Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Recent articles on the ethics of player violence in team sports have introduced new approaches toward clarifying and comprehending this old and vexing problem in sport. For example, White and Werntz (2017) describe and analyze the banality of violence and apply this concept to team sports wherein players have been known to engage in reckless, depraved behavior. Stolick (2017) argues from a Kantian perspective to eliminate bare-knuckle fighting in NHL hockey. The brutality observed in North American football, even when players do not intend to harm opponents, has led to such severe consequences that some claim the sport is no longer morally defensible (Kretchmar et al., 2017). Considering these themes, this proposed paper will begin by describing the meaning of in-contest player violence in team sports. It will then briefly review and critique selective works like the articles cited above. Next, the author will introduce and discuss the vulnerability principle which tries to discern violent acts from acts of violence in collision team sports (Simon et al., 2015). As will be explained, this distinction can be employed to determine ethical and unethical athlete behavior in team sports. Finally, the proposed paper will conclude by addressing athlete violence in team sports and moral progress.