think of them in our society. The lecture I particularly enjoyed was Youth and Sport. The reason I enjoyed it so much was that it had a lighter feel to it. It seemed that so many other lectures were all about politics, money, and the power of the corporation. This disciplinary piece of this lecture was interesting to learn about. Children are disciplined in school, and we as parents and teachers do try to take action. The lecture also discussed the four methods of discipline youth: Education, Medicine, Law, Sport. Education is what a child learns when he or she goes to class. Medicine, for example the use of ritalin is increasing at enormous rates amongst young children. In my opinion, parents are looking for an easy out, so they put their children on these psychoactive drugs. The law is adjusting in order to attempt to prevent school violence. An example of this is the metal detectors that schools are now using. The law still needs improvement though. One last way that the youth are disciplined is through sports. I feel that this is the very best way to discipline the youth, because sports are mainly what they enjoy the most at a young age. It is my job to create life long movers so that children do not quit sport by age thirteen. The lecture notes state: "Twenty million children register each year for youth hockey, football, baseball, soccer, and other competitive sports. The National Alliance for Sports reports that 70 percent of these kids quit playing these league sports by age 13-and never play them again" (Lecture # 4). Also, I do feel that children enjoy more child-centered activities, and I now understand now how huge of an impact youth music culture plays in our society today.
The lecture that I did not like was lecture # 3, titled Sport, Class, and American Society. To me, learning about how your social class determines everything you supposedly do, is not to gratifying. I personally believe that social class does not determine everything that I do in my life. I also disagree with the idea that sport related gambling is a lower class habitus. The shaving of points or purposely losing a professional sporting event was not performed by a member of the lower class, rather it was performed by a member of the upper class. Overall, I feel that the course addressed many controversial topics which were very interesting. This course definitely made me think critically about sport and society, and I am glad I took it.

Throughout this course we have been learning the various ways sports effects our everyday lives. We learned that sports matters in many different ways and effects our lives weather we want it to or not. The movie, �??Any Given Sunday�?� illustrates how we as a society view sports. The movie touches on how sports impact ones sex, age, and race to name a few. The movie does a good job of showing how we perceive Africans Americans in our society and I believe the movie parallels our society in many ways.
It is clear to see how the directors of �??Any Given Sunday�?� feel about how African Americans are perceived in the sports world. When Willy Beamen plays his first game his coach, played by Al Pacino tried to calm him down by telling him to imagine he is back in the hood and his mom is calling him in for dinner. As viewers of the movie we have no idea weather or no Willy is even from the hood or how the coach would know that. I believe that the coach is assuming the Willy is from a rough neighborhood just because of the fact he is black. Furthermore, why would Willy�??s mom have to use a �??dinner bell�?� like it is slavery days. The fact that the coach assumed he was from the �??hood�?� based on the color of his skin happens all the time in our society today. The stereotype that all African Americans are poor is a reoccurring stereotype that we see perpetuated in movies, books, cartoons and in many other facets of our society today.
Willie is portrayed in the movie as a young, arrogant, sexually promiscuous, brash individual (see Racial Binary). Willie Beamen develops a reputation in the movie for not listening to his coach and directly ignoring the coach and his play calling decisions in many instances. This already demonstrates that Willie�??s role in the movie is the one who doesn�??t follow the rules, but his athleticism is what keeps him in the game. I thought that the idea of a person�??s athleticism allowing them to bend the rules is a thought that parallels into a current events occurring right now.
For the past week or so we have been hearing a lot about an athlete by the name of O.J. Mayo. Mayo was a basketball player at the University of Southern California (USC) last year and was the teams best player. In fact, he was so good that after his freshman year he decided to enter the NBA draft. Mayo, unlike Beamen from the film, to our knowledge didn�??t intentionally ignore the plays his coach calls his breaking of the rules occurred off the �??playing field�?� (in this instance the court). It is reported that Mayo received over 30,000 dollars while playing at USC from an outside agent which is against NCAA rules. Mayo, throughout his life was receiving gifts from others because even at an early age many could tell he was going to be a great basketball player and he was taught that he can get away with breaking rules here and their because of his athleticism, so it is no shock to me that it turns out he was accepting money from an outside agent. Mayo clearly believed that the NCAA rules did not apply to him.
Pac man Jones is another example of an athlete that feels that he is so good that the rules do not apply to him. Pacman had been breaking many team rules and getting away with it for a long time before the Las Vegas strip club incident were he attempted to �??make it rain�?� and a riot broke out. Athletes like Pacman have even inspired many to argue for a �??three strikes and your out rule�?� for the NFL. The worst part about the story is that Pacman might actually make it out of this in better shape then he left off. The cowboys have already signed him for a three year contract and if he performs well I don�??t doubt that Jerry Jones will reward him financially.
Notice in the movie too that the head coach is White and the assistant coach is black. This concept of centrality is another one seen throughout the sporting world (more specifically football) that occurs not only among coaches, but also amongst the players. Centrality is the idea of putting white people in the �??thinking positions�?� such as head coach, general manager, quarterback, center, and others. In the NFL only 6% of the head coaches and team managers are African American while the other 94% are white. Once again this movie does a good job giving us a true to life depiction of how life in the sporting world is for African Americans. The representation of African Americans in solely �??non-thinking�?� positions extends over to the players as well. In 2002, in the NFL 76% of the quarterbacks were white and 83% of the centers were as well. Is it no wonder then that the movie decided to make one of the few black quarterbacks in the game, Willie Beamen, a rebellious character that doesn�??t even know the teams playbook?
The movie, �??Any given Sunday�?� demonstrated our perception of African Americans in the sporting world and does a good job of perpetuating all the stereotypes we have about them. This movie accomplished nothing that we haven�??t already seen in real life and the movie parallels the sporting world today.

This class truly opened my eyes about sport and how society is affected from the little league fields to the Super Bowl. My favorite lecture would definitely have to be the one about �??Sport and Social Class�?�. The lecture was very interesting in pointing out how many young children are placed in certain sports based on their family�??s income and the areas in which they live. The lecture truly hit close to home, as it became easy to relate to how many poor children, use athletics in order to get out of the ghetto and into higher education. Universities offer scholarships for outstanding athletes, which could lead to very high paying jobs, such as becoming professional athletes. Even if a scholarship athlete is not given the opportunity to play professional sports, it still gives them a chance for upward mobility. �??College graduates exceed high school graduates by hundreds of thousands of dollars in lifetime earnings. Since most high school and college athletes will never play at the professional level, the attainment of a college degree is a crucial determinant of upward mobility through sport�?� (Eitzen, 1999, 250). Basically stating, that a student who would not be able to get into a prestigious university, if it wasn�??t for sport, can ultimately wind up with a better job than an average student who attended a community college or small institution. This lecture was very interesting and answered many speculations one may have about the seemingly overwhelming rags to riches stories.
It is tough to say that I disliked or disagreed with a certain lecture. For the most part I agreed and enjoyed this class. There were occasional points that Ryan would bring up that I would have to second guess, but for the most part the class exposed a side of sport that I would never have thought of otherwise. Every time I watch a sporting event on TV or live in person, I am constantly reminded of most of the lectures given in class and view sports in a very different way, just as Ryan described we would on the first day of class. The correlation between sport and society is very substantial.

The terms race and gender are portrayed perfectly throughout the movie �??Any Given Sunday�?�. The film follows a professional football team in Miami, FL from all levels of the organization, from management down to the interning athletic trainer vying for the trust of the players. Although you could discuss an aspect from just about everything we have learned this semester in the movie, race and gender play the biggest roles. Let us begin with the owner. Christina Pagniacci is a headstrong white woman who is thrust into ownership after the death of her father. Already having to deal with the gender issue of a woman owner, she spends the majority of the movie attempting to show the men of power that a woman too can hang with the big boys, so to speak. After the starting quarterback, who happens to be white is injured, as well as the backup quarterback who is also white, the team is left with their last resort; Willie Beamen. Beamen is an athletic black quarterback who no one has ever heard of, mostly because of his off field issues by taking money from a booster while in college. In a way, �??Any Given Sunday�?� managed to attack an issue plaguing today�??s student athletes without outright stating it. Today�??s young black athletes are more and more becoming the focus of NCAA violations and financial scandals, as our �??power people�?� fill there heads with dreams and there pockets with cash. In all honesty, what young troubled child with unlimited amounts of athletic ability and a poor background wouldn�??t take some of the things handed to them?
The storyline really begins flowing with Beamen at the helm. He is young and erratic, and eventually decides to go against the guidance of his white coach and go his own way. LL Cool J makes an appearance as running back Julian Washington, whose main goal is to make money for himself and keep his reputation strong. The movie makes it a point to show that the owner and head coach are white, and the assistant head coach is black. The team at first has a hard time coming to grips with a black male at a �??thinking position�?�, and Beamen makes sure to use the race card ever chance he can when being interviewed. Race is even portrayed through music, as two different genres seemed to represent to different ethnicities in the locker room following one of the victories. Hip-Hop was playing loudly throughout the locker room, and the black athletes could be seen moving to the music and celebrating only to find out there celebration would be short lived when one of the white players switched the music to death metal, a genre typically thought of as �??white�?�. It was evident during Beamen�??s expression when he entered Coach Dimatto�??s home that the white race financially are better taken care of in the light that the money has been coming and in large amounts to them for a long time. Beamen is the main focus of the movie, and he in turn makes it known that he feels the black race are still used by white people in the same way they were in the slave era, for personal advantage and financial gain. Coach Dimatto, who had probably never glanced twice at Beamen before the injuries, coaxingly took him aside in his first game, and put on a dramatic show to convince his quarterback that he truly did care of his well-being and wanted him to do well. I discovered an article with a quote that stood out to me because it defined exactly what Coach Dimatto was attempting to accomplish. �??Whether the story gets the �??facts�?� right is really not all that important. An Indian Storyteller is much more interested in the �??truth�?� contained in a story. And a great Storyteller always makes that �??truth�?� in the story fit the needs of the moment.�?� (p. xi�??xii) Dimatto never cared about Beamen, and the fact that he pretended to only furthers my opinion that people, regardless of race, use others to there advantage when given the opportunity, and throwing racism into the mix only makes matters worse, because it therefore gives the victim an area to latch onto and drag an issue on.
With a female owner, the team is already looked upon as weak and predictable throughout the rest of the league, so Christine Pagniacci uses this as her excuse to thrash out against the white men of power and show her �??win at all costs�?� attitude. Her actions in the movie aren�??t typical of what is thought of as �??normal�?� female behavior, and the other white male owners make sure she is aware of this fact. The way women are thought to be portrayed, as sad and pathetic is it may be is evident at the house party thrown by one of the players. Here women are tossed around like dolls, engaging in sexual activity with men at will, and even referred to by the males as �??1000 dollar hoes�?�. Due to the use of the female owner as unguided and independent, I believe that part of the plot ties in directly with the Disney Article by Giroux. As I could go plenty of ways with this article due to the extensive time Giroux spent relating Disney to racism, I decided to go with the way he described Disney�??s lack of parental influence in there films, despite there strong idealistic view of family values. �??Not only are powerful mothers absent�?�..all of the fathers are portrayed as either weak or stupid.�?� (Giroux, 1999)
The film was nothing short of evident that these problems exist, and even in a way promoted them within the black community. Race and gender will most likely always cause a stir, and films such as �??Any Given Sunday�?� certainly don�??t help matters any.

The lecture from this course that I enjoyed the most was the one on Sport and Gender. Before this class, I did not realize that every aspect of our lives is influenced by our gender, and American society�??s views on our gender. For example, I never paid attention to the differences in girls and boys Halloween costumes for both children and adults. Halloween costumes that are directly towards little girls are pink, sparkly, and have accessories such as wands and tiaras with them. The typical Halloween costume for a boy is a super hero or a villain. For adults, costumers directed towards women consist of very short skirts, low cut shirts, fish net tights, and high heels. Men normally dress up in comical costumes or ones that show off their masculinity.
Society has directly impacted the views of gender through different means of media. An example of this is when the Victoria Secret commercial was aired during the Super Bowl this past year, which featured the supermodel Adrianna Lima in lingerie. This is one of the popular views of women in society. This ad is suggesting that all women need to look like a supermodel, and wear Victoria Secret lingerie in order to fit into American society. Another example is the absence of women in sports commercials. When a woman is in a sports commercial, she is �??often in stereotypical roles as sexy, masculinity-validating props, often cheering the men on�?� (Messner et al, 2000, pg. 383). Although the lecture that discussed gender and sport was the one that I agreed with the most, the lecture that I felt the most opposition was the one on Sport and Nationalism.
The lecture on Sport and Nationalism was not what I expected in more ways than one. Instead of focusing on the positive actions that were taken post 9/11 by the United States, I felt that this lecture centered on the negativity of the events that took place after September 11, 2001. Post September 11, 2001 was a chance for the United States to come together as a country, and to take pride in our country. Events that took place at the Salt Lake City Olympics or the 2002 Super Bowl were not over the top. These events were ones that could bring the United States and the world together to grieve the ones who lost their lives in the attacks in addition to simply moving on and remembering September 11th as a day in which the United States was not defeated. �??A central element of both the Salt Lake City opening ceremony and the Super Bowl was the flag that endured the September 11, 2001 attacks- marched in at both events by heroes of the newly refined homeland�?� (Falcous et al, 2005, pg. 61). This flag symbolized that the United States can prevail, and protect the lives of all Americans in this country from future terrorist attacks.

