By Tim Libby & Heather Van Mullem
(November 9, 2022)

America loves sport. During a competition, fans and athletes may become impassioned in a way that may not be duplicated in other aspects of life. For better or worse, sport is a consequential part of our lived experience and the athletes who provide those moments of passion hold a level of influence over our society (Coakley, 2021). Professional athletes, like other role models, impact the way student-athletes play their sport, the way they dress, and even the way youth communicate and behave.

The professional athlete’s level of influence is immense. A student-athlete will literally follow the athlete, the way they may follow a coach, through idolization by adopting the ways of thinking and behaviors that are modeled (Frederick et al., 2014). Sometimes the behaviors are modeled through personal interactions, while other times they are modeled through the media. Athletes and other celebrity role models, like actors and culturally significant businesspeople, may use various forms of media as a vehicle to build and protect their brands. Today, this is often accomplished through television, digital, or social media platforms.

Parents sometimes regulate the consumption of media for their kids to prevent exposure to various things like violence and sexually explicit material. Similarly, coaches may filter their speech to best tailor messages being received by athletes. Of interest is also the message delivered by influential role models like professional athletes. Certain behaviors, including playing through injury, striving for distinction, accepting no obstacles in the pursuit of success, and always putting the game first, combine to create the Sport Ethic, a phenomenon that supports and reaffirms one’s identity as an athlete (Coakley, 2021).  To what extent do athletes glorify the behaviors and ways of thinking related to the Sport Ethic? Why do professional athletes use social media, what messages do they share, and do their messages affirm the Sport Ethic?

Social media has an immediate and sweeping reach. Though many new media platforms are used, Twitter provides a mix of text, images, and video to analyze. To examine how professional athletes use Twitter and what their messages contain, we analyzed tweets by 180 professional athletes from 9 sports, all on active rosters, and all with active Twitter accounts. Athletes were selected randomly from rosters representing the highest level of competition in each sport. Tweets made between April 1 and May 31, 2021, were the focus of the analysis. The study design was adapted from the Hambrick et al. (2010) study which analyzed professional athlete message purpose on Twitter. In this project, we utilized nine categories of message purpose: Promotion, interaction, self-promotion, diversion, information sharing, fanship, content sharing, messages of social significance, and insufficient message data. Additionally, because we sought to understand the frequency with which athletes perpetuated components of the Sport Ethic, we also created categories for each of the four elements of the Sport Ethic.

In all, 2,917 tweets were reviewed. Results revealed that professional athletes on Twitter perpetuated the Sport Ethic in their messaging. Significance (p>0.05) was found across all 4 elements of the Sport Ethic, with “striving for distinction” being the most common affirmation. Considering that 77% of tweets analyzed in our study had affirmed the Sport Ethic through striving for distinction, there is evidence of movement away from the athlete’s gratitude for the team and others who contribute to their success, as the athletes become more likely to communicate about their own achievements and wear their sacrifices as badges of honor. The prevalence of affirmation in the other elements of the Sport Ethic could potentially be attributed to the same motivation – reward. Not only are athletes encouraged to place sport first and to ignore the obstacles in front of them, but they are also rewarded with praise and ascension when they do, especially if those actions are violent and come with a personal cost.

Professional athletes perpetuated the Sport Ethic through social media. Given Twitter’s communication efficacy and the power of the athlete as a role model, this could have a potential impact on the development of student-athletes. Mitigation is really the point. We understand that this issue is not cut and dry. There are jobs on the line, and differing philosophies, and we cannot forget that many of the behaviors are personal choices made by athletes. But there is another way to approach competitive sport – a healthier way. In the following personal example, Mr. Libby (co-author) illustrates how intentional communication with his son has resulted in a change in his son’s understanding of what healthy competition looks like.

