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hi everybody I'm da Loney host of knowledge of Wharton on siriusxm 111 we are here today talking about the new
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book coming out sport matters with its author and Wharton professor Ken Shropshire ken great to have you thanks
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dad good beer this is an interesting topic to bring up because there are certainly have been a rash of incidents
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involving all of the sports industry where we have seen a quote unquote loss of respect and that's something that you
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talk a lot about in this book was it's incredible I'm even at this this week
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just now Little League has has encountered further problems with this whole issue of integrity respect all the
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important issues that we think about outside of sport and we really think sports should project most positively so
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this has been a pretty dramatic year what has it been that has really changed within the fabric of sports booth at the
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professional level at the college level and even as you mentioned at the little league level that has really seen this
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this grand change in how people respect the games or do not respect the games well you know what's curious i mean the
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short answer might be might be money and kind of a more that's available if you
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are successful so that kind of striving for success but i think you know more deeply probably what what has brought
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this to our attention is how easy it is to get information now I mean it's more
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the if you think the incidents the the Donald sterling and you think the the owner of the Atlanta Hawks you think
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about Ray Rice I mean all this has been exposed in a way that we never saw before so historically you know Babe
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Ruth and Lou Gehrig may have been up to a lot of things but we didn't know about
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it so it's it's really that but has revealed some of this huge respect or
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lack of respect issue that occurs in so many levels in sports one of the cases that you discuss in the book involves
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the miami dolphins and their hazing case which is interesting because i know you
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spent time with the dolphins in terms of talking with them about what happened and maybe how they can affect change
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within their organization well i'm still working with steve ross and and not some
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about the organization but I think what he's done is really tried to capture
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that moment and a lot of ways the same way that I think about the book you know how can you positively take the things
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that happen in sport and improve society how can you deliver the messages and his
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focus really at the youngest age two kids and say if you're going to participate in sport here's some other
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lessons you need to learn as well and you need to carry forward into life so you know the the drama other thing to
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think about one of the things is I've worked with him we've struggled with is
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it's it's not too difficult to think about how to work with kids and get them
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to understand all these important lessons about you know diversity inclusion respect equality kind of those
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those big themes but how do you do it with with adults how do you do it in in the locker room perfect with
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professional athletes with with people who in many ways have been pampered throughout their life and haven't had to
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deal with these real-life issues who in many ways or have been in this sanctuary
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my motherly the right word in these locker rooms that are private spaces for so long but but again just like in the
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other incidents we mentioned have been exposed in a way that the people have never seen before so we know what goes
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on there in a way that we didn't know the interesting part is that you have the contrast between what mr. Ross is
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trying to do down in Miami and of course what we saw with the Los Angeles Clippers with Donald sterling which I
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think it it shook a lot of people to their core the fact that I don't know if
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anybody believes that we are a true a true society where racism is not part of everything we think but it is still a
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scary prospect that a man that owned a professional sports franchise that had obviously a great deal of power a great
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deal of wealth had these views about people that in some respects people that were working for him well and look we
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don't know again if he's alone and it's his thoughts or how many other people
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have said such negative things in the privacy in the space that he was in with with his alleged girlfriend then and and
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again she records in a way that historically we weren't able to do so he what he really did was with shed light
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on this issue for for those who may have thought we are in some kind of post-racial era and the Obamas in the
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White House and things are rosy all around that here's somebody in a business that's people predominantly by
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african-americans and he expresses such negative views of them and it really displays this this whole but in the book
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I talk about this kind of continuum of this idea of Tolerance versus respect and then the full place we'd like to all
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get to his acceptance and he merely apparently tolerated these African Americans and didn't want maybe one of
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the most prominent sports figures in the World Magic Johnson to to attend his games because of his race so that really
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shed a light on on where we are but but I think that that you know not not so important that that this this one man
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did what he did but just that the fact that this still exist and exist in the most powerful position in sport at the
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ownership level it's interesting because when you look at ownership of professional sports teams these days you
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have some owners that are doing some unbelievable work for their communities for their organizations but you do have
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owners that I don't know if it's it's a case where the bottom line still ends up
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being the most powerful thing but you have a case like the Washington Redskins where that name has obviously drawn a
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lot of attention from the American Indian community they are not happy with it for the most part yet Daniel Snyder
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the owner of the Redskins is sticking to his guns in some respects and saying he
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will not change the name of that's what that name of that team and look you know
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successful men become successful because they have the type of stamina and drive
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that Dan Snyder has and he's displaying on this issue but but what this realist
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rates further I mean again we're talking about owners and the different kinds of
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issues that are there is the need for not just diversity in these big settings but also inclusion that that it's never
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clear to me who it is that he's getting this advice from that that drives him to stick so
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adamantly behind his decision to stick with the name that is one of the most racist names characterizing a group of
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people in existence and and you know the fact that you can you can find some people that say and if I'm some Native
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Americans that say it's okay that you can pull fans and majority of fans say
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that it's okay well well there is a substantial group of people that say it is a porn it is one of the most racist
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names that exist in any and if you kind of take the the casual step looking Webster's dictionary that's the kind of