�??Running on the Sun�?� was a documentary that recorded the struggled and success of marathon runners who participated in the Hi-Tec Badwater Race in Death Valley, Nevada. The Badwater Race is a total of 135 miles which includes steep hills, high temperatures, and strong wind gusts. Before the race begin, the National Anthem was played with the United States flag display while other runners from different countries such as Great Britain displayed their country�??s flag.
The majority of the runners in the race were Caucasian males from middle class to upper middle class background. Most of the runners were from middle class and upper class backgrounds because of the cost of supplies and crews that traveled along side them during the race. Only runner who was female named Maria had one crew member. Profiles of different runners who were running the race were shown during the program including one on Maria. Before coming to Badwater, Maria was bankrupt and sleeping in a tent because she had borrowed the maximum amount of money she could from banks to pay for funds and the crew. She was not sure if she was ever going to be able to pay the loans back to the bank. As a result of the runner from the Marines being disqualified, the Marines were able to come and help out Maria. This can be considered very stereotypical of Marines coming to help people in need.
Another example of a stereotype is that one of the runner�??s wives from Great Britain attached an Irish can of beer to the back of the van to motivate him to finish the race. After finishing the race, you see the runner drinking the can of Irish beer. Even though this is pretty comical, in reality, it suggests that all British men need beer in order to entice them to finish an activity or task. Two of the runners that participated in the race had suffered from amputations. Ephraim Romesberg, a runner in the Badwater race whose leg is amputated, had to quit at the 90 mile mark because of swelling. When he quit, he commented that American society defines quitting as failure. This statement is very true because the expectations for Americans are set very high by society that when someone quits, it automatically is considered a failure.
This documentary featured a sport, extreme distance running, that was outside the mainstream of popular sport. As a result, �??the sport offers little in the way of celebrity or prize money- partly because finishing at all is considered nearly as prestigious as winning�?� (Johnson, 1998, pg. A1). The runners were able to overcome themselves and their weaknesses to finish the race. This document illustrates �??how entertainment can be addressed as an intellectual engagement rather than as a series of sights and sounds that wash over us�?� (Giroux, 1999, pg. 110).

In conclusion I enjoyed all of the different topics that we discussed in class, however the one that really interested me was �??Sport, Class, and American Society.�?� I was really surprised in how social class and not race and gender is the main thing that determines what sports people play. One concept that really caught my attention during this lecture was habitus. �??A habitus is a system of lasting unconscious dispositions and acquired schemes of thought and action, perception, and appreciation, based on individuals�?? integrated social experiences under specific sets of objective social conditions (e.g. socialization into a given class)�?� (Booth, 1999). Habitus is very important because it is responsible for a persons�?? decisions in every day life. Habitus determines everything from an individual�??s tastes, preferences, and values. During this lecture we also discussed how socio-economic class determines what kinds of sports people play. Low social class members are more likely to play sports where they use their bodies as instruments. For example boxing is a sport that is predominately a low social class sport. In middle class sports participants are usually crafting the body for well-being. Soccer can be considered a middle class sport, because it is a sport that has a lot of cardiovascular activity which is very good for keeping your body in shape. As for upper class most sport participant use their body as an instrument of hedonistic pleasure. An example of an upper class sport is golf, because it is mainly just played for the sheer fun of the game. From this lecture I also learned that there are a lot of people out there that think sports is there way to riches. There are a lot of inner city kids out there who think that they are going to be professional basketball players when they get older. �??Of the forty thousand or so African American boys who play high school basketball, only thirty five will make it to the NBA and only seven will be starter�?� (Eitzen, 1999). I agree that there are a lot of inner-city youth out there who think that they are going to be professional basketball players, however the odds are against them.
I did not totally agree with everything that was presented in the Nationalism lecture. I think that it is appropriate to show nationalism at sporting events. I do not agree that international sport is �??war minus the shooting�?�. Yes, I know that there are a lot of negative and criminal acts that can happen at a sporting event, but it is outrageous to even compare sports and war. Sports are events where people can forget about everything and just cheer on their favorite team. It is great to play the National Anthem before every game, even though Hitler started this trend. I feel that the playing of the National Anthem is a way for people to come together under a common theme, because even though there are many different people in the United States they are all still citizens. �??In the Super Bowl following 9-11 firefighters, and policemen carried the flag from the Twin Towers across the field�?� (Falcous, 2005). I feel that this was a good thing for the nation, because it was something that everyone could relate to. It was a little overboard considering that it was just a football game, but in my opinion it was a great way for everyone watching the game to unite on one common thing. Through out this course I have learned to look at sports from a very different perspective. After experiencing this course my outlook on sports has totally changed.

i agree with mwenkel on how this knowledge of sports and society effects the consumption and the enjoyments of sport films and events. The fact not now we are equipped with critical tools does change the way we view sports and our society.

Taking this class this semester have truly given me the tools and knowledge to look at sports in an intelligential and critical way. The thought of even applying politics, movies, and culture to sports would never made sense to me. However finishing this semester it is now very evident that everything makes up sports and how we as a society experience it. Out of the several lectures we had this semester the one that really stood out for me was the lecture on �??Race, Sport and Lived Experience�?�. The lecture was very interesting with the discussion on racial binary, commodities and the way American culture portrays other races at clowns, buffoons and criminals. The concepts of racial transcendence and racial displacement really displayed how politics can turn into commodification. Also watching many of the music videos in that lecture made it a very entertaining and exciting class. I really enjoyed the lecture as a whole. The one lecture I would had to say I disagreed however still enjoyed was our lecture on �??Racialized sporting symbolism�?�. I do understand how the Native American community point of view of Indian mascots being disrespectful but I do not agree with them. I always believed Indian mascots were chosen as mascot mainly for their symbolism of bravery and unity. For the most part non of the Native American mascots in sports are treated with disrespect. Mascot are used to promote school spirit and unity in a university and professional team, they used mascot as a face and symbol for their establishment, how Native American can view that as disrespectful I will never understand. The video In Whose Honor? did help open my eyes to a culture and race that is left unheard in our society. The documentary make very valid points and debate on how American society and culture overlooks the Native American community and really do not allow them to have a voice in our society. The American culture as a whole view the Native American mascots as symbols for bravery, war and pride not so much as a representative of a culture or race. The pure ignorance of our culture is what makes this debate so innocent, sports are not using Native American mascots to represent the Native American race but to represent a competitive and fierce unity of people.

Race, class, gender, age, and sexuality have been the dominant focus of the class since day one. Through this class, I have been able to see how each has impacted the way my life has been shaped. It has become easier to point out when and where there are biases in the media as far as race, class, gender, age, and sexuality when before I never realized it was even there. The movie that we watched, Running on the Sun, was no different. The objective was simple; make it up the traitorous path in extreme heat in less than 60 hours and be considered successful. People from all different backgrounds, living situations, and economic statures apply from over the world to compete. The way the movie was shown, it showed several contestants background and reason for running the race. As far as the first and second place winner, it put a young 30 or so white male up against the defending record holder who was a Spanish male in his mid 40�??s. I believe that the Spanish man was a mechanic who had a wife and children. His two brothers were running with him the whole time to support him. To be honest, the man did not look like someone who was in good enough shape to complete the task. On the other hand, the white male looked as if he was bred to run the race, and from beginning to end was in first place. The ironic thing about him is that I am unable to remember any of his background information that was said about him besides he was forced to drop out of the race in the previous year. I found myself rooting for the Spanish man because they showed numerous aspects of his everyday life. I got caught up in the mindset that the the winner looked to �??ordinary�?� to cheer for. The movie did not try to create a villain like other sport movies, unless you consider the New Yorker who continued to complain about not getting his soup a real villain. For the most part, they made everyone appear to be the �??good guy�?�. For instance, the older white males or the man who had a prosthetic leg were favorites of mine who were extremely easy to cheer for. The girl who had to live in a tent who was helped by the marines was another person that was seen as more of a protagonist then most others.
I enjoyed many aspects about this course. Truthfully, it was nothing that I expected and at first I had no clue what was going on. Sports are my life, but this class gave me the opportunity to look at it with a whole different outlook away from box scores and highlights. My favorite class was the one where we watched the video on the Philippines because I visited there this past summer which made me pay attention a little closer. I did not dislike any class, but I am still unsure about some people being more genetically gifted. I understand that is a lot to do with the environment that you grow up in, but sometimes I believe that there has to be more to it. This was a great class that I thoroughly enjoyed because it interests me to see how sport intertwines with everything in our society.

This class has taught me a lot of things throughout the semester and really opened my eyes up to society overall. By far one of my favorite classes of the whole semester was the Sport and Race class. There is always some type of argument about race in sports on a sports talk show and in all reality that is a shame. The comment I love is in Reilly�??s article when he says �??It�??s OK I know I am a pathetic White Guy�?� (Reilly 2004, 90). That comment makes me laugh because that comment is so incredibly false it is amazing. This class helped prove the point that there is no real reason that an African American person would be or is more athletic than white people. The statistics did amaze me in the amount of opportunities that white people have compare to African Americans. One of the most surprising things to me was how in sports there are the stereotypes of having a white person in all of the thinking positions compared to other positions. For example in basketball traditionally there is a white person at point guard because that is a very important position and involved thinking as well. The other would be in football the Quarterback position, which is considered the most important position in football, is primarily occupied by a white person. Based off of the lecture beyond that people of Latino or African American decent occupy the all the other positions and primarily the ones that score all of the points. However, all of the thinking positions are occupied by whites. However, the racial issues do not stop there because it goes beyond the field and into the front offices and in particular the coaches. There is always an issue with the amount of African American coaches in leagues compared to whites and that was something else that was really brought to my attention. The one lecture I did not like about this sport was the learning of Corporate Sport. I know that it was very important for us to understand the concepts of that and Neoliberalism, but for the most part it almost ruined sports for me. For me it almost ruined sports because in all reality it is almost the ugly side of sport that most people do not think about or fail to even recognize. A line from Merrell�??s article that kind of made me mad was when he said �??But what does it say about a people who become more excited about sweaty athletes than their elected officials�?� (Merrell 2004, 1). For some people that is there lives and in all reality they should not be criticized for it. When you begin to look at what affect certain things and in particular for sport it truly amazes me. That lecture however, is essential to the class but I wish there was someway it could almost be modified. Besides that lecture I liked the class overall especially things like the Hacienda Looc issue. Sports are a great thing until they start interfering with people�??s lives and especially the way of making a living. When sports start to spread that changes almost everything in society and it does not really matter if it is a bad thing. Sport is something that clearly society centers itself around and that is evident by certain situations such as Hacienda Looc. Those situations are unfortunate, but they need to be addressed because we are interfering with peoples lives. This class has taught me and luckily it did not ruin sport for me, but it did change my view on a lot of things that are going on in the world associated with sport.

I am taking about three classes this semester that teach me to think critically about a specific topic and to find the underlying aspects that are not brought our for society to see. After taking all three of these classes at the same time, this class has helped me not only look at sport critically but many other aspects of my life, while the other two were very bias in their subjects. I believe that, this class has changed the ways I view sport and my life in relation to it.
The one lecture I particulary liked was the one about sport and gender. The way the class was started out by discussing our gender is shaped by society and it is seen as a social construct is something that not everyone knows but it was good to see specific examples. This is something I have talked about in many of my classes throughout college, and the examples are always the same. Girls get dressed in pink and are targeted to buy pink toys such as princess, dolls and anything that has to do with cooking or creating the perfect household. Boys are dressed in blue and are targeted to buy manly toys such as trucks and tool kits. And gender construction doesn't stop after the little kids grow up we learned. IThere have been many affects in my life by my gender and the sports that I have played. From being treated differently by my father than my more tom boy sister was to being ridiculed in gym class because I excelled at certain things more so than the boys. This lecture gave an insight as to why this happens and it gave specific examples of how in sport this happens more than you would think. From the uniforms a person wears to the specific rules of the game. I read another blog that our professor, called Real Fans vs. Pink Hats and it was about how in Boston if they did not think you were a real Red Sox fan then you would get called a pink hat which is an insult saying that women didn't know nearly as much about sports as men which throughout life is not always the case and it is good to have someone raise this point and make people actually think about it.
Overall, this was one of the most interesting courses I have taken in college. Most of my friends said I was crazy for taking this course my last semester in college because I do not need it to graduate and it is a lot of writing. But taking it for fun turned out to be a positive experience. The overall structure of the class was fair and the lectures were interesting and really got the entire class involved which is something that many professors do not do.

