Cheat? Not me. My high school rugby coach thought that I was a terrible cheat. I went through an entire season of semi-serious high school rugby under the constant threat of being dropped from my team for my cheating ways. I was a rugby hooker. This was the seventies. Rugby scrums were different then. I was never a cheat. Well, not really. Even back then the … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2020
Research shows whipping horses doesn’t make them run faster, straighter, or safer — let’s cut it out
Like many others I have always viewed horse racing with ambivalence. Previous and current generations of my extended family have had strong equestrian links but, on the matter of horse racing, opinions of family members have been split down the middle for decades. Attitudes were so powerful and entrenched that it was strictly forbidden, at family gatherings, to mention to Aunty … [Read more...]
Sport and the question of ethics
"Come on. Get over it. Move on. It's just a game!" Most sports lovers have, at some stage of their sporting lives, experienced what they perceived to be a significant sporting injustice and had their complaints answered with just such a response. But is it "just a game?" Do injustices within the sporting realm have the potential to do real damage to individuals and to … [Read more...]