“Americans and their hyper-masculine clique have created a political jockocracy,” stated Samantha King of Queen’s University. “My aim is to highlight the constant relationship between war, sport, and the state which sponsors both,” King’s talk, titled “Sport, Culture and a Neo-Liberal State,” was part of a joint presentation with U of T’s own Peter Donnelly that was presented by the Faculty of Phys. Ed and Health on January 20.

King began by providing examples of the way that military vocabulary–and sometimes actual soldiers–had infilatrated the world of sport.

After September 11, war became an engrained part of American culture and the use of military terms by the media became a more sensitive issue in the sports world, King argued. She pointed to the refusal by the media to refer to former UNLV basketball coach Bob Knight as “the general,” the media’s opposition to NFL player Kellen Winslow’s declaration, “I’m a soldier,” and NBA player Kevin Garnett’s statement that “I’m loading up the Uzi…I’m ready for war,” as evidence.

The media did not, however, hold the military to the same standard as those in the sporting community. The Ministry of Defense shipped in 2,500 soldiers to a recent football game in Washington, making the soldiers, in effect, marketing tools. She also discussed news organizations and political talking heads that used sport metaphors in their discussions of war.

A well-known example of this was U.S. President George W. Bush’s discussing a military bombing action on Afghanistan on a golf course and closing with, “Now watch this drive.”

The coverage of soldier Pat Tillman’s death was another example King used to describe the relationship between military and sport in the U.S. The story of Tillman, a former NFL player who died in Afghanistan, was given tremendous coverage and his death was deemed the “ultimate sacrifice” by news and sports organizations.

Tillman’s funeral was televised on ESPN and Senator John McCain spoke at the service. Even the White House made a statement acknowledging the soldier’s death, saying that Tillman was a great man both on and off the field.

What King found telling was that with all the media attention on Tillman’s death, it was not until months later that the public found out that he probably died in a case of friendly fire.

“The focus was on the death instead of why he died,” King said. “The sacrifice made by Tillman justified the action of going to war.”

Donnelly, a U of T researcher, followed King with a presentation on how the power relationship between manager and athlete has changed. Donnelly presented research that he and his University of Calgary colleague Kevin Young had done on the subject.

Donnelly also touched on why cruel and abusive treatment is accepted in sport,

Referencing philosopher Michael Foucault’s theory of total institution, Donnelly stated that sport-related violence is the result of a culture of control that surrounds athletes. He termed this phenomenon Prolympism and said that it can be seen in the hazing in training camps and practices, and in verbal and physical punishment of athletes by coaches and managers.

“This culture of control surrounding high-calibre athletes establishes the notion that an athlete has lost sense of his body,” Donnelly said. “Sport is a bastion of machismic and patriarchal control. Athletes are motivated by fear and punishment, which can be administered by benching, trading, demotion, or losing pay.”

Donnelly also deemed that the control of athletes was implemented by a culture that would rather exploit them than trust them.

Prolympism’s characteristics include an increasing emphasis on winning, and on the paternal-like control wielded by coaches and managers over their athletes. Baseball player Carlos Delgado’s refusal to stand for “God Bless America” in 2004–and the later creation of a clause in his contract that threatened a pay loss if he were to do it again–is one example used to support the notion.

These imbalances of control “are pursued and preferred by organizers and financiers, who impose more intensive realms of regulation,” Donnelly said. “It creates the farm analogy of athletes to be picked, kept, cultivated, and then discarded, and leads to the destructive loss of identities.