Reflecting on the semester, I enjoyed this course as a whole. Before this semester, I looked at sport in a very different way. I took my experiences with sport and society for granted. I never realized the underlying issues that influence our experiences in many aspects of our lives. This course has helped me to develop a more critical view of the world around me. As a result, I have viewed my sporting experiences very differently.
One lecture that I really enjoyed was �??Sport, Gender, and Sexuality.�?� I agree that our society socializes children into doing certain things and acting in certain ways based on their gender. I also agree that gender is a continuum. I have never met a person that does not have traits of both genders. As a female athlete, I can identify in the struggle that girls and women face in the sporting world. It was interesting to learn the history of women in sports. I liked learning about how far women have come to stand out as athletes. I agree that sport is still a male preserve. Sadly, I agree that women are seen more for sex appeal than skill in athletics. I think it is crucial to include this in the lecture because it is important to learn about ways in which our society is moving in a negative direction in regard to gender.
Recently, I watch a True Hollywood Story Investigates special on cheerleading. As a result of this lecture, I was able to better understand the reasons why cheerleaders feel the need to prove themselves by playing injured, putting great amount of physical stress on their bodies, and losing weight to achieve the perfect cheerleader image. The cheerleaders feel the need to prove that they are athletes even though this sport is extremely physical. This proves what the lecture has taught- female athletes are still heavily scrutinized in the sporting world.
Another lecture that I enjoyed was �??Sport, Class, and American Society.�?� This lecture showed how sport relates to different social classes. Many Towson students have experience with only the social class they were born into. I like how this lecture allows the class to see how sport is influenced by a social class different from their own. This lecture gives an opportunity to understand others in the community we live in. I agree that the class we were raised in has a large impact on the sports we play. Before this lecture, I did not understand the sporting practice of cock fighting, but after learning about social classes, this sport seems less trivial. I also agree that our exposure to certain sports through stadiums and television is closely related to our social class. This lecture was an eye-opener to the population in our society.
One lecture that I did not agree with was �??The Politics of Sporting Nationalisms.�?� I do not think politics are popularized through sports as much as the lecture portrayed. Sports are an everyday part of the American culture, and I do not believe they are exploited for political agendas. In regard to the post-9/11 movement, I do not think the United States took their love of the country too far. This tragedy affected a lot of people and the country needed to react the way it did to create strength and support. The strong nationalism was necessary to overcome the devastation. Because the World Trade Center was struck, I do not see anything wrong with honoring 9/11 at the Olympics. As far as the diminishing nationalism after 9/11, I feel that is only natural. If another tragedy like this were to happen again, nationalism will rise to a level that will help the nation to cope. Another aspect of the lecture that I did not like was references to events that happened in the past. I have never enjoyed history and do not have a good memory for it, so it was difficult to relate to some of the underlying issues of events discussed in class when I did not fully understand the event.
Overall, I enjoyed most of the lectures because they gave me the ability to see society from different perspectives. This class has taught me that the media has the ability to make you see things from a specific point of view, which can deter you from looking deeper. I am happy that this class has helped me develop a more critical on society.

This class as a whole corresponded with my feelings on most of the issues we discussed. The topic I agreed the most with was �??Sport, Gender, and Sexuality�?�. The media portrays men as superior and dominant in most aspects of life, even today. However, sport is probably the place in which it is most prevalent. Sports teams are separated by sex at an early age and many sports are deemed �??appropriate�?? for a particular sex. Female athletes pose for the covers of magazines, but are portrayed in a sexual or objectified manner. Male athletes are made to look muscular and tough, directly related to their sport. Certain sports are not thought to be for men in general. Generally speaking, if a man plays football he assumed to be heterosexual while if a man is a professional figure skater he is automatically assumed to be homosexual. Unfortunately, most people do generalize because of the nature of these differing sports. Women who play sports such as hockey or softball are thought to be homosexual, as opposed to those who play other sports. It is unfair, but gender roles and identities have been molded this way over the years. Title IX improved women�??s chances in sport in general, but there is still backlash related to that movement. People quickly learn what the norms or society expect of them based on their gender roles.
The lesson I disagreed with the most, and enjoyed the least, was �??The Politics of Sporting Nationalisms�?�. It was not that interesting to me in general. In addition, many of the things that were talked about as �??wrong�??, or �??negative�?? about this country�??s actions post September 11, I actually thought were reasonable. If I were the president, I would not stand for the entrance of an enemy country Iran at the 2002 Olympics. That would be showing some agreement or acceptance of what they represent as a nation. America�??s playing of the National Anthem at all major sporting events is a way of showing our support for the nation, as well as all of the troops defending it. I feel there is nothing wrong or obnoxious about it, as some people presented it to be.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It was interesting to hear the perspectives of different class mates as well as Professor White. I have truly gained a new insight into the world we live in. I have learned a lot about our society and the many problems that plague it.
Choosing a topic that I really like is difficult to do in this class because I have found many of the topics very interesting. However, some of the topics that stick out the most to me would definitely be "sport, gender and sexuality" and "sport and race"
I would have to choose these two topics because I definitely identify with both of them.

In our society, men and women are expected to play certain roles. Men are viewed as masuline, while women are viewed as feminie, and any deviation from the norm is usually met with criticism. In sport, this is often the same case. When men or women crossover into a male or female dominated sport, they are often sterotyped. "Sport is a place where we learn or have learned about gender�?� (White, 2008, p.7). However, there is even further sterotype within the realm of gender because it is often socially acceptable for women to participate in male sports such as basketball but the opposite for males crossing into female dominate sports such as figure skating.


The lecture on race is another topic that I really relate to. Being of African American descent, the topic of race is always prevelant in everyday life, society and even in my social groups. It is simply a hard subject to get around. Race also plays a significant role in every sport around the world. It is often segregated, yet acceptable. It is often rare to find black athletes competing in lacross, swimming or hockey, yet they dominiate football and basketball. It is also true of other races, such as the dominance of Dominicans in Major League Baseball.

There is also a social phenomenom that devides popular Black athletes from their own race. The concept of "racial otherness" makes it socially acceptable for non-dominate racial icons to be accepted by White America. "American culture simply
does not tolerate individuals who are, to put it plainly, too black"

Obviously our society has many flawed views of gender, sexuality and race. I think this class provided an insight to many aspects of our society that gets swept under the rug. It unveiled many issues that are important to address in order to bring about any type of social change.

The movie that was up for discussion in our class was the movie Running on the Sun. We were asked to watch this movie and then discuss its relation to several of the topics brought up during the semester. In the article we read from Giroux, he discussed the importance of looking at Disney films critically, which also can be applied to films on sports as well. He stated that �??Cultural workers need to study these films intertextually and form a transnational perspective�?� (2001, p. 113).
The movie was a documentary about elite marathon runners who congregate to Death Valley to run a grueling 135 mile race. The movie followed 40 runners and tried to explain their motivations for running the race, along with the perseverance it required to finish this race. This movie was different than some of the other Hollywood sports movies, in that it was a documentary. It was designed to show the audience the extreme nature of this race and the people that run in it. I felt the movie did an excellent job showing the dedication of each of these runners, and depicted this extreme sport fairly.
One of the first things I picked up in this movie was nationalism. They opened the movie depicting a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, who was getting set to run in the race. They also displayed a shot of several runners waving the French flag before the start. The second thing that I noticed was in relation to race. The runners that were participating in the race were from all various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. However, it did seem a like a lot of the shots we got of some of the comical characters in the movie were that of the Mexican runner, the old British man, and the guy from the Bronx.
The next topics I noticed in the movie were that of class and gender. The movie shows several of the runners, and depicts what some of them had to go through in order to run in the race. The guy that ends up winning the race, I believe was a professional runner. He had a team of people to help him through out the race, and seemed to be wearing sponsorships all over his clothing. On the other end of the spectrum they displayed a woman from England that had to live out of a tent in order to train. She had to max out her credit cards in order to make it over for the race, and had only one man helping her. In class we discussed gender, and how the Marine and his buddies helped the English women finish the race, as if she was not going to finish with out their help. I believe that the director was showing that even if she had not finished the race. She still got farther than the Marine, and dealt with as much adversity as anyone running in the race.
Running on the Sun was a sports film that did the sport of extreme marathon running justice. It really showed the intensity and perseverance needed to finish a grueling race like �??Badwater�?�.

With the Olympic competition fast approaching, it brings to mind the superb quality of the athletes that will participate in the upcoming summer games. These athletes have placed a tremendous value on patriotism, looking to bring home a gold medal for their country. Olympic athletes put their bodies through intense training and conditioning for their events. Every workout and every meal are carefully planned so that performance is maximized.
The summer games is a tough event, however, there exists a different set of athletes out there. These athletes come from all walks of life to participate in one of the world�??s most demanding and strenuous races: The Badwater 135. This race takes place in Death Valley. It is not just a clever name for this place. Temperatures in the region soar up to 120 degrees during the day and can get down to 40 degrees at night. Runners in this ultra-marathon set out to run 135 miles through the flats and mountains of this extreme desert.
The runners in this race span an age range from the early twenties to late sixties. There are men and women, rich and poor, and many races and ethnicities are represented in this group of athletes. The Badwater 135 is a test to these athletes. To most it is not about winning the race; it is just about finishing it. It is �??a test to themselves�?� as one man put it in the documentary, Running on the Sun. The Badwater 135 is a personal triumph to all who finish the race.
This race is made up of a great class of runners. These runners are from all walks of life. Some runners are professionals; others are truck drivers, storeowners, retirees, members of the US Armed Forces, or physical therapists. Some runners come into the race with a knowledge staff of nurses and exercise specialists to help them finish the race. Others come with just their family members who there to support them and help in any way they can.
This documentary, Running on the Sun, showed how the class structure of our society can be broken down or looked passed when individuals come together to only achieve a personal triumph of finishing the race but to bring everyone else with them. There is one story in this particular film, which took place in July of 1999, showing this break between classes.
Major William Curt Maples of the US Marine Corps was in top physical condition. His drive behind entering this race was to place his body under one of the toughest conditions possible. Then there is Maria De Jesus, a poor English girl who wanted to do the same. Both runners began the race not knowing each other. Major Maples started the race with a team of fellow Marines and unfortunately had to withdraw due to dehydration. Maria was struggling to finish as well with blisters and cramps pushing her to pains limit. After withdrawing from the race, Major Maples and his fellow Marines came back to the race and decided to help any runners who were in need of assistance. This is where he came across Maria. Badly beaten and ready to withdraw, Maria was wanted to quit. Major Maples and his team came along to assist her, providing her with first aid and nutrition. With the help of the Marines, Maria was able to finish the race.
This story demonstrates that the class system, at least at this moment, didn�??t matter. All that mattered was the goal to finish the race. Even though Major Maples didn�??t get to accomplish his goal, he and his team humbly accepted the challenge to help Maria, someone who desperately needed the aid.
That story was one thing that I loved about this marathon. Class didn�??t matter for once, neither did race, gender, or ethnicity. That is what it is all about. Many people say that kids learn from Disney films about social values and constructs. �??It is the happiest place on earth,�?� as one writer called it (Giroux 1999). I feel that Running On the Sun is an even better way to see these social values and constructs. It shows real people experiencing real pain and showing real emotion. It captures people at their very best and at their very worst. It also captures a �??regular�?� group of people with determination and strength to achieve goals.

karagoodwin25: I really agree with your blog...you said what I wanted to say, but better! When you said that President Bush should have remained seated because "we needed to prove to ourselves and everyone else that you can not just come into our country and attack us without repercussions", that is exactly right. It seems that some would risk us appearing complacent so as we don't make anyone angry and just put a happy face on the situation. President Bush did exactly as he should have as the leader of our country, and I know that I would have been confused at the least, and probably angry, if he had pretended that it was all ok and stood and welcomed them in the same fashion as the other nations of the world.