My son and I speak regularly about healthy participation, attitudes, and specifically about the elements of the Sport Ethic. We discuss how over conformity to the theory could be harmful to him, and we discuss how life is hard and a certain level of dedication and perseverance is necessary to achieve in both sport and life. The point of these conversations is to provide him with a choice many kids do not know exists as they blindly toe the line for their coaches and eagerly adopt the athlete identity that, once sport ends, will be replaced by an undefined identity and a daily regimen of ibuprofen. I don’t want that for him or for anyone else. I want him to be grateful for his experiences and to honor the contributions of the coaches, teammates, and others who contributed to those experiences. When he is done playing sports, I want him to be physically and emotionally healthy and proud of the effort he gave. So, we talk about it.

My son’s approach to sport has evolved. I have seen the kid that once kicked a teammate off a flag football field for not paying attention do some incredible things. In the past year, he has stopped a game mid-play because he saw a teammate limping slightly. He has settled arguments at practice and at school by explaining to other competitive kids that many kids participate in games simply to have fun with friends.  He has danced and sang songs in games to keep himself from getting angry and gives hugs to teammates who are sad. He has also cried in anger after losing and spiked a baseball into the mound as hard as he could after getting yanked by the coach. At a minimum, he has taken the acknowledged choices to heart and is giving his level-best to do what he feels is right. If a competitive child with everything still in front of him can see the benefit in exploring alternatives to the norms of sport and society, and work to behave more ethically and in a way that is developmentally safer, can we adults not do the same?

I often think back to a varsity football game I observed where a running back had an obvious ankle injury. The back continued to play until he could not physically stand under his own weight and ended up missing the rest of the season with the injury. The game was out of reach prior to the initial injury. I wonder today if the young man felt intrinsically that he needed to continue or if there were extrinsic forces preventing him from making a decision that would have benefited everyone. I also wonder why the coach would not pull him from the game as there was no practical benefit to having him in a lost game and a clear danger to having him continue to compete. The varsity coaches, who are significant influencers, provided lessons and ways of thinking to all student-athletes in attendance.

We have a choice. We owe it to those in our communities to provide them with the choice. It is their choice to make because they will be the ones living with the consequences of their decisions. Please consider giving control over a student-athlete’s behavior and ways of thinking to the one (the student-athlete) who will live with the effects of their choices. Be honest. Tell them the truth about what it takes to achieve their goals but tell them of the consequences of over conformity. When we share with them the alternatives and actively commit to protecting them from the culture created by the Sport Ethic, we can do a couple of things: (1) we become the coaches we profess to be, and (2) we put the students in a position to protect themselves.

Here are a few strategies to consider within the coach’s scope of usual duties:

• During initial team and parent meetings, clearly define expectations regarding adequate rest and injury reporting. In addition, provide information on available school wellness resources. Affirm that the program is committed to healthy participation and provides open channels of communication with parents to talk about their child’s well-being throughout the season.
• Talk with athletes about the importance of balance in their lives and the eventual end of their sport careers. Provide guidance on other ways to participate or work in sport, if they wish, once their playing days have ended.
• Encourage students to set goals in their lives that are not sport related. Share your own goals for the team that are not primarily related to sport.
• Revisit your injury reporting and game re-entry policies, and your workout scheduling in the off-season when the game is not on the line. Have others review them and be receptive to honest feedback.
• Learn more about sport-injury causation, performance anxiety, and the Sport Ethic and share that information with your staff to create a “student-first” environment.
• Discuss with your student-athletes the importance of their well-being, future and declare an expectation that they will not jeopardize either in the interest of on-field success.

References

Coakley, J. (2021). Sports in society: Issues and controversies. (13th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Frederick, E., Lim, C.H., Clavio, G., Pedersen, P., Lauren, M. (2014). Choosing between the one-way or two-way street: An exploration of relationship promotion by professional athletes on Twitter. Communication & Sport. Retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/ download?doi=10.1.1.834.9556&rep= rep1& type=pdf

Hambrick, M., Simmons, J., Greenhalgh, G., and Greenwell, T.C. (2010).  Understanding professional athletes’ use of Twitter: A content analysis of athlete tweets. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3 (4), pp. 454-471. Retrieved from https://stephzajac.files. wordpress.com/2011/06/understandingprofesional-athletes.pdf