ABSTRACT
Sport sociologists look at sports differently than most people do. People who follow sports as fans or even casual observers often focus on the scores, team standings, and athletic accomplishments of individual athletes and teams. Increasingly, though, these aspects of sport seem to be overshadowed in the sports news by what happens off the field. Reports of these extracurricular activities can be very distracting and annoying to those who only want the sports news to be about what happens on the field. These reports can be especially disconcerting when they raise serious questions about the conduct or character of those who play, coach, or run popular sports.