Overall, this class has helped to round out and shape my viewpoints of the world we live in, and has helped me to re-define what I believe to be true. I feel like at certain times in my life, I probably did not consider different opinions or options, because I knew what I felt. Through this class, I haven�??t necessarily changed my beliefs and views, but I am more able to listen to differing opinions and try to understand the background behind those different opinions and beliefs.
One lecture which really stuck with me was the week we discussed gender and sport. I felt like the lecture put into words what a lot of female athletes, in our class even, have experienced in their different sporting arenas. The gender binary that still exists in the sporting environment can all but paralyze an athlete if they should fail to measure up to the pre-conceived standards of their gender. Female athletes especially are hindered by the male-oriented sporting atmosphere. It�??s great if they have talent, but they better have the looks and a good body too, or they will not make it far. I feel like the lecture, and the readings, hit the nail on the head, and served to enlighten as to the situation in the sporting world.
The one lecture that left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied was the lecture addressing sport and nationalism. While I agreed with pointing out the links between sport and nationalism, such as the tension-filled soccer game between the U.S. and Iraq, and the various Olympic events, I couldn�??t help but feel that the U.S. was being criticized from every angle. For example, Steve Nash and Toni Smith were mentioned as not agreeing with the Iraq war, but no one seemed to offer constructive criticism or proposed solutions to the various problems they feel exist in this country. It seemed that the U.S. and its various symbols and were taking a beating, without anyone stepping back to consider the good that has been done by this country, and the fact that we would not be allowed to sit back and criticize our President and country had it not been for the rights and freedoms that have been attained for us. I just feel that if there is going to be criticism, there should also be recognition of what is being done well, and solutions offered for what should be fixed instead of leaving at open-ended criticism.

The lecture I enjoyed the most was from week 2, �??Sport Class and American Society.�?� The lecture introduced me to the important concept of habitus. One�??s habitus is responsible for nearly ever part of a person�??s life, from life experiences, to a favorite food. The lecture forced me to accept that life is somewhat pre-determined by certain uncontrollable factors. America is the land of freedom and opportunity, but it is very difficult to overcome the effects of one�??s habitus.
The lecture I enjoyed the least was �??Race, Sport and Lived Experience.�?� In my opinion, some of the arguments claiming the existence of predjudices in our society were exaggerated, over-analyzed, and hyper-sensitive to the issue of race. An example is the argument against the participation of college students in stereotypical theme parties for different groups of people, such as �??pimps and hoes�?� or �??white trash�?� themes. The attendees arrive in completely over-exaggerated costumes with the intent for light-hearted fun. I do not think people are as offended by these parties as discussed in class. I put myself in the place of the group of people who are chosen as the theme of the party. For example, if a party were themed �??Towson Girls,�?� I would not feel offended not matter how we were being made fun of. It is all in good fun.
Also, the commercial shown in class featuring National Basketball Association player, Yao Ming was presented as a form of bigotry. Supposedly the commercial portrayed Ming as a �??buffoon.�?� In my opinion, the commercial cleverly uses a play on words and Ming�??s first name. I do not agree that the commercial is making a mockery of Ming�??s Asian culture, nor does it express any insinuation that Ming is like a �??buffoon.�?� The only person I can imagine being offended after watching the commercial is someone who is ridiculously sensitive to the issues of race.
During the same lecture, there was one portion I found particularly enlightening. In our society, we are very �??aware�?� of one another�??s �??race.�?� The outcome of one�??s daily experiences relies heavily on his or her race. Our society puts a lot of emphasis on race, but race actually does not exist. Race has no scientific or biological basis and is completely artificially constructed by society. Even after acknowledging this information, in every culture, race still �??matters.�?�
With the completion of this course, I have been permanently transformed into a critically thinking sport enthusiast. The ways in which I consume sport are forever changed because I am now analytical of sport and experience it in new ways. This evolution effects my consumption and sometimes my enjoyments of sport films, programs, events, advertisements and products. Although sometimes I feel sport is less enjoyable for me since the beginning of this course, I am still appreciative of the new skills and perspectives I have acquired each week of the semester.

The movie "Any Given Sunday" displayed many of the topics covered in class. Economics, age, class, race, and gender were all displayed in the film. This movie also correctly shows the lives that many professional athletes live and lets the public know that it is not as glamorous as many people are led to believe.

Economics was displayed in a lot of different ways in the movie. The team wants to get out of Miami, since the neighboring Dolphins were more successful and the city refused to build the Sharks a new stadium. Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), who is the owner of the Sharks, tries to persuade the city into granting the team a new stadium by doing charity fund raisers. Economics is also displayed in player salaries. Many players received benefits for certain accomplishments on the field. Julian Washington (LL Cool J) is determined to rush for a certain amount of yards to receive his bonus and Lawrence "Shark" Lavay (Lawrence Taylor) risks his life to get a certain amount of tackles and sacks to get his million dollar bonus. Willy Beamen (Jamie Foxx) also does promotional music videos for MetRx.

Age is played into this movie in the case of Jack "Cap" Rooney (Dennis Quaid). Rooney is injured in the game and is replaced by the younger Beamen. Rooney works out harder than ever before because he realizes that his time may be up since the new younger quarterback has quickly taken the spotlight. Rooney returns early from injury and realizes that he may be too injured to compete. Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) is the head coach, who makes Rooney play since he feels as if he deserves the playoff game, not the younger and much more immature Beamen. Rooney's age also takes a toll on his family. His wife cannot fathom the fact that her husband will be retiring and getting older. It would take only one more injury for Rooney's wife to accept the fact that her husband is going to retiring.

Class is shown in almost every scene of the movie. Willie Beaman comes from a family with a lot of values. He told Coach D'Amato that his mother never comes to games since Sundays are for church. Beamen's girlfriend also has a hard time interacting with the player's wives since she is not as wealthy as them. Pagniacci, is shown living a very wealthy life with her mother being an alcoholic. The stress between the team, personal relationships and her mother shows that money does not grant happiness. Lavay, who is the face of the franchise has a huge house and throws luxurious parties filled with naked women, drugs, and alcohol. D'Amato as well lives in a huge house. He is an aging coach who, himself, is an alcoholic and has blown his money and his family away. Patrick "Madman" Kelly (Andrew Bryniarski) is a white lineman. As discussed before in the class lecture, linemen are not paid the money that quarterbacks, running backs or linebackers are paid. The movie shows his home being small and crowded with two kids and a less than loving wife.

Race is displayed in many ways including the way they play on the field and how the players act in nightlife. At a charity fund raiser, the white players were dressed in black tie attire while the black players wore more flamboyant outfits. The black players would then do lines of cocaine and abuse women during the event. Julian Washington had a look that was similar to Clinton Portis' attire that he wears to press conferences.

Gender is a big part of athletics. When a women owns a men professional sports team, there will be a lot of conflict. There are many instances when Pagniacci's decisions would be second guessed since she was a women. Pagniacci also faced problems when going into the team's locker room. In a room full of nude men, she would quibble a joke or two but would eventually be hit on by Beamen.

Finishing up sport and society the class lecture that I agreed with the most was �??Sport, Gender, & Sexuality�?�. According to society men are supposed to act masculine and females are supposed to act feminine. As the lecture states the teaching of masculinity and femininity starts at an early age, boys are given dump drunks and girls are given princesses. For Halloween boys are encouraged to dress up as batman, or a football player, while girls are encouraged to dress up like a princess or a cheerleader (White, 2008). Having both a niece and nephew I know this to be true. For Halloween my nephew was a football player and my niece was a cheerleader.
Generally society is not accepting of males that participate in sports that are considered feminine and likewise of females who participate in sports that are considered masculine. For example if a man plays football he assumed to be heterosexual while if a man is a professional figure skater he is automatically assumed to be homosexual (White, 2008). I couldn�??t agree with that anymore. If I see a male cheerleader on the side lines of a football game, I almost always assume he is gay.
�??Sport is a place where we learn or have learned about gender�?� (White, 2008, p.7). Sport often segregates according to sex and certain sports are deemed appropriate for men and women. Separating men and women in sport leads to differential treatment of males and females, when you separate females you are automatically limiting them.
More often than not women are not recognized for their athletic ability but rather for their looks, while males are recognized more for their athletic ability. Examples of this can be seen in commercials during sporting events; �??women are sexy props or prizes for men�??s successful sport performances or consumption choices, when women did appear on commercials it was most often in stereotypical roles as sexy, masculinity-validating props (Messner et al., 2000, p. 383). Being female in a society where sport is considered a male preserve, I agreed with this lecture the most.
In contrast the lecture that I disagreed with the most was �??The Politics of Sporting Nationalisms�?� (Andrews, 2007, p. 1). After the events of 9/11 I think that American should have behaved in the way that we did. In class we discussed how some of the post events were inappropriate. For example President Bush not standing when Iran entered the arena during the 2002 Salt Lake City games, but yet he stood when America entered. I agreed then and still agree with President Bush�??s decision to not stand when Iran entered. If he would have stood it would have showed that in some way we supported them. The president not standing was a positive way to show Iran that we condemn what is/was going on in their country.
During the same Olympic Games ceremony we revisited cold war history. Again this was appropriate because we were showing to the rest of the world that we are better than everyone else. Which we should have done, we needed to prove to ourselves and everyone else that you can not just come into our country and attack us without repercussions. It was important for America to prove that we are the dominate country, especially for many who have loved ones over seas. People with loved ones over seas and the solders that are actually over seas want to know that America is behind and supporting them. They want to know that what they are doing is appreciated.
After the attacks we should not have stood as to show we are supporting Iran. Bush should have remained seated. �??Bush himself envisioned the United States as: �??the greatest force for good in world history�?? (Falcous and Silk, 2005, p. 59). When the war in Iraq began many Americans agreed with this statement and supported Bush. As Americans we want everything immediately. We do not have the patience to continue supporting something when there has not been substantial benefit to America. Thus, many American�??s currently do not support the war in Iraq at all. The war on Terror is possibly one of the most controversial issues in current politics today.

Conclusion
One of the lectures that I really enjoyed was the topic of racialized sporting symbolism regarding the media either reflecting or creating our world. The media does a little bit of both by only showing or reporting certain aspects of a story. This way Americans and the world are only informed about what the media wants you to know. Not getting the whole picture can change an entire story line. According to Voorhees, Vick, & Perkins (2007) news media played a pivitol role in Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This was evident when two similair pictures were posted with entirely different story lines. One had a minority in the photogragh and was negatively viewed as the other had two white people which was viewed with a more positive spin on it. These images became one of the sparks that renewed the debate over class and racial bias in the media (Voorhees et al., 2007). This is how the media can sway the audience in a different direction when it wants to without the majority of the people finding out what the real or entire story is about. The media can be biased in its coverage and has its strongest effects on viewers during crisis situations. Most people rely on the media for critical life and death information and it becomes a sort of lifeline. It was found that minorities are underrepresented on television programming and when they do appear, their social status is significantly lower than their white counterparts. Media is most often the only source of information white people have about minorities and these images that they show have a negative appearance (Voorhees et al., 2007). In a study done on media trust, �??52% did not trust what the television coverage reported on Hurricane Katrina. However, with no other way to get much needed information, distrust was not an option�?� (Voorhees et al., p. 422, 2007).
For the overall course and lectures I agreed with the content. There was not any subject matter that I disagreed with as a whole. Sport and society was presented in such a manner that gave you an objective view. There was no one sided lecture, it was very well presented that gave the audience an opportunity to view his/her opinion.
This class has definitely opened up my eyes and made me think more about what is going on in sports. Not being much of a sports fan, it has made me realize there is more to the world of sports than just a game. I watched the Super Bowl in a different light. It actually made me a little upset watching how women are portrayed between the commercials and the girlfriends of the players. I never realized how sports is focused towards men and puts women in a sexist role. It is obvious but, if you do not really think about or disect it, you would not see how sports mirrors society especially when it comes to race, class, and gender.

After reading several of the responses, my classmates brought up racial stereotypes that I did not notice myself. For example, the separation of the black and white players in the locker room. Not only were they segregated physically, but the white players were listening to rock music while the black players were listening to rap music. Also, the fact that Beaman threw up during every game does suggest that he could not handle the pressure of playing the quarterback position. None of the other quarterbacks on the Sharks or any of their competitors were ever shown throwing up on the field.

Mwenkle writes about stacking and centrality in the film Any Given Sunday. That is correct and something I never thought about during the film but it is a part of how the team is set up.

