American football holds immense cultural significance, from its impressive youth participation rates to the coverage of professional football. However, the reach of American football extends beyond cultural significance, as societal values and norms are frequently mimicked or even amplified in major sport settings. American football is a context that highlights the privileges of heterosexuality and cisgender people, effectively discouraging people from disclosing their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) status. Because LGBTQ+ inclusion has received less attention in the American football context, and bias against LGBTQ+ people is common in sport, this paper aimed to explore LGBTQ+ inclusion in American football. Drawing on our related scholarship in this area, we present a multilevel framework, highlighting macrolevel (i.e., societal), mesolevel (i.e., organizational), and microlevel (i.e., individual) factors that shape LGBTQ+ inclusion in American football. The discussion includes strategies to implement LGBTQ+ inclusion in American football, as well as a call for further research.
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A Multilevel Model to Explain the Opportunities for and Experiences of LGBTQ+ People in Elite American Football
George B. Cunningham, Kelsey M. Garrison, and Umer Hussain
Director Selection: Drivers for the Adoption and Design of Nomination Committees by New Zealand National Sport Organizations
Tracy Molloy, Geoff Dickson, and Lesley Ferkins
Nomination committees (NCs) are a critical, yet under-researched, part of the good governance equation. This study contributes to baseline knowledge of NC adoption and design. Underpinned by critical realism, four national sports organization case studies explain the “why” and “how” of NC adoption through a multitheoretical lens. Change strategies are identified using Hampel et al.’s mechanisms (symbolic, relational, and material) approach to institutional (creation) work outcomes. Archer’s morphogenetic cycle helps to demonstrate the interplay between structure, culture, and agency in achieving the change with the study, providing a timely reminder of the power of morphostasis (inertia). The results are important for future NC design to better inform national sport organization NCs’ structures and processes (including case-appropriate balance between community and corporate logics in national sport organization governance re-configurations) and aid future evaluations of NC effectiveness. A critical realism multitheoretical and multicase approach is modeled for future sport management studies.
The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State
Jung Woo Lee
Research Handbook on Gender and Diversity in Sport Management
Annemarie Farrell
Sport, Sponsorship and Public Health
Jason W. Lee
The Thematic Evolution of Sports Journalism’s Narrative of Mental Illness: A Little Less Conversation
Michael J. Mignano
Building the Beach: Interest Convergence, (Black) Capitalism, and Air Jordans
A. Lamont Williams, Amanda N. Schweinbenz, and Ann Pegoraro
This paper uses water waves as a metaphor to critically examine Black athlete activism and Derrick Bell’s interest-convergence principle as an analytical lens for understanding how Black Athletes leveraged the capitalist system of sport to build power through wealth. Specifically, we focus on how the convergence of interest between Michael Jordan, Nike, and the National Basketball Association “built the beach” on which the current wave of Black athlete activists stand. While Jordan has been noted for his lack of activism related to race-related issues in the United States, Jordan’s ability to accumulate billions of dollars in generational wealth through interest-convergence, he did lay the foundation for current Black athlete activists including Steph Curry and Lebron James. As such, Black athlete activists like James and Curry have the ability to speak up and speak out when they deem it is necessary without the fear of financial ruin or loss of livelihood.
Acute and Transient Match-Related Fatigue in University Female Footballers
Andrew N. Hearn, John K. Parker, Kirsty M. Hicks, and John F.T. Fernandes
This study aimed to examine the acute fatigue response experienced by female footballers during and after match-play. Twenty university footballers completed three trials of a countermovement jump on a force platform pre- and post-match-play (35 observations). External and internal loads were recorded during match-play via global positioning systems (GPS) and heart rate (HR), respectively. Match-play loads were split into thirds and analyzed via linear mixed model. Pre- and postjump metrics (n = 16) were analyzed using a paired samples t test. Significant decrements were observed between the first and final third for all external load metrics apart from sprint distance and accelerations (p > .05). Relative concentric peak force (p = .035) was significantly increased postmatch, while a reduction was observed for relative concentric mean power (p = .034). The remaining 14 metrics did not display any significant changes (p > .05). The stability of countermovement jump (CMJ) performance pre- to postmatch alongside the reductions within match support the notion of transient fatigue. Moreover, coaches can use this data (i.e., transient fatigue) to inform tactics in female football (i.e., substitutions) and conditioning regimes.
Interview With Rui (Blanca) Qi, Content Creator, Internet Celebrity, and Chinese Football Journalist in Europe
Zesheng Yang
Abolishing Amateurism: Reimagining the Future of U.S. College Football
Kirsten Hextrum and Howard Croom III
Recently, college athletes have won new rights to their name, image, and likeness; to educational benefits; to transfer; and to earn compensation based on the revenue their labor produces. Using critical race theories, we review the desegregation of college football alongside the legal protections for National Collegiate Athletic Association amateurism, as it was practiced from the 1950s through recent days. We argue that such amateurism still structures a racialized property relationship that grants ontological, monetary, and educational benefits to white stakeholders at the expense of Black football players. Throughout, we offer legal and historical insights about the limitations of the law for social change. We conclude with suggestions to dismantle amateurism and establish a labor market for college football players through which athletes can secure just compensation and workplace protections.