2008 Woodie Awards
Sports and Alcohol: A Deadly Combination
Tanisha Mathis
Issue date: 10/7/05 Section: Life & Times
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The UCF Knights' win over Marshall on the last Saturday in September is not remembered for ending a seventeen-game losing streak; it is branded for the death of UCF police officer Mario Jenkins. Jenkins, a four-year veteran with the university police, was part of a task force to prevent underage drinking.
Alcohol is the leading health issue on college campuses resulting in approximately 1,500 deaths, 600,000 assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults and date rapes each year. Binge drinking has become an epidemic, as young adults ridiculously think being drunk is a collegiate rite of passage.
According to a 2002 Harvard study, binge drinking and sports go hand in hand. Fifty-three percent of all sports fans usually binge when they drink.
Whether it's West Virginia, Ohio or Connecticut, sports and drunken youths mix to create a lot of problems. There are many ideas why the relationship between alcohol and sports is a negative one but the bottom line is they make dangerous bedfellows.
The NCAA held a summit on sportsmanship and fan behavior in 2003 where it cited alcohol as a frequent catalyst for inappropriate conduct.
Why have NCAA officials accepted advertising dollars from the makers of the most detrimental product that faces its students? Like all things, it's not about the best interest of the people it's about the money.
In 2002 there were more beer ads during the men's NCAA basketball tournament than there were in the Super Bowl, all college football bowl games, the World Series and the NFL Monday Night Football series combined.
Aside from commercials on television and radio, alcohol ads are featured on walls, scoreboards and banners in arenas and stadiums. Instead of promoting healthy competition and academic excellence, the NCAA has allowed beer makers to endorse drinking in order to have a good time.
This past April numerous organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and a committee of college coaches, called on the NCAA to review its alcohol policies. Only after much publicized pressure did the NCAA adopt changes that included a complete ban on advertising harmful substances and restricted advertising for legal products that may be abused during championship events.
Alcohol is the leading health issue on college campuses resulting in approximately 1,500 deaths, 600,000 assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults and date rapes each year. Binge drinking has become an epidemic, as young adults ridiculously think being drunk is a collegiate rite of passage.
According to a 2002 Harvard study, binge drinking and sports go hand in hand. Fifty-three percent of all sports fans usually binge when they drink.
Whether it's West Virginia, Ohio or Connecticut, sports and drunken youths mix to create a lot of problems. There are many ideas why the relationship between alcohol and sports is a negative one but the bottom line is they make dangerous bedfellows.
The NCAA held a summit on sportsmanship and fan behavior in 2003 where it cited alcohol as a frequent catalyst for inappropriate conduct.
Why have NCAA officials accepted advertising dollars from the makers of the most detrimental product that faces its students? Like all things, it's not about the best interest of the people it's about the money.
In 2002 there were more beer ads during the men's NCAA basketball tournament than there were in the Super Bowl, all college football bowl games, the World Series and the NFL Monday Night Football series combined.
Aside from commercials on television and radio, alcohol ads are featured on walls, scoreboards and banners in arenas and stadiums. Instead of promoting healthy competition and academic excellence, the NCAA has allowed beer makers to endorse drinking in order to have a good time.
This past April numerous organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and a committee of college coaches, called on the NCAA to review its alcohol policies. Only after much publicized pressure did the NCAA adopt changes that included a complete ban on advertising harmful substances and restricted advertising for legal products that may be abused during championship events.