The Commodified Sport Industry

This week the US Supreme Court upended a 100-year precedent that made it more difficult for politicians to be influenced or financed by corporations. This week Dave Zirin of The Nation wrote about the possibility of the NFL being granted "single entity" status by the same court (if the case gets there). According to Zirin "the NFL's collective bargaining agreement expires in March 2011. There will be no salary cap or salary floor in the league if a new deal isn't reached by March 5, 2010. If the Supreme Court rules that the NFL is a single entity, that changes the way the league negotiates--or doesn't negotiate--with the players. Teams could slash payroll, violate labor law, and the NFL Players Association would have no recourse."

Though players in the NFL presumably make much more money than anyone in our class at the moment each year, consider the notion of the athlete or athletic body as a commodity. If an athlete is a laborer how can we use Karl Marx's concepts of class, capitalist, and proleteriet to describe the relationship that exists within the NFL between players, owners, and the NFL? Depending on your location in the sport involvement model, where do you fit into this relationship as consumer of sport? How would your sport experience change if the NFL can be treated as a single entity? Relate this to Michael Moore or George Sage's explanation and critique of capitalism and the "commodified sports industry" (152).

Please post your response as a comment so that it is easier for everyone to see this original posting.

Identity (Re)Cognition

The nature of our course requires us to explore the different types of power associated with race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, able-bodieness, age, and a number of other identities. Identities are fluid and multiple. Sometimes they are a way that we locate ourselves in a society composed of many. Sometimes identities provide a sense of affiliation and belonging, while other times they can be isolating. Describe a time in your life you became aware of a major identity in your life. This may be a time that an identity worked to your advantage, hindered you, or made you realize that you were similar or like others around you. You need not access your readings to complete this assignment. Students in the past have written about realizing they were a particular race or gender for the first time, coming to terms with a life-long injury or disability, and or realizing that your parents had more or less money than the others around you. Please bring a hard copy of your response to class on Wednesday night. Your posts are due to the blog by 6pm on Tuesday.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog for Inequality in Sport. Please create a blog profile for yourself. You will be submitting blog responses each week. I look forward to meeting you and working through our class material in a supportive and encouraging manner. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to be a part of your critical engagement with American sport. I will never make the claim that I know everything about sport. I know that together we will all gain more knowledge and appreciation for this very culturally important entity we refer to as sport.