Here’s Wetzel’s conclusion:

Minnesota is going to get a new stadium. The Vikings are going to stay put. And [...]]]> Dan Wetzel has an excellent column on the Minnesota Vikings stadium issue. It includes a discussion about the absurdity of fans paying for a wealthy owner’s new stadium but still being subject to the blackout rule.

Here’s Wetzel’s conclusion:

Minnesota is going to get a new stadium. The Vikings are going to stay put. And the taxpayers are going to pay to build a state-of-the-art cash machine of a stadium for a billion-dollar organization that doesn’t have to even guarantee the games will be on television.

That’s just how the NFL works. That’s just how the NFL has always worked.

For the full column go here.

–Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans

Q’s & A’s with Leading Sports Reformers: Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson is founder and chief executive officer of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a non-profit formed at Stanford University with the mission to create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports so that all youth athletes have a [...]]]> A League of Fans Special Feature

Q’s & A’s with Leading Sports Reformers: Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson is founder and chief executive officer of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a non-profit formed at Stanford University with the mission to create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports so that all youth athletes have a positive, character-building experience.

Thompson was named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the U.S. by the Institute for International Sport (IIS) in October 2007. Dan Doyle, executive director of IIS, described PCA as “the finest organization of its kind in the United States.”

Since its founding in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance has developed a network of more than 130 trainers across the U.S., who have delivered 10,000-plus workshops for youth sports leaders, coaches, parents and athletes. 

Thompson is the author of numerous books on youth sports, including Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-Esteem Through Sports and his most recent book, Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple Impact Competitor.

Ken Reed, League of Fans’ sports policy director, recently interviewed Thompson.

Ken Reed: What was the trigger that made you decide you wanted to dedicate your career to the calling of reforming youth sports?

Jim Thompson: It was a gradual thing. I was an enthusiastic, but ultimately mediocre athlete. I played basketball for a year in college but got hurt and that was the end of my career. I had kind of lost interest in sports until my son got involved. I went to his games and saw a lot of behavior from well-meaning parents and coaches that was the opposite of what would get the best out of the kids.

After watching my son’s experience for a while, I decided I wanted to try and implement some ideas I had developed through the years. I began coaching my son’s basketball and baseball teams. That led to my first book, Positive Coaching, and it’s progressed from there.

Reed: Let’s get right into it. What is the biggest problem with youth sports today?

Thompson: The win-at-all-cost mentality. It colors everything.

Youth sport seems simple but it’s very complicated. Part of that revolves around how parents see youth sports. We all want to feel important, like our time on earth is meaningful. For parents, part of that meaning comes from their kids. They are concerned about how successful their kids are in life. But research shows that there’s no correlation between success on the little league field and success in life.

In addition, a lot of parents have a belief that says, “How well my kid does on the field reflects on me as a parent.” One of my mentors, John Gardner, once said, “The toughest thing kids have to face is the unfulfilled lives of their parents.” I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

Reed: Haven’t we always had problems with overzealous win-at-all-cost parents in youth sports?

Thompson: There’s always been a win-at-all-cost element in youth sports but it hasn’t been as prevalent, or normalized, or prioritized as it is today.

There are several factors involved. Specialization in one sport is happening earlier these days.

We have people making a living from youth sports. There are basketball and soccer trainers who will benefit financially if you go to their camps, training sessions, and play on their spring and fall teams.

Jay Coakley [a leading sports sociologist] believes youth sport is child labor revisited. You have entrepreneurs making money in youth sports and the staff, in a sense, is made up of young kids. That’s a problem.

Another factor is the popularity of professional sports today. Pro sports leagues, franchises, and the media, like ESPN, are really good at marketing messages to adults and kids.

Reed: How do we change a win-at-all-cost youth sports culture?

Thompson: We have parents with unfulfilled dreams second-guessing the coaches and coaches who’ve come up through the existing sports system and who are in a fish bowl.

It’s a cultural challenge. That’s why we spend a lot of time with the leaders of youth sports organizations, helping them change their culture. Culture is “the way we do things around here.” We assist these leaders in developing organizational culture signals that help coaches and parents behave themselves. Ideally, it gets to the point throughout the organization where violations of the positive sports culture are handled informally by the coaches’ and parents’ peers.

Reed: What’s your long-term goal for the Positive Coaching Alliance?

Thompson: The end-game, the ultimate goal, is to make our model for youth sports the norm, the community standard across the country. We want to get to the point where any coach who isn’t a double-goal coach (a coach who strives to win, but more importantly, strives to develop positive character traits, teach life lessons, and promote sportsmanship) stands out like a sore thumb.

