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[Cross-posted from SportsEthicist.com ] Fantasy Football season is just starting to spin up and millions of football fans are beginning to think about their top draft prospects or clever names for their teams. As big as it is, it is not surprising that it has started to get more and more scholarly attention. Chad Carlson and I discussed philosophical questions arising in fantasy in a podcast back in December (Mike and I also talked fantasy last August). Scott Aikin joins the fray with his relatively recent article in the International Journal of Applied Philosophy entitled “ Responsible Sports Spectatorship and the Problem of Fantasy Leagues ”. Aikin says Fantasy Sports can bring about “a unique form of distortion of proper spectator performance” (195). In sum, his argument is that those who watch sporting events for the purpose of participating in a fantasy league are failing to be what he calls “responsible spectators”. Using several different kinds of cases where a spectator intu...

The University of Gloucestershire Religion, Philosophy, and Ethics website  has several short videos about the Philosophy of Sport with fellow Philosophy of Sport blogger  Dr. Emily Ryall . Dr. Ryall is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Gloucestershire. What is the Philosophy of Sport? A short video interview Should we regard Elite Athletes as Heroes? Is Sport a form of Art? A video interview with Dr Emily Ryall. Sport as form of moral education. Can Sport make us Good? The videos are good introductions to some interesting questions and important issues in Philosophy of Sport.

[Cross-posted from SportsEthicist.com ] In the wake of the devastating shellacking of Brazil at the feet of German side, we saw hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures of crying and tearful Brazilians. Many sports fan empathized with these pictures. Part of being a fan is suffering through bad losses. Every true sports fan has been on the losing side at one time or another. We know how those Brazilian fans felt. Others raised the ridiculousness of crying over a game, especially a game one didn’t even participate in. It is one thing if you played in a game, gave your proverbial all, and then were overcome with emotion (such as Columbia’s James Rodriguez). But for fans in the stands or out on street to cry strikes many as silly. Something must be really out of whack. There are really two questions here. One: is crying an appropriate emotional response to a sporting event? Two: is it appropriate to have one’s identity so connected to a sporting event/team? The second question arises becau...

The Call for Abstracts for Defining Sport book proposal is approaching. The deadline is July 11, 2014. The focus of the book is to bring new scholarly attention to the issues and questions involved in defining and explaining the nature of sport. There are several classic works that treat these issues, but with the growth of the philosophy of sport a renewed focus on how to define and conceptualize sport is needed. The original call is here:  http://sportsethicist.com/2014/05/15/call-for-papers-defining-sport/

The following is a guest post from Brandon Johnson, a graduate student in Exercise and Sport Science at Eastern Kentucky University: Nearly everyone agrees that a worker deserves a fair and suitable workplace environment. Yet, a less congenial notion within college athletics is who is deemed an employee. For years, student-athletes at the collegiate level were just that: student-athletes. Their schedules were crammed with coursework, meetings and practices. Such student-athletes gave their time, blood, sweat and tears in return for a college degree. Rarely thought to be employees, student-athletes represented their school in competition day in and day out. However, increases in technology and media coverage have led to a grand restructuring of the collegiate athletic model. Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games and March Madness have created a multi-billion dollar industry. And now, student-athletes want their share. A recent ruling by the National Labor Union declared members of the ...

(Originally Posted at The Sports Ethicist )  In his weekly blog , Jack Bowen of the Institute of Sports Law and Ethics discusses a recent MMA incident.  Mike Pantangco submitted to Jeremy Rasner in an amateur bout. ( Watch it here ) The remarkable thing is that Pantangco was beating Rasner rather soundly. In Pantangco’s word’s: "I just feel that there's no point fighting him because he didn't train against me and I didn't train for him and I just feel like we're amateur fighters…We don't get money, we don't get paid, and I know that the only thing I'm going to finish the fight is him to go in the hospital or get hurt. I just feel terrible so I'm just going to give him the win." ( Source ) In his blog, Bowen praised Pantangco’s action as exceptionally good sportsmanship and a gesture of compassion. Other bloggers and writers similarly praised Pantangco. While I acknowledge his submission was an act of kindness, I do not agree that this was an a...

During the past year I’ve thought an awful lot about commitment, especially what it means for youth sport athletes. In this time our oldest son (now 15) has moved from an assortment of activities – running, basketball, football, and volleyball – in order to focus on his sport of choice, which is soccer. He has gradually immersed himself in the practice tradition with hopes to see just how good he can become. His decision brings to mind a passage from philosopher William James. In Psychology: The Briefer Course , James writes: “So the seeker of his truest, strongest, deepest self must review the list carefully, and pick out the one on which to stake his salvation. All other selves thereupon become unreal, but the fortunes of this self are real.” James was an unabashed advocate of the “strenuous life” which included a modicum of potential risk and precipitousness. To this point, a youth sport athlete commitment to a single sport exemplifies the kind of strenuous life James ...