The movie Any Given Sunday had several references towards race and gender. The movie parallels real life in sports with rich white people in the top positions. The coach, along with the physician taking care of the team, the orthopedist and his intern, were white males. However, the general manager of the team was a white female. Typically, this role is dominated by a white male. Perhaps this was because her father was the manager before he passed away and the role was handed down to her. Being the female in not only a male dominated sport but a male dominated position not everyone took her seriously or treated her with respect. There were several scenes which men repeatedly spoke down to her referencing her to being too feminine for this sport. One of the direct quotes from the movie was that she should just quit and go get married and have children. Even at a scene where there is a party the Mayor treats her like she does not know how to play the game. She tries to speak with him about football and he ignores her and walks away to converse with men. If she were a man, he would have her much different and more like a collegue or one of the guys.
Race was brought up when Beamen, a black man and the quarterback for the team, was being interviewed on a talk show. He talked about his aggravations of black men versus white men in the sport of football. He stated that black men are pervieved as stupid and they treated different that white folks. He also reiterated that no one in the top positions in football are black men which parallels society now. He was quoted saying that white men are in the boxes looking for the next black kid to play football and make them money. This infers that the black race is working for the rich white race who sit back and just watch black players work for them. This is exacerbated when Beamen goes to dinner at his coach�??s house which is a beautiful home which is impecably decorated and obviously very expensive. This scene illustrates how the white race is portrayed as dominating over the black race. Any Given Sunday is a movie that takes sports and society directly from today�??s world and reflection of sports.

In the movie �??Any Given Sunday�?� there were examples of gender, race, sexuality, and class. As for gender the men in the movie played typical masculine football player rolls, and the women typically played roles that were emotional or they were portrayed as models. Every women that was at the one party seen was pencil thin and had a large chest which is not typical of all women, however this is how society portrays what women should look like. The older white quarterback never wanted to give up his starting position, this is typical because as a man you never want to loss you position in society. I think that there were race issues in just about every scene of the movie. To start of the main coach was a white middle aged male and some of his assistant coaches were black, I also noticed that all of the business men that had to do with the moving the team out of Miami, were white middle aged upper class males. The movies started of with centrality because the quarterback was white, and centrality promotes that white players are always put into positions that have the most responsibility. Stacking was also prevalent through out the movie because the football team had predominately black males at running back and receiver. The movie also demonstrated a lot of different social class issues. Willie was considered to be an underprivileged black athlete because he was not from a wealthy family and he was kicked out of college for accepting a suit form a friend to wear to a dinner. The College Board explained that he was kicked out of school because the suit was a bribe, but since Willie was most likely form a low class family he was probably just considering this a nice jester since he was in college and did not have the money to buy a suit of his own. When Willie got kick out of college for accepting the suit is a great example of how sports is all about money, politics, and social class. Today money plays a very important role in sports because that is how teams get players to play for them especially in baseball. Baseball teams are always trying to get the best players for the cheapest amount of money, and that is why many major league teams are bringing in players from out of the county to play in the states because it is a lot cheaper. For example Sammy Sosa who is form the Dominican Republic was had a signing bonus with Major League Baseball for only $10,000, when Alex Rodriguez is getting paid over 26 million dollars a year to play for the Yankees. Another example is �??the athletics signed Miguel Tejada for 2,000 dollars, while in comparison one of his teammates received a 1.2 million dollar signing bonus�?� (Breton, 2000). This obviously shows that economic status is taken into great consideration when some major league players are willing to play for any amount of money, and others demand ridiculous amounts and in most cases they receive that money if the team hiring them thinks that the investment is worth it.

Verina79 points out that the movie portrays our societal views pretty accurately. As sad as it is, the movie portrays the way our society sees women, how greedy people are when it comes to money, and how our race places us very accurately.

Throughout the semester, we have learned to view sport with a more critical eye. After learning about different aspects such as gender, race, nationalism, economics, and social class, it is easy to see how they influence sport in our society. In class, we watched �??Any Given Sunday�?� to see how sport was influenced by the previously mentioned aspects. While viewing the movie, I noticed economics had a huge impact on all parts of the football team.
A large part of the movie focuses on the economic status of the team. The owner, Christina Pagniacci, is constantly searching ways to make more money for the team. She is consumed with the fact that the other teams in the league make more money than the team she owns. She decides she wants to build a new stadium to increase revenue for the team. When the mayor is not willing to build it, she looks to move the team to Los Angeles. She is so greedy that she tries to convince the mayor that the roads and schools are not as important as building a new stadium. Christina is also desperate to get the team into the playoffs because it is better exposure for the team. She is willing to sacrifice the health of injured players by telling the team doctor to clear them to play in the game.
Like the owner of the team, many of the players become desperate to make money. The original starting quarterback, Jack Rooney, becomes injured and decides he may not go back to playing football. When he tells his wife this, she becomes furious with him and questions why he would want to give the money up. Meanwhile, the replacement quarterback, Willie Bearmen, gets swept away in all the opportunities he now has to make money. Met Rx recruits Willie to do a campaign for them. Willie is more concerned with doing the ads and making the music video than putting time into the team. He is excited that he is able to afford more lavish things than when he was just a benchwarmer. It is clear that all the money and publicity from Willie�??s �??taking control�?� themed ads goes to his head. His money gives him access to an exorbitant lifestyle in which he decides his girlfriend is no longer good enough for him.
Another player that becomes greedy for money is the running back, Julian Washington. Reebok tells him that they will sign him for a campaign if he reaches a certain number of running yards. Julian becomes totally consumed with reaching this goal, even if it means risking his life. The team doctor tells Julian that because he has had so many concussions, he would not give him permission to keep playing football because another hit could cost him his life. Julian becomes angry because he has not yet reached his goal and decides to sign a waiver claiming that he doesn�??t care, he�??s �??just trying to get paid.�?� When he does get hit in the game, he becomes temporarily unconscious and when he wakes up, the first thing he wants to know is if he ran enough yards to get the Reebok campaign.
It is clear that money is a driving factor for those involved in all aspects of the football team. In the same sense, the movie industry is very much like the sport industry. Disney, a very popular and influential corporation strives to make as much money as possible. For Disney, it is not just about making movies, but finding ways to use their movies to gain the greatest profits. �??Disney�??s animated films provide a �??marketplace of culture,�?? a launching pad for products and merchandise, including videocassettes, sound-track albums, children�??s clothing, furniture, stuffed toys, and new theme park rides�?� (Giroux, 2001, p. 92). I think is very clever that Disney puts out �??must haves�?� with every new movie that hits the box office. Personally, when I was a child, I always wanted the stuffed toys, videocassettes, clothing, and even birthday cake decorations that went along with each movie that came out. The sporting world does the same thing with their teams and merchandise. You can buy just about anything with a professional team logo on it. Diehard fans can buy everything from boxer shorts to earrings with their team mascot on them. These marketing schemes are brilliant for increasing profits. Big corporations are able to take advantage of our �??gotta have it�?� society. Overall, it is easy to see how big businesses and sport organizations are driven by money and maximizing profits.

I have to agree with A Bennett. You touched on a lot of the same things I did and expanded it beyond the field of play to how the cheerleaders and overall women looked at the players. I also did not even think of the owner being a woman and basically going against the norm. I thought that was a really good point.

Sports have been a part of my life since a young age, but this course has equipped me with the knowledge to look at sport critically. Many of the lectures throughout the semester provide insight to issues that I have previously overlooked. Every lecture proved to combat against the norms society has come to accept, as well as challenge the traditional way of thinking about sport. Two lectures that were particularly insightful included the class on gender and sport and the class regarding youth and sport. The topics included in gender and sport distinguish between terminology that as a society, we use interchangeably. The historical perspective of sport has another source for masculinity was an interesting topic of debate. As a society, we present a lot of falsifications regarding the placement of women in sport. Although it may be expressed by some mediums such as athletes, race directors, newspapers, TV shows, that women have made a huge advancement in the realm of athletics, it is unrealistic to say that women and men are close to being advertised by the media as equal. Danica Patrick was among the examples used in class of a great female athlete who is still mostly advertised for her looks and little for her athletic talent. Even after her accomplishment as being the first women to win a race in the IndyCar Series, the sport of NASCAR does not seem to excited to help females emerge into the sport. Newton of the ESPN staff wrote an article about Patrick�??s win in the series which included a quote from fellow female NASCAR driver Erin Crocker.
"To be quite frank, NASCAR is not doing much to help women get into the sport. Maybe that will change, but up until now they haven't done too much�?� (2008, paragraph #8).
Just as it has taken decades for females athletes to reach their current niche in athletics, it will take another few decades until more noticeable changes have taken place regarding an even closer equality between males and females in sports. For now, as we discussed in lecture, female athletes still are advertised in the media for their looks rather than athletic talent. As a female athlete, you only get on the cover of a sports magazine, like Sports Illustrated, if you are attractive.
�??Such accounts represent a precursor to reportage of an athlete like Anna Kournikova where the dress style adopted and the �??look�?? of an athlete is often deemed more important than her athletic competence�?� (Harris, 2002, p. 3).
This is a sad realization, however, the lecture helped to point out the truths in our society, such as a continuous of male dominance, to explain why this gender distinction takes place.
A second lecture that facilitated my understanding between parental encouragement and youth involvement in sport was the youth in sport topic. �??Parents are directed to monitor their kids�?� everywhere they go and every activity they take part in (Grossberg, 2005, p. 16). Sports serve this purpose; a healthy way for parents to supervise and become involved in their children�??s�?? activities. Parents were attracted to the idea of the physical and social development sport could potentially provide their children and therefore pushed them to become involved in athletics. Following closely behind the surge of youth in sports were corporations. This was another opportunity to achieve the most important goal of marketing: make as much money as possible. The emergence of this adolescent class provided businesses with another market to sell their products to. Soon came about the surfacing of music, clothing, and sport cultures to advertise to the youth population.

I agree with Mike VonLange that race plays a huge part in sports and examples of this can be found in the film Any Given Sunday.

In response to ewilson you stated "I feel like the absence of sexism, classism, and ageism was an intentional outcome that was engineered by those who sponsor the race. The runners are hand picked and chosen for their running abilities, but I have to wonder if they aren�??t also chosen to guarantee equal representation for all sexes, races, etc." I never actually looked at it that way, but I feel like they wouldn't look into it that much either and they truly just picked them for their running abilities, but then again who really knows. It would be interesting to find out

Running on the Sun, was a much better movie that I expected. I had never even heard of this marathon, and because I am not a runner I personally think these people are crazy. But there were many aspects of the movie that included issues that we discussed in class. Including, social class, gender, nationalism and ethnicity.
The first apparent theme was social class. It was clearly obvious that there were runners from every social class. There were runners that had all of the best equipment and the best crews and then there were runners who had to take out loans and live in tents just to be able to participate in the race. But whatever social class they were from they all had to manage with what they had and it didn't matter what social class you were from as long as you had the skills and training necessary to finish.
The second aspect was gender. Both female and males had to run the same race and there was no handicap. THey even made a reference to this during the documentary to one of the female runners and you could tell she was basically like it's the same race for both men and women, there is no gender discrimination here.
The third aspect was nationalism which also goes along wiht ethnicity. There were many different ethnicities and countries represented in this race from all over the world and each one displayed their country proudly with flags and their colors. And before the marathon even started they had the national anthem sung just like before any sporting event. And every nation represented was tolerant of this even though they were not from here which shows respect for the country that they are running in.
I thought the movie was good even though it wasn't your typical sports movie because it was real. There were no actors portraying sports figures and it really showed the audience the trials and hardships that people went through to run this race. It was not always pretty and some people did not have such a happy ending, but they all had a common goal when they started which was to get through the race and or accomplish their own personal goals during it.

In the movie �??Any Given Sunday�??, many of the topics we have covered throughout the semester played large roles in the plot. I would say the two main aspects of the movie were race, gender roles, and the selfish drive for money. These were very noticeable, as well as important in the way the movie played out.
Throughout the movie, the Sharks team was stacked and centrality was used. The head coach was white, and the assistant was black. The start quarterback was white, and the naive third string was black. The �??thinking�?? positions were filled by white actors as well. When Willie was criticized, he felt that the reason was because he was black. The subtle message of race dominance was seen repeatedly.
Gender roles and stereotypes were also prevalent in the film. The vast majority of the females shown away from the game and stadium were sexually explicit and dependent. The drugs and money were provided by the players and the women present were more than willing to do whatever it took to be near them. The cheerleaders were in very short skirts and revealing tops, and were to cheer for the men on the team. At some points, they were even harassed by the team physician, but did not respond negatively. The wives of the players were portrayed as extremely emotional, and at times, almost unstable. When Cap told her he couldn�??t play anymore, she became angry and hit him. The wife of the late team manager was constantly drunk and flirting with various men. Her daughter, however was in a position of power, and thankfully, took control of many situations. She broke through the stereotypes of women�??s roles in the sports world by demanding respect. While walking through the team locker room, Willie, the upcoming quarterback, attempted to ask her out. She politely said she does not date the players, and proceeded to correct him on the pronunciation of her last name.
The constant drive for money was clear. Christina Pagniacci was constantly frustrated with the head coach because of his choices regarding players. She claimed that money was being thrown away and her father did not leave her the job to lose everything. One player was willing to play, despite being told he could die if hit the wrong way, because when he reached a certain number of yards, he would be granted a one million dollar deal. Willie was endorsing Met Rx for extra money. This included making a music video based on the product. It seemed ridiculous, but he was determined to become wealthy. LL Cool J appeared in the movie as well, always preoccupied with earning an endorsement deal with Reebok.
These three evident points have been discussed in class multiple times, and are realistically portrayed in the movie.

