Sport fandom is an ethical minefield – one we must each navigate alone

Last week, two young Australian jockeys died within days of each other, highlighting the inherent dangers of horse racing. I’ve long had an uneasy relationship with the ethics of the sport, both in terms of the industry’s treatment of animals and the way it can seriously affect the lives of problem gamblers and their families. That tenuous peace is further challenged when the sport directly leads to the deaths of young people.

Ethical issues may be particularly acute in horse racing, but being a sport fan can regularly involve navigating an ethical minefield.

For some fans, it’s the relationship between their particular code or club and gambling. For others, it’s the decisions made by the management of their team that don’t sit well with their values. It can be an appointment of a particular player, the sacking of a coach or the attempt to cover up a scandal.

There are almost as many different responses to these issues as there are issues themselves. Fans are forced to figure out a way to respond that weighs the values they hold against the teams or sport they love.

For example, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson has written of his opposition to the nickname of his city’s NFL team, the Redskins. Robinson, like the vast majority of Native Americans, finds the term offensive:

The term “redskins” — it’s hard to write a column about a word without using it, I’m afraid — is a racial slur. Fans of the team, including me, have pretended not to notice this uncomfortable fact for many years. Now we’re beginning to confront it.

For others, ethical conflicts simply lead to losing interest in a sport or team.

For Luke Ferguson, a long-time Essendon supporter, the club’s controversial sports science program raised ethical issues that led to his passion for the side waning. “The biggest issue to me is that in the pursuit of success, the club pushed the boundaries of sports science to a point that may have endangered player welfare,” he said.

Personnel decisions can also challenge fans’ values about a club. Claire Bartle gave up her Swans membership and didn’t attend a Swans game for the whole 2014 season because she was unhappy with the decision to appoint Buddy Franklin, given that his line of clothing that has often contained sexist images.

Andrew Callaghan, a Carlton supporter for 30 years, switched allegiances to another side after he strongly disagreed with the decision to sack Brett Rattan and appoint Mick Malthouse.

Ethical dilemmas aren’t always restricted to teams, but can involve whole sports. In the United States, many NFL fans have confronted the ethical dilemmas of their response to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which an increasingly large body of evidence points to being caused by the game itself. Long-time fans are giving up on the game entirely, unwilling to support a code that may cost players their lives.

The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates gave up on the sport after the death of former professional NFL-player Junior Seau, explaining the decision:

I’m not so sure that it’s hard at all. The answer, at least for those displeased with pro football’s response, seems pretty clear. Doing the damn thing is the hard part.

I now know that I have to go. I have known it for a while now. But I have yet to walk away. For me, the hardest portion is living apart--destroying something that binds me to friends and family. With people whom I would not pass another words (sic), I can debate the greatest running back of all time. It’s like losing a language.

With horse racing, my ethical coping strategy has been a combination of justification (the horses love racing; they’re well looked after) and a belief that adults should be free to make decisions about how they live their life and the risks they take, extending both to making decisions about gambling and entering the racing profession.

Even as I write this, though, I am aware of the flaws in the arguments, especially as they relate to gambling and the possibility of addiction, but also indirectly providing the incentive for young jockeys to put their lives at risk.

Some fans make the decision to accept their club or sport has made a mistake and continue to support it nonetheless. The decision of where the line is, of what can be tolerated and what is just too much, is one each sport fan has to make for themselves.