Reed: What accomplishment are you most proud of with the Positive Coaching Alliance?

Thompson: I’ll take credit for creating a vision of an organization and a movement that gets people excited. People that work here make less money working for PCA than they would elsewhere. They believe in the mission. My biggest satisfaction is I’ve started something that’s excited people and is helping to transform youth sports.

Reed: What gives you the most hope that we can transform the youth sports culture to the point where the first thing the vast majority of adults who are involved in youth sports ask is, “What’s best for the kids?”

Thompson: The hope I have comes from seeing so many people implement our tools and have success with them. There are so many people that now believe, with all their heart, that the best way to win is to be positive and build kids up.

Reed: What one thing would you ask folks to do who are interested in youth sports reform and are willing to get involved?

Thompson: Our focal point of change is at the leadership level of youth sports organizations, whether it’s the local soccer club or Little League. We want to help them achieve excellence through culture change. I’d encourage people to get involved in their local youth sports organization at the leadership level. We can help you make a difference.

In many ways, there’s no more important issue than changing the youth sports culture. Transforming youth sports can positively impact our country in many ways. How youth sports are conducted infiltrates our collective mindset. You can definitely see visible results in several areas from developing a positive coaching structure.

Ralph Nader announced today the winners of the 2012 League of Fans’ “Sport At Its Best” awards. The individuals and organizations cited were honored for working toward a level playing field, [...]]]> Ralph Nader’s Sports Policy Project Recognizes Individuals and Organizations That Epitomize the Spirit of Sports and Promote Fair Play and Justice for all Stakeholders

Ralph Nader announced today the winners of the 2012 League of Fans’ “Sport At Its Best” awards. The individuals and organizations cited were honored for working toward a level playing field, promoting sportsmanship, and continually enhancing the positives of sport in their realm of influence.

“Our focus with the League of Fans is to mitigate the problems and negatives in sports. We promote fairer sports policies for all sports stakeholders, urge more participation in community sports, and push our sports organizations to be more socially responsible in their decision-making and actions,” says Nader, League of Fans’ founder. “However, it’s important that we also occasionally take the time to highlight and celebrate what’s right with sports today. That’s what these awards are all about.”

League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, said the “Sport At Its Best” awards are intended to honor a higher purpose for sport — beyond winning and making money.

“These honorees are the antithesis of the win-at-all-costs (WAAC) and profit-at-all-costs (PAAC) mentalities that too often drive decision-making and policymaking in sports today,” said Reed. “The League of Fans’ Sport At Its Best award winners epitomize a sports value system that transcends ego and greed. They recognize that while striving to win and making a profit – in appropriate instances — can be admirable goals, there are ethical limits as to what’s acceptable in seeking those ends.”

The 2012 League of Fans’ “Sport At Its Best” award winners are as follows:

Humanistic Coaching – John Gagliardi, Saint John’s University, Minnesota.

Gagliardi is the winningest coach in college football history (484-133-11 with four national championships). But what’s more important is how he’s done it: by following the Golden Rule.

“I think the key is the Golden Rule,” says Gagliardi. “Treat kids the way you’d like to be treated. Coach them how you would like to be coached. We want guys to observe the Golden Rule. That will take care of most everything. That’s our only rule. Find kids that don’t need any other rules besides the Golden Rule. Those who need other rules won’t keep them.”

Gagliardi’s coaching style is the antithesis to that used by the autocratic coaches that dominate team sports today. Autocratic coaches make every attempt to rule the athlete’s every move, from practice and games to their private lives, including what they eat and when they sleep. Power is a given; compliance and obedience are expected. Coaches of this type are quick to recognize mistakes and distribute punishments. The psycho-social ramifications for the athletes as human beings is too often but a secondary consideration to a win-at-all-costs (WAAC) outlook.

Gagliardi is best described as a humanistic coach. Humanistic coaches believe that teams characterized by a more democratic and humanistic atmosphere will have higher levels of internal motivation, satisfaction and morale, and as a result, more commitment to the team, and greater productivity than those groups directed by authoritarian coaches.

Gagliardi is well-known for his list of “No’s” that reflect his coaching philosophy. For example:

• No resemblance to a boot camp.
• No whistles.
• No yelling or screaming at players.
• No laps.
• No wind sprints.
• No tackling in practice.
• No practices longer than 90 minutes.

Make no mistake about it, Gagliardi wants to win but he won’t sacrifice his principles to do it.

