Sports World is the Venue for Ethics Controversies

Oct 5th, 2009 • Posted in: News

Speculation about what caused the unexpected Olympic Games award; newspaper looks at fallout from one university’s rise to athletic prominence; NFL gets a B in annual report on diversity in sports

VARIOUS DATELINES
The role of ethics in sports was the central theme in several major stories last week. Among them:

• Rio de Janeiro was named as the venue for the 2016 Olympic Games in a hotly contested selection process that itself was the venue for an ethics controversy. At issue are remarks by Chicago mayor Richard Daley, who publicly questioned Rio’s capability to accommodate the event, the Chicago Tribune reports. International Olympic Committee rules prohibit representatives of cities submitting bids from criticizing their rivals. A spokesman for the Olympic Committee said no formal ethics complaint had been filed. While Rio had to contend with its image as one of the most violent and crime-ridden cities in the world, Chicago also came to the bargaining table with some baggage, according to Politico.com: the Windy City’s reputation for corruption.
• Binghamton University, considered by many as the jewel in New York State’s university system, is being rocked by an ethics scandal. According to an editorial in the New York Times, the troubles began when the college recruited several student-athletes with histories of academic and legal problems. The situation worsened last week, according to the Times, when instructor Sally Dear claimed that she was fired after speaking out about what she said was pressure from the athletic department to make exceptions for players in her class. Binghamton University maintains it investigated the claims and found them to be untrue, according to the Times. The editorial’s take on the series of incidents: “Binghamton … has been on a slippery slope since it jumped from the casually competitive world of Division III college sports to Division I, which can have a win-at-all-cost attitude. This often leads to recruiting athletes who are not prepared for college and who cannot remain eligible to play without grade padding and preferential treatment.”
• The National Football League (NFL) received a an overall grade of B in its efforts to increase diversity, according to an annual report released by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Center’s report cited “sustained progress” in improving diversity at the head coach and general manager position, but gave the league a C in gender-based diversity.

Sources: New York Times, Oct. 2 — Politico.com, Oct. 1 — Chicago Tribune, Sep. 29 — San Francisco Chronicle, Sep. 25.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Sep. 28 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 17 — Related Newsline story, June 15 — Related Newsline story, May 18 — Related Newsline story, May 11.

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