Discipline in College Sports

Am I alone in finding it absurd when college coaches levy "punishments" on their players for significant violations of the social compact? How can an individual who is so self-interested in having his players play, in winning, in preserving his job, possibly take the right action? The latest indication of the silliness of this phenomenon appeared in the newspaper today--Florida football coach Meyer is suspending one of his star linebackers for one half of a game they should win anyway for attempting to gouge out the eye of an opponent. Now gouging is not something that anyone in our society should be encouraging, or allowing to happen, and I don't think most football players would condone it. While the player in question will likely be unhappy about sitting out one half, that's not much of a consequence for taking that inappropriate action on the football field. Why not at least suspend him for the entire game--because the coach may be afraid he would lose? All the way up into the professional ranks, commentators decry the coddling of great athletes to the point where they never suffer negative consequences for much of anything, except bad sports performance on the field of play. The half-assed messages we send with discipline like this can only lead to potentially bigger social misconduct later on in life.

Debut

In this blog, we are going to perform just as the display name suggests--by articulating reasonable positions on a variety of issues and advocating for others to join me in taking them and acting on them. I am writing this blog in the belief that there are few well-informed opinions being expressed out here in the ether--not that my opinion will always be "Right" but I will attempt to bring to the public discussion some effort to clarify matters and make it easier for others to see the value in supporting certain courses of action. I would love to have others of similar "reasonable" mind engage with me.