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Every January, jokes are made about the Super Bowl becoming an unofficial national holiday. Over 133 million Americans watched the 1998 Super Bowl broadcast, providing an example of the popularity of sports in today’s world. Millions of people are not just sports fans but participants as well, including 35 million Americans between the ages of six and twenty-one. Although most of these athletes will never gain much recognition or wealth for their efforts, some are among the richest and most famous people in society. Sports have an important place in society, but the question remains as to whether sports and athletes can live up to the expectations that are sometimes placed on them.

At times, sports do live up to high expectations. When baseball player Cal Ripken ended his consecutive-game streak toward the end of the 1998 season, many sportswriters praised Ripken and the work ethic that had helped keep him in the Baltimore Oriole lineup for more than sixteen years. Other athletes are lauded for their charity work or for triumphing over troubled childhoods.

In a perfect world, sports would live up to these and other expectations. But not surprisingly, many athletes, fans, and teams not only fall short of those ideals but also behave in ways that can be especially troubling. For example, some critics assert that too great an emphasis is placed on winning—participation in sports is not seen as the goal, but rather, doing better than everyone else is what matters. This emphasis can manifest itself in parents and coaches who push young athletes too hard, or athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs, or coaches who encourage their athletes to play dirty. D. Stanley Eitzen, a professor emeritus at Colorado State University and prominent sports sociologist, observes, “Sport has a dark side. It is plagued with problems. . . . In the view of many, these problems result from bad people. I believe that stems from a morally distorted sports world—a world where winning supersedes all other considerations.”

While some athletes are lauded for their behavior, such as Ripken and the late tennis champion Arthur Ashe, the sports pages of America’s newspapers provide numerous examples of men and women whose athletic talent is overshadowed by reckless, and sometimes criminal, actions. Stories about an athlete arrested for drug possession or spousal abuse seem to be published nearly every day. Athletes are also criticized for their greed—demands to receive higher salaries or be traded to a team that will pay them what they seek. San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Joseph Perkins is among those who believe that athletes should behave more ideally. “Whether they like it or not, whether they asked for it or not, pro athletes are very much public citizens. The American people have a right to expect them to behave themselves in a socially responsible manner.”