When Alan Zaremba told friends that he was working on a book about ethics in sports, their reaction was, “It’s going to be a short book,” Zaremba recalls. Many people think that there are no ethics in sports, he says. Sports are about one thing: winning.
In his new book, “Sports Ethics: Challenges for Athletes and Management,” Zaremba counters this perception with the simple argument that without a consideration of ethics, the integrity of a sport itself can be called into question.
To that end, “Sports Ethics” provides an array of tools and exercises for students of respective games to apply to their own situations.
Call ‘em as you… need ‘em?
An associate professor of communication studies who joined Northeastern University in 1981, Zaremba wanted to write a book that could help those interested in sports ethics — and that’s not everyone, he noted wryly — make more ethical decisions.
Zaremba provides an example from the increasingly popular and social sport of pickleball, primarily played in doubles — two teams of two playing each other across a net, much as in tennis.
“Your partner calls a ball out, and you know it’s in,” Zaremba begins. An “out” ball would give you and your partner a point. “Your opponent’s looking at you, you know, cynically. ‘Are you sure it was out?’”
What’s the ethical responsibility here? Zaremba says it may be more complicated than it appears, and the tools the book provides can help readers navigate the issue.
One of those tools is the categorical imperative, first proposed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, which suggests that an individual should only take an action that they believe should be applied uniformly, as a general rule.
Should you give up that next point in your pickleball match? “The categorical imperative would say absolutely,” Zaremba says. Under that schema, “you are duty-bound to be honest.”
But the categorical imperative isn’t the only tool that could be applied here. Another tool Zaremba points readers to is utilitarianism, which would have the player consider all the stakeholders and choose the course that “will bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people,” Zaremba says.
In that case, he says, maybe the player would decide to side with their partner, who called the ball out, but then take the other two players aside at a later date to talk about the issue.
It all comes down to how you approach the sport and that particular dilemma.
To accept silver or not to accept silver
Another example that “Sports Ethics” provides readers is the 1972 Olympic gold medal basketball match between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The final seconds of that game were replayed multiple times under suspicious circumstances, Zaremba says, including an official appearing out of the stands to make an irregular call. The Soviet Union ultimately won the match by a single point.
The United States team, however, has never accepted the silver medals in protest of how, in their opinion, the match was won unfairly.
Is it ethical to refuse a silver medal, to refuse to acknowledge you lost the final match, when that’s the ruling that was handed down? Or is it more ethical to refuse that trophy when you believe the match was lost due to outright cheating?
These are the thorny questions Zaremba hopes his new book can help readers tackle.
“It’s important, regardless of what side you’re on, to consider that these are ethical choices, and that ethics in sports matters,” Zaremba says.
Two books at a time
In September, Zaremba also published the third edition of “Speaking Professionally: Influence, Power and Responsibility at the Podium.” While the book focuses on professional presentations in both public and organizational capacities, Zaremba says that this kind of communication also “has an ethical dimension. And that ethical dimension should be taken seriously.”
“Speaking Professionally” has several features that Zaremba calls atypical, which he thinks makes it a strong textbook on the subject. First, it asks readers to reverse their perspective, and consider what they’re actually thinking about during a presentation. It also contains prompts for students to compose their own speeches.
And, of course, there’s a dedicated chapter on ethics, especially the ethics of persuasion.
Working on two books in such quick succession was tiring, he says, but the process was also “complimentary, and I learned from it,” he says.