Player Safety Advocacy – Chris Nowinski, Sports Legacy Institute

Chris Nowinski is one of the foremost educators, advocates, and researchers in the field of sports concussions and brain trauma. A former Harvard football player and WWE wrestler, Nowinski was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and forced to retire in 2004. He began a quest to better understand his condition and quickly discovered that a lack of awareness about brain trauma among athletes, coaches and medical professionals was threatening the short-and-long-term well-being of athletes of all ages.

Nowinski eventually teamed up with Dr. Robert Cantu, one of the country’s leading researchers in the area of concussions, and co-founded the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) with Cantu. SLI is a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the sports concussion crisis. Nowinski also serves as a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine. In addition, he is the author of Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis.

“We need to annually educate coaches, parents and athletes,” says Nowinski. “Every athlete needs to know that you don’t mess with brain injuries. Almost every athlete knows you don’t mess with neck injuries because you can end up paralyzed. In a similar way, every athlete needs to learn about brain trauma and realize you don’t take chances with brain injuries. We need to start educating young athletes when they’re six years old. We have to get to the point where athletes can recognize the symptoms of concussion in themselves and their teammates.”

Excellence in Sports Journalism – Joe Nocera, New York Times

Joe Nocera is an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, been a business writer, and served as a writer and editor for Fortune magazine for 10 years. He frequently writes about various NCAA and college sports issues from an ethics and civil rights perspective. His college sports columns have garnered a large audience.

“In looking at the NCAA it became apparent that they have a bunch of egregious rules when it comes to the treatment of players,” says Nocera. “The current system basically screws a bunch of kids, a lot of them disadvantaged kids. They have a labor force that does all the work but doesn’t get paid. It’s a plantation system. The NCAA has lost their sense of mission. This is not really a sports issue. It’s a civil rights issue. It’s a race issue and justice issue. It’s about American values and the right way to treat people you have power over.”

College Sports Reform – Taylor Branch

Taylor Branch is a civil rights and presidential historian best known for his trilogy on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the first part of that trilogy, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63. He also wrote The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President, among many other books, including Second Wind, which he wrote with basketball superstar Bill Russell. He also served as an editor with The Washington Monthly and Harper’s and was a columnist for Esquire magazine.

Sports have always been a sideline interest for Branch. His curiosity about why the NCAA seems to always be in perpetual scandal led him to conduct a survey history of college sports. Branch recently wrote a comprehensive feature article for The Atlantic summarizing this work entitled, “The Shame of College Sports,” in which he attacks the foundational structure of big-time college sports.

“There are a lot of issues concerning the governance of college sports,” says Branch. “Who are the stakeholders? What are their rights? Who’s stepping up to their responsibilities? If we start by recognizing everyone’s rights, we can reform things fairly in college sports. We can’t deprive athletes of their rights, including the right to earn a livelihood. This whole issue of the rights of college athletes is sitting there as the elephant in the room whenever the subject of college sports reform is brought up. My primary concern is the basic rights of these athletes.”

Fan-Friendly Team Ownership – Green Bay Packers

The NFL’s Green Bay Packers are owned by the fans, not a wealthy owner operating with a profit-at-all-costs (PAAC) philosophy. The Packers are a publicly-owned non-profit with a unique stock ownership structure.

Green Bay’s bylaws state that the Packers are “a community project, intended to promote community welfare.” What a refreshing concept.

“We’re owned by this community,” says Mark Murphy, the Packers’ president and chief executive officer. “We can’t be perceived as gouging the fans.”

Now there’s a statement you won’t hear from other pro sports team executives. And that’s unfortunate because the Packers could provide a model for pro sports: community ownership.

“It makes them an example,” according to ESPN’s Patrick Hruby. “A case study. A working model for a better way to organize and administer pro sports.”

However, the National Football League (NFL) rulers have formally banned any more Green Bay Packers-type ownership structures. Former commissioner Pete Rozelle changed the NFL constitution in 1960 to prevent another franchise from going to the Green Bay model. Article V, Section 4 of the NFL constitution, the “Green Bay Rule,” says that “charitable organizations and/or corporations not organized for profit and not now a member of the league may not hold membership in the National Football League.”

The other major professional sports leagues in the United States have informally followed suit. That’s a shame. The Green Bay system works beautifully, and ideally would be the norm in all pro sports leagues. While the Green Bay model shouldn’t be mandated, it certainly should be allowed as a viable option.