The results of the vote for which movie our Wednesday night class would watch were not to my liking. I really felt that the Rocky Balboa movie would have shown a lot of what we have been talking about in class, such as age, race, and ethnicity. I think it would have been interesting for the class to see during the movie where the boxing promoters do anything they possibly can to get Rocky to fight, in order to make a lot of money. Also, I think it would have been interesting to see the difference of the way they portray the white fighter compared to the black fighter. But we as a class decided on Running on the Sun. After watching the movie, I am really glad we chose it. There was a great deal to understand and learn about it. I actually felt tired sitting at my desk just watching Running on the Sun, and I think you can understand why by just saying the title. I really seemed to focus in on gender in the movie. What other sports movie had men and women on the screen for almost the exact amount of time? Most sports movies either involve an all male sport or an all female sport, but not this one. The men and women were all competing against their own times from previous years and also against each other. I also liked how they showed who was helping each runner when they took a break. Most of the time the person helping was either a husband or a wife, and they gave tremendous support for their spouse, which really made the movie special. I thought it was really funny when one of the wives placed a beer on the back of the car in front of her husband who was running in the race, in order to make him finish the race so he could get his reward. There is no other sports movie that showed such amazing strength of marriage and friendship than Running on the Sun. I also thought it was neat when after the male marine runner was disqualified from the race, how him and his fellow marines took care of a female runner, especially helping her with her cramping issue. Another aspect of the movie I noticed was how equally motivated overall the male and female runners were. Even though the male runners were expected to finish in the top two or three, the female runners never mentioned it, because they were attempting to not only beat their own times from before, but also attempting to beat their fellow female competitors. During the movie I actually heard one male runner ask another male runner if it was true that a woman had finished third in last year's race. He asked if there was a handicap. Well, there was not any handicap, so it was true. I found this interesting because I feel that the male runners were somewhat amazed of what the female runners could do. They may have doubted the women at first, but after running with them, there most likely was no doubt that they understood what the women were capable of. The movie was awesome, and I definitely learned a lot from it, especially from the differences and similarities between the male and female runners.

The movie, �??Running on the Sun�?�, exemplified everything that one can relate social issues to sporting events. It was about an ultra marathon in Death Valley which is, of course, not your average sports movie. This was the beauty of it. It was not about stereotypes and what the media wants to portray in hopes of the best profit; it was a real-life documentary of what truly occurs. This is why it shows what other sports movies lack: the truth about age, race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationalism.
The truth is that the runners in this marathon come from many different backgrounds. A multitude of ages, races, classes, genders, sexual orientations, and nationalist prides are demonstrated or deprived from this documentary on the basis of if they were actually represented. The film did not throw in a token person of any of these characteristics just to appeal to a wider audience. The facts are that most of the contestants were older than one might expect to be running a marathon; the main races competing seemed to be white or latino; the classes of people ranged from poor to seemingly wealthy; both males an females participated together equally; sexuality was not addressed but not discriminated; and mainly the United States and Great Britain were nationalized.
Every aspect of every characteristic was not represented by this movie. However, it showed a more accurate portrayal of the sport than probably any other movie for any other sport that I can think of. It stayed true to the core concepts of what the sport is about and did not discriminate or generalize. �??Running on the Sun�?� is an admirable film in its depiction of sport whether you like running or not.

After watching the documentary �??Running on the Sun�?� I can definitely see how several of the topics we discussed this semester can be incorporated in relation with the movie. The one topic we discussed that I feel showed through the most in the documentary is the aspect of nation/nationalism. There was much diversity among the participants in the race who each portrayed and displayed a personal notion of nationalism. The fact that almost every participant was from a different background gave a strong notion that nation/ nationalism is a key aspect in the documentary. One aspect of nationalism was seen when a few runners displayed their countries flag on their T shirt. This was seen by the older gentlemen from the UK and middle age mechanic who was Mexican. American Nationalism was seen with the marines who carried the USA flag running alongside Curtis Maples. Also before the start of the race the United States anthem was performed by one of the participant in the race. I believe the documentary did a very good job of airing an equal amount of background bio on every runner. The film didn�??t seem to have a biased undertone or discrimination against the runners from other countries. However there were a couple scenes where you could say cultural stereotypes were highlighted; the scenes with Gabriel running along side with his assistant as the assistant struggle to keep up with Gabriel and speaking broken English gave off a comedic tone. Also the scene where they showed Nick Palazzo the Italian American from New York cursing up a storm because he hasn�??t got any soup surely plays to cultural stereotypes that are seen in media today. I am sure the other runners throughout the race showed times of anger but they chose to highlight that particular runner. Whether nation and nationalism was displayed in a positive or negative way it definitely was a key aspect in the documentary and gave me a critical perspective on the film.

I enjoyed reading the other classes posts about "Running on the Sun". I found it interesting to read how that documentary was tied into the class. I agree with ewilson when they brought up a point about applying the same level of dedication and hard work that the runners did to their sport. It is a good point that could bring up a whole other topic of discussion.

The movie Any Given Sunday really had a lot to show as far as race went in the form of players, owners as well as coaches. After my viewing of the Super Bowl I began to take a notice of what race was playing certain positions on the field as well as the front office of each organization. The things that I saw in the Super Bowl came to mind while viewing this movie and it seemed to reflect a lot of beliefs that were taught in this class. Some of the first things that were noticed were the races of the players at certain positions. At the beginning there was a white Quarterback that was considered one of the stars of the team and the is not a shock because of what we were taught in this class. This class said that traditionally people had the mind set of putting smart white people at the thinking positions in sport such point guard in basketball and quarterback in football. Well Any Given Sunday really backed that mind set up by doing this. Not only was the first string Quarterback white, but the second string was also. It was not until they got to the third string that we finally saw and African American Quarterback. Even by that point he was considered to have questionable athletic ability as well as decision making on and off the field. There was also the situation of having an African American running back that they made out to look like he was only worried about himself. He always talked about just getting a certain amount of yards so he could collect his money. Whenever there was play call that did not go to him he would usually flip out and have an attitude. There was even a scene in which the coaches talked about how the players had to think on offensive and the only thing the defense had to do was basically beat the piss out of someone. The coach said there was no real thinking to it, so just go hit someone. That brings me to another player and this one of the defensive side of the ball, which was played by Lawrence Taylor. He played the star linebacker and they made him out like he had no common sense and was actually one small hit away from possibly dying. Against doctors orders he refused to sit out and kept playing, which was the opposite of what the start Quarterback who was white wanted to do. The movie almost made Taylor look like he was playing for his kids to be able to have a good life even after he was gone. Mosher�??s article �??A Hotbed of Talent, but not for the Little League�?� made me think of Taylor in this movie when Mosher said �??Their dreams are born out of poverty, illiteracy, malnourishment and desperation�?�. This made me think of how this movie almost portrayed Taylor�??s character. The race issues did not stop there because when it came to the head coach he was white and so was the owner. The head coach was a guy that had an incredible knack for coaching and considered one of the best. The owner was a young white girl who took over for her successful white father and inherited the team from him. Clearly Any Given Sunday played the race, which surprised me because I truthfully thought Hollywood might try and steer clear of that. However, they fell into the public trap of stereotyping everything much like society has done.

While watching the movie Any Given Sunday, I noticed many different ways the characters and the team acted which reinforced some of the topics discussed in class. In class, we learned about gender, sexuality, and economics and how they relate to sports in our society today. Any Given Sunday tells mainly the story of the Miami Sharks football team. Imbedded in the story are the secondary stories about the injured starting quarterback, the selfish backup quarterback, and the ambitious new team owner.

The first few scenes of the movie introduce the starting veteran quarterback who is the heart of the Miami Sharks. During a game, several weeks before the playoffs, the quarterback gets hurt and is placed on the injured reserve. Lucky to even be alive after the hit he took, the quarterback struggles throughout the movie with his decision to return to football once he has healed. His decision making process started with him deciding that he would be healthy enough to return for playoffs but by the time playoffs had come around he was seriously contemplating retirement. When he shares this news with his wife, she flips out on him and says that he has at least three more seasons as the starting quarterback of the Sharks. She makes sure that he knows that she means business and that her decision is the final one. In the movie, all of the female characters (wives of players), except for the team owner and the quarterback�??s wife, were portrayed as females and nothing more. They were dressed in feminine clothes and acted very feminine throughout the movie. Unlike the majority of the women in the movie, the quarterback�??s wife and the team owner showed that women can be in charge and superior to men no matter what situation they might be in. This is how gender and sexuality come into the picture in Any Given Sunday. An even better way that gender roles are tackled in the movie is the incorporation of a female professional football team owner. That is unheard of these days in football and most likely will not occur in the near future. In the movie, the owner showed that even though she is a beautiful woman, she can still run the team and the organization as good if not better than a man could. From the beginning you could tell that she knew what she was talking about and you knew that she was capable of running a successful team.

Economics are introduced in the movie at two points. The first point of the movie where economics are introduced is when the owner divulges to her general manager that she would like to move the team to L.A. because they can get a larger stadium from the city and by having a larger stadium, they can make more money for the team. Although this doesn�??t actually happen in the movie, just the thought of it brought all sorts of disapproval to the table. The second point in the movie where economics are introduced is when the starting running back reveals to the coach and offensive coordinator that if he doesn�??t get the ball during the games, then he can�??t break 2,000 yards for the season. If he doesn�??t break 2,000 yards then he will not receive the bonus from his contract and he will also lose out on the money from endorsements which are given to him when he breaks the 2,000 yard mark. The running back is very angry about the situation between him and the backup quarterback because it is now causing him financial problems. The situation quickly escalated from just being playing time during games to an economic situation.

Although I chose to highlight these few situations where gender, sexuality, and economics are present, Any Given Sunday is full of situations such as the ones described. The interaction of sports and society is clearly depicted by the actions and comments of the main characters and how each of the situations pans out, relates directly to the everyday issues in sport and society.

Any Given Sunday is a movie that plays to many of the sterotypes that plague our society. The movie depicts race, sex, and social class in a manner that is not too far from our present societal veiws. Its interesting to watch this movie while consciencously paying attention to the underlying perspectives that is really being told. One of the interesting subjects that is played on in this movie is race. Overall, racial sterotypes are extremely dominant in this movie and its interesting how our society accept these actions even in our entertainment.

In the first sceen of the move, the first and second string quarterback goes down and coach Tony looks to his third string quarterback, Willie Beamen to go in. Before his debut, the coach pulls him to the side as tells him to think about when he used to play ball "in the hood". This is an obvious sterotype of many African Americans, not just players, but also many African Americans who have crossed certain societal classes. Most people think that every person of color is from the "hood" or has some sort of

In this movie, majority of the players, including the entire defensive line are black. This definitely playes in the sterotype of African Americans being more agressive than other races. Also, the coach, owners, team doctors, cheerleaders, and pastor are all white. This is also a sterotype of our society that considers this types of positions beter suited for the more dominant race.

Another interesting aspect of the play on race are the differences between the behaviors of Willie Beamen and the first string quarterback Cap, who is white. The movie depicts Beamen as a self asorbed, money hungry athlete who only cares about himself and making money. On the other hand, Cap is depicted as the more compassionate, hard working, team oriented football player.
Willie Beamen also defies the coach by changing plays in he huddle, he does not get along with any of the players, and they do not respect him at all. He does a "rap" video and when he fights with his girlfriend, he is agressive and uses profanity towards her. On the other hadn, Cap is openly loved by the team, is shown working hard to get better, and is calm and sensitive when he gets into a disagreement with his wife.

Other scenes that depicted obviousy racial sterotypes were the scenes in the locker room. The team was segregated and the white players were on one side listening to heavy metal music, while the black players were on the other side listening to rap music. Also, when Beamem is interviewed, the reporter speaks to him by trying to talk "black" and Beam speaks of the struggles he has faced by being a black quarterback in the league.