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definition you'll get it at phrasing so so it's not that difficult i mean sport
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we've seen name change take place quite a bit i mean we've seen teams take this
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movement and do it positively and when you saw this this past season with the the charlotte bobcats that's back to the
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Charlotte Hornets and it was a tremendous marketing opportunity they increase their sales so there are ways
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to do this positively it really is again if we think the character of many of the
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people that own these teams and who think that there are certainly the positives but but here's a negative
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moment that it also allowed this guy to be very successful in what he does character obviously played a big part in
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the aftermath of the Ray Rice case which was a case where there was very shocking
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video of rice and his fiancee at the time in an incident in a casino in Atlantic City but I think as horrified
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as a lot of people were of the incident itself they were also disillusion in some respects by how it was handled by
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the quote-unquote leaders that were involved in that case whether it be Roger Goodell leading the case for the
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NFL whether that be Steve bisciotti for the Baltimore Ravens they did take the ACT to action to release ray rice from
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his contract but still there were some some people that were very disillusioned by what happened through that whole
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little situation yeah one of the great things about that terrible incident is it
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it was a very vivid visual of again the need for greater inclusion these decision-making processes I mean to have
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somebody in the room that understands about domestic violence does have somebody in the room you know unlike
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myself when I saw the the second video when Ray Rice structures then fiancé as a man would hit a hit a man I'd never
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seen that in real life and I've seen the kind of you know comical version but
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never unfortunately I'd never seen it in real life so so when that occurs you
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know if you don't have the inclusive atmosphere in your leadership setting do
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you really know how to react and and and part of the lesson that we get from that
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is to understand that when something new something you're not familiar with occurs if you don't have a domestic
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violence specialist if you don't have a Native American or you don't have an
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african-american your leadership space or wherever you may be then then this is the time where you should go out and
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seek that additional advice and guidance before you take a step that can later later be severely criticized and proven
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to be wrong is it tougher at times when you have an organization in comparison to what the NFL went through with the
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Ray Rice case is it tougher sometimes when you have an organization like the NCAA much different situation but we're
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talking about an organization that has been very much under fire for a lot of topics a lot of issues over the last
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several years the situation now at the University of Miami with the investigation into their potential
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impropriety the situation at Penn State with Jerry Sandusky and how they handled
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that it's it does require a different type of leadership in some respects now
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it really does and then you think about the NFL Major League Baseball NBA you've
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got 30 or so owners that work closely with a commissioner and their motivation is profit I mean it's so it's a it's a
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lot different there's a lot a lot of issues about protecting the business and
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NFL they're talking about protecting the shield the NCAA you had a thousand plus
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member institutions you've got an administrative body in DNA apolis is the interest in making as much
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money as possible where is it in educating student athletes and when you have these additional issues that that
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come into these these institutions individual schools and maybe they don't happen all the schools how do you get
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everybody united behind the kinds of issues that have to be dealt with so it's a lot different it's a lot
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different when you think about an educational institution trying to deal with issues as opposed to a professional
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sports organization any which which is a a small not a small business but it's a
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relatively small business to IBM or others that has to make business decisions that aren't related to now
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we're going to get this kid to graduate and to get a degree and to think about
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being a donor later on yeah those sorts of things the interesting part about that the NCAA is the fact that even
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though they are tied to educational institutions realistically the NCAA is a quote-unquote money-making operation
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when you think about the contracts that they are dealing with to promote the college basketball to promote college
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football and in some respects people I think believe that that's at the detriment to the organization that they
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have so much influence over money-making entities that maybe do they lose sight of what the grander picture is at times
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right and partly the NCAA's problem is is it the I think much of the world doesn't understand what the NCAA does
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and what it doesn't do and part of the world doesn't really focus on NCAA they
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run a great basketball tournament that's that's probably the biggest moneymaker
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for the enterprise but in terms of the football games the football championships and all those that's
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outside of the NCAA's purview for the most part except for the eligibility of
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the athletes and the dollars that are coming in the new dollars that are really coming in that's up to the
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individual conferences so that's the pac-12 the SEC and all those other other
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entities and so maybe greater scrutiny about what they're doing and whether or
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not those dollars are being used to further the educational missions of the individual institutions I mean that
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that's really where I think the focus should be you know we can beat up the NCAA all day but let's follow the money
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and see where it's gone and the positive things that can be done and for me that's that's well beyond
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thinking about paying athletes it's about thinking about how do you help the
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young men and young women find their way in life in the end the early realization
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the sports thing is not going to last forever you got to forget our way to survive in the world that goes beyond
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balls and bats and rackets the book is sports matters can what would you like people to really be left with what
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vision would you like them to be left with after they read this book well you know part of the drama that I went
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through and thinking about this book was was to move away from thinking about although it is in my mind the dominant
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respect issue out there move away from just the the race issue and which I wrote about some years ago on another
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book and really just understand that that a lot of the issues they're out there in this space and I think beyond
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our about respect and if we can just figure out how do we treat people her respectful manner and sports provides
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provides a prison for us to think about that then we can all be a lot better off
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thank you very much for joining us today thanks you