Equal Opportunity in Sports – Arthur Bryant, Executive Director, Public Justice

Arthur Bryant’s legal work on Title IX is unparalleled in the area of equal opportunity in athletics for girls and women. Through his work on a wide variety of Title IX lawsuits, Bryant has won innumerable concessions for female athletes throughout his career.

In 1994, he was named by College Sports Magazine as one of the fifty most influential people in college sports, due to his success litigating Title IX cases.

“Title IX is a stable law, however, enforcement has been left to the private sector in the form of Title IX lawsuits,” says Bryant. “The single most effective tool is litigation.”

Despite his outstanding success in the Title IX arena, Bryant remains a relatively unsung hero when it comes to pursuing equal opportunity in sports for both genders.

Bryant gets perturbed when Title IX is used as a scapegoat for budget decisions made by athletic directors.

“The truly sad part about the Title IX story is that people don’t understand what Title IX requires,” says Bryant. “Too many are scapegoating Title IX as forcing the elimination of men’s teams. I think college administrators find it easier to blame Title IX for the budget decisions they make. That’s the problem: People continue to advance things that Title IX was intended to attack.”

Anti-BCS Activism – PlayoffPAC

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is one of the most flawed, corrupt, unethical — and probably illegal — organizations we have in sports today. The BCS prevents fans from enjoying a college football playoff to crown a true national champion. It treats FBS/Division I-A schools that aren’t in one of the six BCS conferences unfairly and unjustly. It’s a mechanism for creating more money for everyone involved in big-time college football EXCEPT the players. The list of ethical and legal problems with the BCS goes on and on.

Sports Illustrated college football writer, Austin Murphy, calls the BCS “a profoundly unsportsmanlike institution.”

Playoff PAC is a political action committee dedicated to establishing a competitive post-season championship for college football. The group has done an excellent job advocating for a playoff system to replace the BCS system, while at the same time exposing the corruption in the existing bowl system.

PlayoffPAC’s website states, “Fans, players, schools, and corporate sponsors will be better served when the BCS is replaced with an accessible playoff system that recognizes and rewards on-the-field accomplishment.”

PlayoffPAC is doing excellent work toward that end.

Youth Sports Reform – Jim Thompson, Positive Coaching Alliance

Jim Thompson is the founder and chief executive officer of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a first-of-its-kind organization created in 1998 to combat the win-at-all-costs (WAAC) mentality that is prevalent in high school and youth sports today. Thompson started the non-profit at Stanford University with a mission of transforming the culture of youth sports “so that all youth athletes have a positive, character-building experience.”

One of the best things about PCA is that it actively resists the ego-and-greed-based pressure to professionalize youth sports. Thompson does this by stressing the “double-goal” approach to high school and youth sports: 1) striving to win; and 2) developing positive character traits, teaching life lessons, and promoting sportsmanship.

Since its founding, Positive Coaching Alliance has developed a network of more than 130 trainers across the U.S., who have delivered 10,000-plus workshops for youth sports leaders, coaches, parents and athletes. Those are impressive numbers but given the state of youth sports in America today, we need the PCA message and approach to spread as fast as possible and touch every athlete, coach, and parent involved in youth sports in this country. Due to an outstanding strategic planning process, Thompson has PCA on track to do just that over the course of the next decade.

Thompson was named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the U.S. by the Institute for International Sport (IIS) in October 2007. Dan Doyle, IIS Executive Director, described PCA as “the finest organization of its kind in the United States.”

The League of Fans seconds that.

Sport For All Americans Proponent – PE4life

The need for programs promoting physically active young people has never been greater in this country. Childhood obesity rates are at an all-time high. Physical education and intramural sports programs are being cut at an unprecedented and shocking rate. Recess time is being scaled back. All this at a time when a growing mound of research is revealing that exercise not only promotes health and wellness, but also academic achievement and positive behavior in school.

Physical inactivity is a major societal problem. This is especially the case with our young people. Approximately thirty-five percent of American children are obese or overweight today, nearly triple the rate in 1963. We’re approaching a Type 2 diabetes epidemic with our young people. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult-onset diabetes.” No longer.

PE4life believes that all children are athletes in the sense that they all need to move on a regular basis. The Kansas City-based non-profit promotes quality, daily physical education programs for all children – not just the athletically-inclined. PE4life classes utilize small-sided team sports in order to get all children involved. The organization also promotes lifetime sports and other physical activities. Cardiovascular fitness is a cornerstone of the “PE4life Way” and research consistently shows that students in PE4life schools are healthier, perform better academically and have fewer behavioral problems.