When I first watched this movie, I never really noticed the sterotypes depicted in this movie. By makig a conscience effort to see the stories behind the move, I was able to decipher its true message. It is clear that this movie plays on our societal view of race. Any Given Sunday could be seen as another sports movie, but with further examination, the movie goes beyond sports, and show how our society views such issues as race, sex and class.

In reference to karagoodwin25 your blog was good and i do agree with your opinion race was one of most important issues in the film

Over the course of the semester we discussed several aspects of sport and society such as social class, gender, race, and nationalism. All of theses aspects that we learned are incorporated in the film Any Given Sunday. First the film starts off with the white players in the "thinking position" which is the quarterback it is not until the first and second string quarter back are injured until they put in the only black quarter back who is Willy Beamen. Willy who never started in a professional football game before was nervous and Coach Tony gave him a pep talk to encourage him to play as if he was back in the hood, the coach was stereotyping and assumed Willy grew up in the hood. Willy starts to develop a rhythm and begins to do well threatening the white quarterbacks' position. After Willies first few games he starts to get arrogant and pull's out the race card on interviews he claims that all the black men are sacrificing their bodies while all the white men are using sitting in the sky box counting their money. Also the owner of the team is a white female with other white investors and no African Americans involved with the corporate side of football. This ties into our lecture because we talked about how Africans Americans use their body as a tool, as way to bring money in and upper middle class their body is used as a "vehicle for distinguishing social standing and experiencing extreme pleasure".( Ryan White.) And that�??s where we see whites' in the thinking position such as the quarterback, the coach and the owners of the team. It is also interesting how ones social class played a vital role in the film. Football is mainly a middle class sport although people of all classes play the sport. But depending one ones social class determines that reason why you play that sport. For example the line backer that played injured despite the risk of getting tackled the wrong way could cost him his life, but wanted to play because if he reached a certain number of tackles he would get a million dollar bonus. He begged the coach to let him play because he needed the money to support his family also because that is all he knew. In the mean time the owners daughter was not working for the money she was doing it for the power, having control of the team was not good enough for her she wanted to have political pull for example she tried to strong arm the mayor of Miami to getting her team a new stadium that would costs millions of dollars despite the facts that the public school system was falling apart and the underpaid teachers and students could benefit from the money more than her. When the mayor told her he could not support getting the team a new stadium she threatened to take the team to a different city. Gender played a major role in the film. Football is predominantly a male dominated sport from the players to corporate. But in the film the owner of the Sharks was female who only came into power after her dad died and left her in control of the team. Many of the other owners wanted her out because they did not take her seriously and thought she was a threat and running the team into the ground. When she broke some of the rules one of her trusted advisors rated her out to the commissioner and that might cost her, her job. If a male owner would did the same thing it might have been looked over.

We have spent the entire semester discussing underlying aspects of sport pertaining to modern society. Traditionally, we have been taught to be blind to how race, gender, and class affect sport. Throughout the class, we have literally had our eyes opened to the actual causes and consequences of our culture. This past week we chose from several popular sports movie. Any Given Sunday is a classic movie, and happens to give examples of the exact discussions our class has had about race, class and gender.
The first example I would like to point out is the use of gender roles in the movie. Because football is primarily a male-dominated sport, the main actors were mostly male. Generally the female actresses tended to show stereotypical female characteristics, such as weakness (mentally and physically) and emotion. For the most part, the male characters treated the female characters poorly. When the females weren�??t being belittled, they were presented as fragile.
A second characteristic of the course that was brought about in Any Given Sunday is race. This aspect is, in my opinion, the more obvious of the two. It seems like race is always showing up in sports movie such as this one. It is always a struggle between black and white. The color barriers tend to drive the plot lines in sports movies.
A final aspect is religion. I noticed in the movie that the team prayed. I found it surprising, because as an athlete I rarely find religion a part of sports in my personal experience. I am not religious and have never had a problem with that as it pertains to sports. I have never prayed with my team, and do not believe I should be expected to.
�??In part, this points to analyzing how entertainment can be addressed as a subject of intellectual engagement rather than as a series of sights and sounds that wash over us�?� (Giroux, 99). This quote touches on how movies (or any form of entertainment, for that matter) should have a deeper and more culturally relevant meaning, rather than being simply distraction from every day life. To tie this back to Any Given Sunday, I think that this movie made an attempt to show societal constructs in a culturally relevant light.

In response to jgreffen8503;

After reading your response I picked up on many of the same aspects as you. I agree with what you write about with bonus checks and endorsements. And how people just wanted to when and didn�??t really care about what happened to the injured individual.

Any Given Sunday from an economic perspective appeared to be presenting an expose on the ways greed and selfishness has wrecked professional sports. The director Oliver Stone used the film to attack the �??big business�?� aspects of sport.
Multiple players portrayed in the movie were very individualist and playing the game just for monetary reasons. The running back (LL Cool J) of the Sharks was the most obvious player during most of the movie that only cared about what he did and not about what happened to the team. The scene when he is complaining to the coach after the game because the plays are being changed in the huddle defends this view. Apparently, after he hit 1500 yards Reebok had an advertisement campaign ready for him, which would pay him millions. The character throughout the movie seemed to care more about the bonus checks and less about the making the playoffs. He cared more about the designer suits and clothes then getting the first downs. Throughout the film, Oliver Stone depicts him as a wealthy, spoiled, selfish, professional athlete who has lost touch with reality.
Further, Willie �??Steamin�?� Beamen shows how money and fame can adversely affect an individual. Prior, to him becoming famous he seemed like an individual who was happy just being on the team. Then as his fame grew so did his ego and he became �??Steamin�?�. I understand that most of us would probably endorse anything for money, but a Met Rx music video is kind of pushing the limits.
The film not only depicts the economic perspective of the players but also the owner. The Sharks and any other sports team for that matter are compared to �??big business�?� multiple times. The film takes the stand that football has been destroyed ever since television has gotten involved. Owners of these teams asking for money in order to have the best stadium which well draw fans and increase revenues of the team. And if the cities do not help out then threaten to move to a bigger market area like Los Angeles just like in the movie. This movie was made prior but it is not that off base from today when you look at what is currently happening with the Seattle Supersonics or formerly the Cleveland Browns (or the now Baltimore Ravens). Owners over the past years have been too concerned with making the most profit. The people who own professional teams are individuals who are not �??strapped for cash�?� then why not just enjoy the game and not sell out for every other corporation as possible. Just look at some of the teams around us Jack Kent Cooke stadium is now Fed Ex Field and it is Chevy Chase field at Bryd Stadium.
The �??big business�?� feel that sports now have is appalling. Teams are attempting to get there identity out to the most consumers as possible. As in Any Given Sunday when she threatens to move the team to a bigger city, something that would indeed increase their exposure. These kinds of acts are nothing different than what Disney attempted to do in Virginia. Disney was attempting to open up another amusement park but the residents fought back they did not want �??�?�Disnification of the American Culture�?� (Giroux, 1999, p. 114) in their hometown. Sport franchises�?? do this all the time if one town does not work (for economic reasons) then they move on to the next city. Sports teams have become a brand such as the Nike check or Mickey Mouse.
Lastly, the movie illustrates that getting into the playoffs increases the profit and exposure for the team. And the owners of today will do anything to make the playoffs including bribing the team doctors to clear players who could become seriously injured if they play. This is the win at all costs mentality especially if it puts more money in the owner�??s pocket.
Any Given Sunday from the economic perspective greatly shows how the sports of today have changed (mostly for the worse) and become profit driven. This film represents how sports have become more about bonus checks and endorsements, and less about the game itself.

In reference to karagoodwin25, when I read your response, I seemed to have noticed the same parts of the movie as you did. In my response I believed race was the most important issue, but there were many other topics covered in the movie that you wrote about in your response.

�??On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is - can you win or lose like a man?�?� Any Given Sunday was a movie about a once great football team that is now facing a bad losing streak. Everything is changing about their team, including the new manager, teammates getting injured, and team cohesiveness. In Giroux article about Disney movies, he said, �??Contexts mold interpretations; but political and economic, and ideological contexts also produce the texts to be read. The focus on the films must be supplemented with an analysis of institutional practices and social structures that work to shape such texts�?� (Giroux, 97).After watching the movie, I was able to analyze the movie and compare it to the many aspects we learned in class. This was not the first time watching this movie, but after taking this class, I was able to watch it in a whole other way. The topics we discussed in class that are brought up in this movie were politics, race, gender, and religion. The main topic from class that came up numerous times in this movie was race. The first time a race issue happened in the movie was when Beamen played his first game. He was very nervous and the coach brought him aside and told him to pretend like he was playing in the hood right before his mom called him for dinner. This is a racial stereotype. The coach assumed he was from the hood because he was black. If a white player was in that same situation, he would not be saying a comment like that. Another scene that race was involved, was when the players were in the locker room after winning their first game after the four game losing streak. The black and white players were separated on opposite sides of the locker room. The black players were listening and dancing to rap music and the white players were listening and singing to heavy metal or rock music. It was interested to see the team separated like that. It was clear that they were not a cohesive team from that scene in the movie. The last scene that the issue of race was shown was when Jack Rose, the sports reporter, was interviewing Beaman. Some of the things that Willie was saying to Jack were similar to the stereotypes placed on African Americans. He believed he was questioned as a black quarterback on his old team. His old coach did not play him because he believed his brain was too small to be the first string quarterback. Billie also said that black players are �??dissed�?� in this league. He said seventy percent of the players are black and there are so few black coaches and owners. Beaman believes �??It�??s not racism its placism. A brother needs to know his place.�?� Since he is a black player, he is viewed as a troublemaker and someone who has quick feet.
After watching this movie for the second time, I was able to look at it from another perspective. Many issues we discussed in class were portrayed throughout this movie.

Another topic that we discussed in class that was shown throughout the movie was religion. At the end of the games, a priest comes into the locker room, and leads a prayer for the team. Every one of the players and coaches kneels on one knee and puts their head down to pray. I find this scene to be religion bias. How do we know everyone believes in that faith? One other time that religion comes up in the movie is when coach, D�??Amato, asks why Willie�??s mom never comes to the game to watch and cheer him on. He told him that Sundays are for church and his mom refuses to come to the games. I believe this shows faith in her religion. I also think that she might not like the fact that he plays football because the games are played on Sunday. Church seems to be very important to her and the fact that her son is not there with her might bring up issues about him playing that sport.
The last topic I wanted to discuss was gender and politics. The Miami Sharks had a woman as the manager. This is never seen in sports like football. She was respected by the league and the community, but not by the teams coach. D�??Amato did not like her style of managing and always compared her to her father. While her time managing the team, she involved politics with the sport. She made deals with the city�??s mayor and used her high corporate profile to get her ahead in the game. She compared football as a corporation.

While watching the film �??Any Given Sunday,�?� I noticed several of the themes we have discussed during lecture. In the opening scene, we see the presence of stacking and centrality. The first and second string quarterbacks are both white, as well as the coach of the Miami Sharks, Tony. Also, throughout the film there was one main wide receiver, Samerson, and his character was played by a black actor.
Also during the opening scenes of the film, Tony is speaking with Willy Beaman, the third string black quarterback, and he asks Willy to think back to his days growing up in �??the hood�?� to when his mama used to ring the bell for dinner. Tony assumed Willy grew up in �??the hood�?� simply because of his skin color.
The role of each of the female characters is consistent in portraying women as nothing more than sex objects who are less superior then men lacking lives of their own. The cheerleaders perform their sexy routines half-naked and the women shown at the social functions are refereed to as �??$1000 hoes�?� several times. Christina Pagniaci is the owner of the team, which strays from most stereotypes until the audience learns she inherited the organization from her deceased father. Besides a few of the players gawking at her in the locker room and Willy asking her out, Christina is not portrayed as a sex object.
Christina has a strong intuition, authoritative personality and a canny sense of business. The movie portrays these otherwise admirable traits negatively, and to the audience and other characters, Christina is thought of as a heartless monster that would �??eat her own young�?� as one character describes her. If a male character expressed the same personality characteristics, I believe he would be portrayed in a much more positive light. Often in Hollywood and in life a powerful woman is perceived very unfavorably.
�??Any Given Sunday�?� also brings a new meaning to the phrase �??giving your body to the game�?� which was discussed in the article, �??The Televised Sports Manhood Formula.�?� During the first scene of the movie, the first string quarterback is severely injured. He is called �??grandpa�?� several times and is encouraged not to get on a stretcher and to walk off the field himself. Later in the movie, Tony says to his quarterback, �??We all play hurt, you just need the needle.�?�
Another example of the magnitude in which the athletes in the film gave their bodies to the game is when �??Shark�?� a linemen, has two concussions in just over a month. Shark is told by medical professionals that if he plays in another game, he risks paralysis and even death. Shark signs a waiver and chooses to play so he can attempt to get three more tackles and receive his $1 million bonus.
Also relating to the issue of films and the media, in his article, �??Children�??s Culture and Disney�??s Animated Film,�?� Giroux over-analyzes and each scene is quibbled as he hopes to find some flaw he can turn into something symbolic of the corporation�??s bigotry and offensiveness. The author actually uses the fact that Disney neglects to include in the film �??Pocahontas�?� the part in history when the colony of Jamestown brings disease and destroys the native�??s land, as an argument against Disney.
One of Disney�??s imagineers describes their technique by �??�?�.Creating a �??Disney realism,�?? sort of a utopian nature, where we carefully program all of the negative, unwanted elements, and program in the positive elements.�?�
I grew up watching Disney movies and I still enjoy the stories especially in the theater. When I was ten years old watching �??The Lion King�?� I was not thinking that the two evil hyenas had the voices of two black actors. Disney movies are intended for the enjoyment and entertainment of young children, not to beat into their heads political controversies and the nightmares of reality. I think this article really stretched and exaggerated much of the elements and minute details within Disney movies and attempted to portray them as something that they�??re not.

