The Evil of High School Football

There are few, more strongly held, assumptions about morality than this one: sports builds character. Character, as Baumeister and Vohs (2004) note, is based at core on self-control: the capacity to regulate one's actions so that one does not act on one's temptations, but insteads pursue loftier but more challenging goals. Success at sports requires a high degree of self-regulation, for only through self-discipline, commitment to purpose, and in some cases self-denial can one excel.

Yet, the evidence pertaining to the impact of participation in sports does not provide support for the positive impact of participation in sports on moral character.

One set of findings comes from research using the Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI). This instrument asks respondents to read 21 short sports-oriented scenarios with morally evaluable outcomes. The inventory indicates the extent to which winning, even with some morally questionable actions, is justified. The findings generally indicate that participation in sports--and team sports in particular--lower one's morality scores. Investigators conclude that,athletes, the longer they play team sports, become morally calloused by the environment of competition and win at any cost (see Doty, 2006).


Doty, J. (2006). Sports builds character? Journal of College & Character, 7(3), 1-9.
High School Football

Despite the popularity of organized sports, these activities' negative consequences outweigh the positive: They create arbitrary group divisions, lead to competition, distract us from more important things, and can lead to death and injury both to the competitors and the fans. High school football is no exception. I

Here are findings related to the evil of high school football:

Increased Aggression

• Social learning theory would suggest that people trained to be physically aggressive for their sort would be more aggressive in life.
• Football players are more likely to be more involved in a serious fight (Kreager, 2007).
• Also, people whose friends play football are also more likely to be in fights (Kreager, 2007).

Increased Homophobia

• Osborne and Wagner (2007) found that high school students who participate in either football, baseball, basketball, or soccer are three times more likely to express homophobic attitudes.
• Among men, sports ideology is associated with sexist and homophobic attitudes (Harry, 1995). While this study does not provide evidence that sports leads to homophobic attitudes, it shows the potential that high school football teams have for increasing negative attitudes toward homosexuals. If people who play sports are already more homophobic than other people, then when they are put together on teams without any input from non-athletic, non-homophobic people, their negative attitudes will remain unchecked. People who may not have such negative attitudes on the team may hear their peers talk and make their attitudes more negative to match those of their peers.

Health Risks

• High school athletes were more likely to drive above the speed limit and to not wear helmets when they ride bikes or motorcycles (Baumert, Henderson, &Thompson, 1998).
• For high school athletes who are white, playing high school sports was associated with more alcohol use (Eitle, Turner, & Eitle, 2003).
• Barth et al. (1989) found that 40% of college football players head sustained a head injury while playing football at either the high school or college level.
• Choate et al. (2007) found that there are is a greater percentage of overweight people among football players than non-athletes.
• Athletes less moral?
• While scoring high in social character, athletes had lower moral index scores (Satcher, 2007).

Eitle, D., Turner, R. J., & Eitle, T. M. (2003). The deterrence hypothesis reexamined: Sports participation and substance use among young adults. Journal of Drug Issues, 33, 193-222.