“PE4life has a proven record of reversing the trend in this country of inactivity by increasing physical education, which has been proven to impact students’ ability to learn,” said U.S. Senator Tom Harkin.

Phil Lawler, a long-time physical education teacher and PE4life director, beautifully described what PE4life is all about.

“It’s about enabling each student to maintain a physically-active lifestyle forever. It means emphasizing fitness and well-being, not athleticism. It eliminates practices that humiliate students. And it assesses students on their progress in reaching personal physical activity and fitness goals. A quality PE program exposes kids to the fun and long-term benefits of movement – it’s really that simple.”

“Exercise, the latest neuroscience [...]]]> For years, we exercised to get our hearts in shape and to look better. Those are still positive benefits from working out and becoming more physically fit. But there’s a growing mound of research that suggests that not only will exercise help us look better, it will help us think better.

“Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does,” writes Gretchen Reynolds in an interesting piece in the New York Times Magazine. Research reveals that cardio exercise actually builds new brain cells.

Swimming, jogging, or playing tennis, basketball or any other cardiovascular sport results in a brain that resists physical shrinkage (much as is the case with muscles) and enhances cognitive function.

We live in a sports-crazed society, but that’s only true from a fan perspective. After we leave high school or college, the vast majority of us stop playing sports. Adult participation in sports in this country is much lower than in other countries around the globe. In fact, less than 5% of Americans get their primary form of physical activity from team sports.

In an era of skyrocketing obesity and health care costs, that figure needs to rise.

– Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans

In a letter responding to Ralph Nader’s request to examine the practice of “staged or planned fighting” in the NHL — in terms of whether or not it is commercial boxing without a license — the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris responded by agreeing “that the level [...]]]> “Staged” Fights Being Examined

In a letter responding to Ralph Nader’s request to examine the practice of “staged or planned fighting” in the NHL — in terms of whether or not it is commercial boxing without a license — the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris responded by agreeing “that the level of violence in hockey games has reached repugnant levels.”   In addition, Harris has forwarded the matter to California’s Department of Consumer Affairs, along with the California State Athletic Commission, in effort to determine if this matter should be addressed by the Commission.

California Bus & Profs. Code Section 18625 defines a “match” or “contest” as follows:

“‘Contest’ and ‘match’ are synonymous, may be used interchangeably, include boxing, kickboxing, and martial arts exhibitions, and mean a fight, prize fight, boxing contest, pugilistic contest, kickboxing contest, martial arts contest or sparring match, between two or more persons, where full or partial contact is used or intended that may result  or is intended to result in physical harm to the opponent…”

Due to an increasing concern for player safety — born of the growing mound of research on brain trauma in general, and concussions in particular — the League of Fans has called for a ban on fighting in the NHL, along with the resignation of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman due to his inaction on the issue.

– Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans

Thank you for your letter, article and statutory excerpts regarding the practice of staged acts of violence conducted by the National Hockey League.

While we agree that the level of violence in hockey games has reached repugnant levels, the issue of whether these games or the conduct of these “staged fights” come [...]]]> Dear Mr. Nader,

Thank you for your letter, article and statutory excerpts regarding the practice of staged acts of violence conducted by the National Hockey League.

While we agree that the level of violence in hockey games has reached repugnant levels, the issue of whether these games or the conduct of these “staged fights” come under the purview of the California State Athletic Commission is one that has yet to be reached. That issue would
fall under the purview of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Accordingly, I am forwarding your letter with attachments to DCA Legal Affairs, Anita Scuri, Supervising Senior Legal Counsel for the California State Athletic Commission. They will determine whether this matter is one that should be addressed by the Commission.

Sincerely,

Karen Chappelle
Supervising Deputy Attorney General
Licensing Section

Busch loves the game but is upset that fighting and thuggery take away from the beauty of the sport. [...]]]> Paul Busch has developed an excellent website dedicated to the pursuit of a fighting-free NHL. It’s called “It’s Not Part of the Game.” The website is a well-reasoned, researched-based look at the role of fighting in NHL hockey.

Busch loves the game but is upset that fighting and thuggery take away from the beauty of the sport. Here’s the site’s introduction:

“This blog is dedicated to bringing an end to fighting in the NHL. The time has come for the league to show maturity, to display concern for their players and to allow more skill to be added to each team. From this humble site I hope to rally others with a similar opinion and perhaps communicate our message to those league officials with the power to outlaw fighting from one of the most exciting sports on the planet.”

It’s definitely worth a look.

– Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans