Sports damage character, a response to Mark Edmundson
The competitiveness in sports, the stress, hierarchy, whose good and who's bad gives sports a somewhat negative Ora which people like me try there best to stray away from. PhD Mark Edmundson, an English professor at the University of Virginia published an article “Do Sports Build Character or Damage It?” in The Chronicle of Higher Education. In this article Edmundson advises to fellow educators to think more deeply about the importance of sports and how sports can affect your character. He uses his life as a prime example. In his article Edmondson explains how sports helped build his character but also damage it. First he reminisces about his highschool years as a football player. Second …show more content…
I don’t think so. When Edmundson first brings up his high school football memories from way back. He talks about how when he played his first year his couches told the team that they could not drink water. “ players fell on the knees and began making soft, plaintive noises...escorted to the locker room, and seen no more.” He praises himself for not being one of those guys that quit or couldn't take it anymore. In my opinion I don't think that is strong willed or smart, I think it's stupid. He put his life on the line for a sport he wasn't even good at in the beginning. Edmondson talks about himself for a good portion of his entire article. He wants other educators according to his first paragraph to pay more attention to sports and he wants them to decide if sports build character or damage character based upon his article. Don’t get me wrong he gives plenty of points regarding both sides. But this man is so bias towards football, should we really be deciding the answer based upon his experience. His question was do sports build character or damage it? Not does football build character or damage it and that is what his entire essay is about. Edmundson gives a lot of examples of how his character was damaged because of football, Edmundson says, “i came to crave the physical stimulation of the game-i came to like hitting and even being hit”(para 33) please tell me how this is a good trait to have. Sports make people so aggressive and their competitive nature trumps there good character especially in Edmundsons case. He got into fights all the time just for the heck of it, he even admits “ when males get together in groups , they often act badly.” (para 34) The only character building traits Edmundson claims he got from playing football in high school was his way of pushing through challenges he faces later in life like college and writing his long and boring dissertation. But really