Sportsmanship: The Golden Rule of Sports
By Ken Reed
If you watch sports, or are involved in sports in anyway, you hear the term “sportsmanship” frequently. Too often it’s a word that is simply given lip service.
I coach my daughter’s 7th grade basketball team and I regularly stress the importance of sportsmanship with our players. I do this assuming that they know what I mean by the word sportsmanship. I make quick comments about “playing fair” and “doing the right thing,” but I never go into specifics. The players typically nod and I move on.
One day, one of my players asked me, “What do you mean exactly when you say sportsmanship?” I quickly mumbled something that I thought sounded pretty good at the time, but later I started thinking about my answer and I realized I wasn’t happy with it. Despite stressing the importance of sportsmanship, I didn’t have a good definition of it in my own head.
So, I spent that evening contemplating the concept of sportsmanship a little more and came up with this description of what I believe it’s all about:
Sportsmanship is the Golden Rule of sports. It’s treating the people you play with, and against, as you’d like to be treated yourself.
Sportsmanship means playing hard AND fair. It’s acknowledging that opponents are fellow competitors who are there to help you bring out the best in yourself, and vice versa. Without fellow competitors to compete against, there are no sports. Opponents are simply fellow athletes who love the game and are striving to be the best they can be. They are not enemies and shouldn’t be treated as such.
Demonstrating sportsmanship requires showing respect for the game, yourself, your teammates, your opponents, and the referees, judges and other officials needed to have a game.
I feel a lot better about that answer than the one I gave to that player on my 7th grade team.
Above all, I feel sportsmanship is about bringing the ethics of the Golden Rule into the realm of sports. That holds true for athletes, coaches, game officials, administrators, executives, owners, and fans.
A little more sportsmanship from everyone involved in the world of sports would go a long way toward improving the sports experience for all stakeholders.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books