THE DARK SIDE OF SPORTS

Camille Greenlee

In 80 A.D., Emperor Titus challenged two infamous gladiators, Verus and Priscus, to a fight scheduled for the opening day of the Colosseum. After the tens of thousands of Romans watched the men fight to their death for hours, the gladiators agreed to a tie and Titus granted each man their freedom.

Since then, athletes don’t have to worry as much about losing their lives — yet, there is still a great risk of physical injury. Like any co-evolutionary process, fans continue enjoying aggression and violence. As more athletes get hurt due to intentional aggression, fans and the sports entertainment industry must bring clarity to this issue — do people watch for the enjoyment of the game or for the desire of watching others get hurt?

Physicality is an essential part of most sports. For each team to play a game, they must consent to the fact that they likely can get hurt at any point in time. However, fans sometimes don’t appreciate the difference between intentional and accidental injuries.

Accidental injuries can happen. Athletes are not punished for accidents. For example, on January 2, 2023, against the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest seconds after a tackle. Neither the Bills nor the Bengals broke any of the rules. The heart attack was caused by an unlucky split-second moment and position where Hamlin made a tackle and stood up too soon. Because of this, Hamlin almost died. On the other hand, impermissible injuries are those considered illegal, as most of them are intentional. For instance, with exactly eight seconds left in the AFC Championship, Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai pushed Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes further out of bounds after the play had already concluded. Mahomes tried not to let it affect him much so he could continue playing as he wasn’t seriously injured. Chiefs fans went wild as their team earned 15 yards and made their taining. After injuries, especially ones posted on social media, fans want to see players in action, especially if they’ve just taken time off to recover.

Devoted sports fan, Lucille Proul (‘23) said, “I think it’s more entertaining to watch violent sports because there’s more action.” Lotte Lightner (‘25) agreed and added, “More people watch at a professional level because of this.” way into field goal range and win the game by three points.

At the same time, the Bengals blamed the refs for a “wrong call” and Ossai for being too pushy. Avid Bengals and Joe Burrow fan, Lisbon Ziegler (‘23) felt especially strongly about the call. She said, “I think throughout the game, there were similar instances that didn’t get called. Because it was an emotional moment with high stakes and the fans [were] going crazy for the last drive of the game, it seemed like an intentional act.”

In both intentional and accidental injuries, fans around the world find this aggression especially enter-

Athletes can be born with aggression or develop this after playing their sports for a while, according to the idea of nature vs. nurture. For professional athletes, “it’s a business, it’s a job, it’s a future, it’s a livelihood, and players are going to put a lot on the line to keep moving forward and make themselves more distinctive as an individual or team,” Lynn Jamieson said, an expert from Indiana University in governmental sports policy. “That can lead to violence at that level.”

In order to play any sport, there must be competition or rivalry. One psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Leonard Glass, wrote in Boston University Radio (WBUR) that fans, and especially the athletes themselves, view the rival or the opponent as the “enemy.” When a player in professional sports is traded throughout the league, fans and ex-teammates view them as traitors, while their new teammates view them as their new buddies.

Fans desire a fight and players require a certain competitiveness to play their game. Julia Bonaguidi

(‘23), a star water polo player, said, “You have to be competitive with other people and even with yourself mentally. You have to be explosive and that makes a lot of sports aggressive.” From football to basketball to water polo, athletes move explosively to throw off their opponents. Doing so creates that level of aggression that fans and athletes know and love.

Dana White, the President of one of the most physical sports leagues, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) claimed, “Everyone loves a fight. It’s in our DNA ... if you’re in an intersection and there’s a basketball game on one corner, a soccer game on another, a baseball game on the third, and a fight on the fourth, everyone will go watch the fight.”

In most physical sports, like soccer, football, basketball, or boxing, for example, the crowd goes wild when fights in the arena arise. Whether there’s a fight on the field or in the ring after a whistle is blown, physical or emotional fights often arise on the sidelines too, where security has to step in.

In all levels of different sports, there is a goal of winning, and aggression is the way to win. In a 1945 essay on the intersection between sports and politics, George Orwell, the author of 1984 and a renowned journalist, stated, “You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win.” As he touched on the spirit within sports, he added that sports revolve around a built-up energy underneath the play itself. He said, “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules, and sadistic pleasure in violence. In other words, it is war without shooting.” Between politics and sports, people are commonly intrigued based on hatred and even violence. Orwell connected this idea to his hatred of the Soviet Union. As he watched the Futbol Club Dynamo Moscow on tour in Britain in 1945, Orwell noted the similarities between aggressive athletes and manipulative politicians.

Professional sports like football, basketball, and baseball all include rules that prevent intentional violence. Baseball pitchers can get thrown out of a game for throwing a beanball or a knockout pitch, both thrown to hit the batter intentionally. In basketball, all positions can only receive five fouls before getting permanently removed from the game. And in football, several-yard penalties can be called targeting both offense and defense.

When asked if she’s seen a sports event with intentional aggression, Lisbon marked the San Diego State University basketball game on November 11, 2022, against Brigham Young University as the craziest game she has ever been to. She said, “[the San Diego State student section] was shouting bad things at the refs for making more calls. This intensified the flow of the game, making the players more emotional and leading them to commit more fouls.”

Since the beginning of sports, athletes channel their anger and emotion to play their hardest. At the same time, fans bound up their passion and love for their team to cheer toward a win. While this may include screaming at the refs when a call doesn’t go their way or getting an extreme adrenaline rush when someone falls down hard on the field or court, it’s all a part of sports.