at sports doeskeep kids off the street and away from gangs which is why you see so many athletic and boxing clubs beingrun out of the inner city. It is allowing the youth to take that hostility out on a willing participantwho is ready and consenting rather than against an innocent bystander. Some individuals have gone as far as saying that sport is creating a deviant subculture wherethese athletes are becoming the opposite of what was intended for them. "The emphasis in formalizedsport on victory may, in fact, promote deviant behavior and poor sportsmanship" (Snyder 101). I would have to totally disagree with the above quote because being an athlete myself, I cannever recall a time when I could have related my deviant behavior to my sporting past. Sports does notpromote poor sportsmanship, it creates a drive to succeed within yourself and to try to do the best atwhatever you do whether it be in sports, school or at a job. The violence that is occurring today is not occurring more than it was ten or twenty years agolike some people might suggest, it is only being shown and talked about more by the mass media. If thereis one group to blame for the increase in violence I feel that it would be the media, not the athletesthemselves. If you turn on the television to watch a sportscast, it will always glorify an act ofviolence like a "hit of the night" or repeats of some type of fight whether it be in hockey, boxing or a bench-clearingbrawl in baseball. I can recall on numerous occasions where the media has hyped up a hockey gameinvolving two "tough guys" and creating a hysteria in sporting world wanting to see the outcome of thefight. Is this wrong for the media to be encouraging and glorifying the violence in sport? I don'tthink so because the fans want to see it and like it or not, it is here to stay. Look at sports like boxing for example, who relies on the media to increase the sports fansinterest ...
