Michael Toebe joined to discuss his recent article exploring the potential for mediation to be part of sports conflicts such as the punch that caused a 100-year- old rivalry between Brigham Young University and the University of Utah to come to a screeching halt.
Toebe sees the dispute as an interesting case study to imagine mediation as part of the solution.
“It’s a very passionate rivalry” Toebe said.
The punch resulted in a decision to suspend all games between the two rival schools. This lead to the question: Is this the most optimal decision and response to that conflict? According to Toebe the answer is no.
“Just putting a game or relationship on hold doesn’t necessarily resolve issues,” Toebe said.
Despite mediation being an unfamiliar form of conflict resolution for some in athletic administration, it can be a very productive catalyst to resolving complex issues.
Joshua Gordon of the Sports Conflict Institute brings up the possibility that Athletic Directors, faced with many demands and pressure to act quickly, often trend toward more traditional crisis management approaches because they are familiar and seem like they get to a solution quickly.
In advocating for mediation as a means toward more durable solutions to complex problems.
Toebe adds, “It’s a voluntary process and you get to make the decisions and have more flexibility than you would normally have.”
Suffolk University Law School Professor and SCI Advisory Board member Marc Greenbaum shared his expertise regarding the latest battle of the power of the commissioner in the NFL surrounding Deflategate on SCI Talk this week.
Ted Lewis joins SCI Founder, Joshua Gordon, in discussing the possibilities for restorative justice practices in sports. Watch or listen to learn more about how it can work with or as an alternative to traditional responses.
When thinking of college athletics, most think of some of the challenges that come with big-time programs. But what about some of the other programs and their challenges. Specifically, what are the challenges of part-time coaches? Stephanie Thorburn of Gamechange joins SCI TALK to discuss.
About Stephanie Thorburn:
Stephanie Thorburn is currently the Associate Athletics Director for Administration and Compliance at Hunter College, NY, NY. Prior to joining Hunter College she was the Associate Director of Leadership Development (Student-Athlete Affairs Department) at the NCAA. Stephanie also spent time in the professional ranks, she was the Manager of Player Development at the National Basketball Association (NBA). Stephanie ran relevant programming and services that encouraged the league’s athletes and facilitated their personal, professional, and social growth. Thorburn holds a Master’s degree in sports psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, both from Florida State University.
In this episode, University of Missouri’s Dr. Scott Brooks joins to speak about recent events on race at universities, including the recent high profile series of events at his home university.
Dr. Brooks’ specialties include urban sociology, race, class, and gender, social interaction, qualitative research, and sociology of sport.
Joshua Gordon joined Elevation Traii for their weekly podcast. This episode is a nice mix of light-hearted banter and some thoughtful conversation on issues on sports. Topics include risk management, conflict resolution, doping, athlete personalities.
Dopers are cheaters. They take drugs to enhance their athletic abilities, giving themselves an unfair advantage. However, some argue we should allow athletes to dope. They claim if everyone dopes, no one athlete has an unfair advantage because everyone has the ability to enhance their performance. Though arguments made in favor of doping point toward creating a level playing field, there is concern about the impacts of performance-enhancing drugs on the health and well-being of athletes. There is significant research that suggests steroids and various performance-enhancing drugs are detrimental to the human body.
In an episode of SCI TV, Dr. Gary David, Associate Professor of Sociology at Bentley University, discusses doping in sports and addresses the suggestion by Torbjörn Tännsjö of the Boston Globe, to “let all athletes dope.”
Trickle-Down Effect
A major concern for allowing athletes to dope is the possibility of negative impacts on young athletes who often attempt to follow in the favorite star’s footsteps. Young athletes who dope are at a significantly greater risk of health issues that could potentially cut their athletic career short. Gary David explains his concerns as a trickle-down effect.
“If professional athletes are doping then that’s going to trickle-down to college athletics, high school athletics and invariably it is going to end up in youth athletics.”
There is no single answer or solution to doping, but David suggests that we look at sports as a whole and understand how legal doping would impact all levels of athletes. We need to understand the impacts on the He also points out that there are countless arguments made at all levels of sport that doping is “counterproductive to their overall wellbeing.”
Changing Values?
Joshua Gordon, host of SCI TV presents two important questions: Are we shifting what we value in sports? Or are we in love with innovation and the idea that we can think our way through how to advance the body?
Society needs to have an open discussion and determine what we value most about sports. David restructures the questions we need to ask by shifting focus from the innovation of performance enhancing drugs to the purpose of sport.
“Is it the winning and winning at all costs, which is really a part of American culture? Or is it the struggle of excellence no matter what the person’s innate ability is?”
Gary concludes by suggesting that if we value winning at all costs then praising that mentality “undermines the very value system that sports is supposed to have.”
Level Playing Field
It is debatable whether current bans on doping create a level playing field, as there are many athletes who break rules in an effort to gain an advantage.
SCI TV co-host, Ken Pendleton explains “there needs to be a much more open-minded discussion about these distinctions, what should be banned, what shouldn’t be banned, and at what levels?” Pendleton.