Any Given Sunday I portray showing how economics in sports is important to society and the teams well being. Economics in America is important for the well being of society and every organization has to generate some profits to give back. In Any Given Sunday the Miami Sharks were falling apart as a team. The Sharks loses were not benefiting them not only as a team but as a business, which the owner noticed and taking on tough times. The current owner is the original owners�?? daughter who took over the business after her father passed away. Since the owner passed away the team as a whole had been going through changes and the wins were decreasing. The Sharks tried to stay as they were when the original owner had been alive, but over time things changed especially the athlete�??s health. Age has affected some of the players who were older and had been affecting their performance as a team to win. The star quarterback had gone through tough times the most because of his age and his body has been wearing down taking hits and throwing had been affecting him. In one game, the quarterback was tackled and injured horribly. A young 3rd string quarterback had to be brought in after the 2nd string quarterback is injured minutes after being put in. This opened a path for him to bring t he team up and have the Sharks win. This then brought popularity back to the team and more profits that the owner was pleased with their performance. The owner then notices that it is time for change for this team to survive and bring more profits back to their organization. The times are changing and younger crowds are interested in younger players. This will bring a new crowd to the Sharks games and will bring more money. The owner knows this and telling the coach to basically cut the quarterback because of his age and injuries and let the new and young players start. Coach has always had a close relationship with the quarterback like a son and quarrels with owner back and forth. In the end the changes are made not by authoritative but voluntarily because the coach and older players see their time is just about up for playing. They know for the better of the team for money and to keep the team together is to let the younger and newer players take over because they have been making the wins and put their heart into the game. All types of sport critics, magazines, papers, and websites notice the Sharks up rise and want a piece of the story. This brings a lot of publicity to the Sharks with deals, endorsements, and bonuses. A bonus a player was aiming for was a line backer who had been injured a lot and if one more injury were to happen could become paralyzed, loss of memory, or die; however he wanted to continue until he got that bonus for a tackle to be made. This is why I see Any Given Sunday as an economic film about sports and money because majority of the movie is about money and the wealth of the team.

In response to jflesh1 - you said that the ultra marathon movie "acts as a sort of motivation that anything can be done with enough training and practice." I completely agree with you. Too often we settle for mediocre, and these people show that being mediocre just isn't good enough! I was also just in awe of the man who was a leg and arm amputee - to see his dedication and struggle was extremely motivating and inspirational!

The movie �??Running on the Sun�?� was both inspirational and revitalizing to me. It was extremely refreshing, I thought, to see runners basically remove themselves from the cultural world, and compete in an environment stripped of a lot of the trappings of society and what we have to come to know as �??sport.�?� What we watch on an everyday basis is glorified to such an extent that it sometimes isn�??t even sport anymore. To watch these (crazy!) people actually push themselves, and actually compete in a grueling physical sport was very refreshing.
I feel like the absence of sexism, classism, and ageism was an intentional outcome that was engineered by those who sponsor the race. The runners are hand picked and chosen for their running abilities, but I have to wonder if they aren�??t also chosen to guarantee equal representation for all sexes, races, etc. The race itself is pretty much equality defined �?? everyone runs the same course, in the same heat, with the same conditions. It seems that this event is engineered to exude and reflect equality and simply to let the best trained runner win. Granted, the classes differ somewhat in their �??cushioning�?� during the race. Some of the wealthier runners have crews that keep them functioning at top potential, and even run with them as pacers if they need it. Some of the less-wealthy runners had only their spouses or close family as their crew, and drank just plain old water at their pit stops. However, when it comes down to it, each runner was equal in that only they, as individuals, could run the race. The crew could certainly help, but it is the runner who trained to whatever level he/she felt prepared, and thus set themselves up for success/failure.
This class has shown that differences in class, gender, culture, nationality, etc., are unavoidable, and do exist in our society. However, as a whole, I believe that our society focuses too much on the situation one finds oneself in, instead of what one could make of a situation. Take social class for example; many in our society today approach issues surrounding social class with a defeatist attitude, and will simply feel that their situation is inevitable and that there is no use to try to change it. However, we are all in the same race. Some of the people in the world have better crews, and some don�??t. But in the end, we all have to rely on ourselves to work hard, to train, and to run the race the best we can. Documentaries like �??Running on the Sun�?� just show what dedication and hard work can really do. Wouldn�??t it be interesting to see what our world would be like if everyday people applied that same dedication and hard work to their everyday lives?

Through out this course we have discussed many topics including; how economics, age, class, race, gender, sexuality, and nationalism. All seven play vital aspects in ones life. The film Any Given Sunday shows examples of gender, sexuality, race and class.
Gender was an important aspect of the film. The men and women in the film full filled their gender assigned role placed upon them by society. Through out the film men were portrayed as very masculine and females were portrayed in a variety of negative ways. Most of the women were portrayed as very or over emotional. For example when the first string quarterback told his wife that he wanted to quite football she became very angry and even smacked him. While some men showed emotion it was over not being able to continue playing football or because they were angry. In the film when number 58 was told that if he continued playing football he could die, he cried to the head coach to be able to continue playing. All of the females in the movie were portrayed in a sexy manor. All of women were thin and very attractive and also very dependant on a man. The deceased general manager�??s widow was always drunk and flirting with men. The only females on the football field were pretty, thin, wearing short skirts and cheering on the male players.
Race was another glimmering aspect of the film. The head coach of the Sharks was a White male and had a black assistant coach. This inadvertently shows that whites are dominate over blacks. In class we learned that whites are in primarily �??thinking�?� positions in any sporting activity, which was the case in Any Given Sunday. The original starting quarterback was white, along with the second string quarterback. The third string quarterback, Willie, ended up proving himself and led the Sharks to a Championship victory only after overcoming adversity. Willie was portrayed through out the movie as someone who could not handle the pressures of being a quarterback. Every game that he was quarterback in, he threw up, which shows weakness or that he could not handle the pressure of being a quarterback.
As discussed through out class the sports someone plays acts as a signal to what social class they are apart of. Football is traditionally a middle class sport. Although some people from both lower and upper class�?? engage in it, it is rare. Willie was a member of the lower class. He needed a suit for a formal event when he was in college and could not afford one. One of the members of the team gave him a suit and he was kicked out of college. The college kicked him out and off the team because they considered the suit to be a bribe. This is an example of how society tries to exclude individuals from sport based upon the amount of money they have, thus the social class they are in.
Likewise, people of differing social class�?? have differing incentives for why they want to, or continue to play a specific sport. Number 58 played hurt, knowing that if he got hit hard enough he would die. He signed a waiver so he could play in the final few games. Number 58 did this because if he played his position exceptionally and made a certain number of tackles, he would receive a one million dollar bonus. To him the money was worth his life. While on the other hand, people in the Dominican Republic play baseball because for them, it is the only way to get out of their poor stricken country. The Athletics signed Tejada for a mere 2,000, while in comparison one of his teammates received a 1.2 million dollar signing bonus (Breton, 2000). Clearly social class and economic statues matter when it comes to amount players are willing to play for or willing to do to earn the extra money.

in response to jflesh1-I agree with your point made about the ultra marathon being one of the few examples of a level playing field. There were participants from all walks of life that competed in the race, and when selecting those 40 runners who would get to participate in the run, I wouldn't doubt if the race directors made that apart of their selection strategy-picking runners who would best represent all the varieties of human..although they are an infinate amount, the race was certainly made up of an equal variety of individuals.

One aspect previously discussed in this course was prevalent in the documentary, �??Running on the Sun�?�: social class background. It was interesting how each of the 40 runners invited to participate in the Ultra Marathon at Death Valley came from a different way of life and each runner was anxious to share their story. The runners dwelled on the facts of their life that set them apart from the other participants. Each individual portrayed a great deal of pride in the challenges they had to overcome to earn them a spot in this Ultra Marathon. The difficulties each participant faced were unique from one another and included aspects such as low income levels to hire a training coach, old age, disabilities and prosthetic limbs, and lack of crew members to assist them during the run. The makers of the documentary were equally as interested in having each runner share how they trained to get to this point in their running career, as well as everyone�??s motivation for accomplishing this great feat. Some were participating for personal satisfaction, others for family members who had passed, or even to prove that physical disabilities are not a reason to be held back from athletics. It was apparent that a lesson the filmmakers wanted to get across to the audience was that if you have the drive to achieve something great, you have a chance to make that goal a reality. One of the quotes from the movie that really brought this point home was spoken by one of the male runners. He said that you can always go one more step beyond your limit. The meaning of that being you can always reach your goal distance by simply going on step beyond your perceived limit until the end is reached.
�??Running on the Sun�?� exhibited similar characteristics to Disney movies, and the majority of films for that matter. Disney movies in particular demonstrate to kids �??a dreamlike world of security, coherence, and childhood innocence in which kids find a place to situate themselves in their emotional lives�?� (Giroux, p.84). Although �??Running on the Sun�?� attracts an older audience, the film possesses traits close to Disney movies. Viewers are encouraged to pursue their goals, no matter how far off they think they are, because people from all walks of life were able to complete, or at most participate in one of the most challenging tests of physical and mental strength imaginable.

To finish up our sports and society class, our night class watched the move Running on the Sun. This was a movie that looked very interesting to me and was my choice through all of the voting rounds. The thought of watching runners run 135 miles in the hot Arizona sun during the middle of summer made me feel that this would be an interesting movie.
While watching the movie, I wanted to apply all of the skills that had been taught to me throughout the semester and through those skills watch a sports movie while thinking critically about it. The first interesting fact about Running on the Sun was that there were none of the obvious signs that exist with other sports movies. What is meant by obvious signs is that there were not the usual examples of racism, sexism, or ageism. It was interesting how for once in the sports world, it seemed as of all groups could get along on a level playing field and enjoy athletic competition.
Yet there were several instances throughout the movie where segregation could be found among the runners. Nationalism was the first example that was noticed by me and it occurred on several different levels. First was the silent nationalism of the French family taking their picture with the French flag up behind them. Next, there was a more visible form of nationalism when several runners carried their country�??s flag as they ran and even one runner as he finished the race. Finally, the last and most memorable form of nationalism was by our own country, as the Star Spangled Banner was played before the runners began their race. In a sport were corporate influence is very minimal, it was interesting to see how runners could use nationalist symbols as a means of expressing themselves.
A final segregation, and one that must really be thought about was the division of class between the runners. Since constant hydration and proper medical/running injury attention is required for such an intense race, the runners crews were a very important aspect of a runners experience in the race. The movie highlighted a woman so poor that she was resorted to sleeping in a tent while training and during the race. Opposite of this woman, better established runners had several crews to follow them along at various points throughout the race. This is something that would seem like such a small division of class, but in a race where constant attention is needed on the runner, it helps to have a crew who the runner can afford to pay or the crew is able to fund the trip themselves. At times, it seemed as just having someone to follow the runners around helped the runners and gave them more energy to run. An example of this was when the Marines joined the other lady and gave her the support to finish the race.
Overall, Running on the Sun was everything I had hoped for and even served as an inspirational tool for me. Just to know that there are individuals on the Earth that can push their body to the absolute limit, acts as a sort of motivation that anything can be done with enough training and practice. The movie also proved to me that not all sports movies have to have outlandish themes of racism, sexism, and ageism.