ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the practice of punishing athletes for drink-related behavior. It explores the concept of punishment and its various justifications and reviews some of the philosophical and ethical issues associated with punishing someone who is drunk, particularly in light of a culture that promotes getting drunk. The chapter explains that the most important decision in drink-related offending is often the decision to start drinking. As such, the widespread and collective intention to get drunk embedded in the ethos of many sports should be a key focus for reform. The most high-profile incidents, those which make it into our newspapers and onto our television screens, usually with a bad role model narrative, tend to involve not only the excessive consumption of alcohol, but public drunkenness and/or additional bad behavior. The chapter represents the case that the decision to drink and the decision to get drunk in particular have significant implications.