“There is a reason that rules exist in the first place,” David said. Rules exist in all aspects of society to maintain order and a level playing field. Before allowing athletes to dope there are many unanswered questions that must be addressed to ensure that all levels of athletics focus on health, fitness, and a level playing field for all athletes.
Marc Greenbaum is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of Labor and Employment Law Concentration at Suffolk University Law School. Professor Greenbaum is an experienced labor arbitrator and remains one of the most sought after neutrals for handling challenging cases. In addition to his own professional accomplishments, he has been instrumental in educating and advising his current and former students – developing an impressive portfolio of success stories along the way.
What Is Going On In Deflategate?
Mr. Greenbaum explains that litigation is pending and the Judge is very aggressively pushing a settlement option. However, Tom Brady and the NFLPA have little reason to settle because they do not have much to lose.
“There is not a huge incentive to settle for the union,” Greenbaum said.
Greenbaum notes that a major issue in this case with the NFL and Commisioner Roger Goodell is regarding “the role that the NFL’s general counsel played in helping Ted Wells ‘edit the report.”
“If the NFLPA is going to prevail anywhere it is on the theory that [Commissioner] Goodell violated something by hearing the case,” Greenbaum said.
Impact On The NFL
Greenbaum brings up an issue that the NFL should be extremely concerned with and that is how this on going case is going to impact the NFL and the start of the season. While making headlines over the last few years for the wrong reasons, Goodell and the NFL do not need to begin the season with another controversy being fought out in court.
“Something which I haven’t seen much discussion about, but at some point has to be within the consciousness of the league is the impact of an ongoing proceeding on the integrity of the regular season,” Greenbaum said.
Greenbaum adds that the reason this controversy is growing and making headlines is to benefit Roger Goodell.
“It may be that the commissioner views this as an opportunity to reclaim his credibility,” Greenbaum said.
Sports are meant to be an escape from the stresses and conflicts of everyday life, but as major incidents occur in the sport industry we see an increase in brand damage that can significantly impact the industry and its’ various organizations. In an episode of SCI TV, Joshua Gordon of the Sports Conflict Institute and Duncan Fletcher of Game Change (gamechange.ca) discuss some of the implications around issues that arise in sports and where so many sports organizations seemingly drop the ball.
Power of Sports Brands
Sport branding has rapidly grown into a multi-billion dollar industry with the goal of developing relationships between fans and various products and services. However, the stakes are so high that when an incident occurs there are repercussions that can lead to significant brand damage and can cast a negative shadow turning away fans and potential sponsors and business partners.
“Sports brands are spontaneous in a way that few other entertainment industries are, it captures the imagination of folks that can relate to it because they have played these sports and followed them closely,” Gordon said. “And the stakes are high because all of this is operating in the public realm.”
Any publicity is good publicity?
In some cases organizations and athletes welcome any publicity. However, major scandals and unlawful acts can be more damaging than helpful to the brand image of the organization or athlete regardless of the increased publicity. The cases of Lance Armstrong, the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, and FIFA corruption “are perfect examples in terms of that negative impact that can be brought upon an organization,” said Fletcher.
As sponsorships and endorsements deals skyrocket, there is growing concern about how a scandal can impact everything from ticket and merchandise sales to the support for organizations and their sponsors.
“There is no tolerance for any bad behavior,” Gordon said.
Fletcher follows up by explaining that one of the greatest challenges leading to brand damage is that “even a hiccup, at a very low rate, has a massive impact not only for the individual athlete but the organization or the entity that they work for. That is one of the most frustrating things, in that its very difficult to reach athletes and have them understand that you may hiccup at a very small level, but how that gets magnified is often beyond the issue itself.”
The costs of scandals and controversies can negatively impact all parties involved — administrators, coaches, athletes and supporters — in a four main ways including brand damage, burning actually dollars, loss of viewership and the teams’ performance.
Threats to Sports Industry
Athlete conduct and PED use are considered the biggest threats to the industry. Industry executives are viewed athlete conduct as an even bigger problem.
“Sports are a diversion from the many difficult things we have in our daily life, we are looking for something to take us away from that and if all it is is a mirror of the very problems in the world itself that defeats the purpose,” said Gordon.
Systemic Solutions?
“The key is you have to go through the process of driving change and addressing the culture,” Fletcher said.
The best possible way to drive change and prevent significant brand damage is to act using the following solutions:
Shift paradigm from investigation to assessment
Proactive vs. reactive
Align interests between sponsors, leagues, teams, athletes, agents, and others
Understand what data is missing / needed for better understanding of drivers
Conduct structural / organizational assessment of selectionn and development process
Examine CBAs in professional leagues
In conclusion, though there is no cookie cutter solution but it is best to look within your own organization to determine where changes need to be made.
“What you really have to look towards is what are some of those behavioral triggers, how do we create a safe place for individuals to go when there is an issue, and how do we build the community more broadly around athletes so that the infrastructure is healthy and supportive,” Gordon said. “What you really need to think about doing is looking at what your own organizational cultural triggers and then shape something that deals with the systemic flaws within your organization.”
