This book explores whether athletes should be viewed as role models. Thirteen essays debate this issue, where readers will analyze topics such as whether athletes become targets of troublemakers, whether overly demonstrative African-American athletes set a bad example, and whether women athletes in traditional male sports need to shed their femininity. Essay contributors include Danica Patrick, Thad Mumford, and Simon Barnes.

Do marketers need to adopt a stricter moral clause to police athlete behavior? To what degree do sports scandals reflect culture at large? How can athletes lead in combating homophobia? The informative edition tackles these questions and debates surrounding athletes as role models. Readers are offered a diverse set of perspectives on the topic through a variety of essays and articles.

Debates the positive and negative aspects of using well known athletes as role models for young people.

Do marketers need to adopt a stricter moral clause to police athlete behavior? To what degree do sports scandals reflect culture at large? How can athletes lead in combating homophobia? The informative edition tackles these questions and debates surrounding athletes as role models. Readers are offered a diverse set of perspectives on the topic through a variety of essays and articles.

Zirin widens his remit to take a hard look at the trends now shaping sports in the United States and abroad, including an analysis of the 2006 World Cup.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.

Football is ubiquitously acknowledged as ‘The Global Game’ and/or ‘The People’s Game’ – everyday all-encompassing terms familiar to anyone with an interest in football which illustrate, albeit nebulously, the game’s international reach and popularity. Yet much academic and popular attention has been, and continues to be, narrowly centred on topics pertaining to the elite and professional aspects of the game. At a time when there appears to be an ever-widening gap between the grassroots and elite levels of the sport, this book brings together, for the first time, a collection of research articles dedicated solely to youth and junior grassroots football. The intention is to generate future inquiry, encourage theoretical debate and stimulate empirical research on topics and issues within the relatively marginalised area of the game that is youth and junior grassroots football. The collection represents a preliminary consideration of what is already currently known about grassroots football and, no less importantly, point towards what remains unknown and under-researched but which deserves much more attention than has been given hitherto. As such, the collection includes contributions from practitioners and researchers alike. Topics included range from the provision, organisation and development of grassroots football in one national association, to broader issues such as the sources of enjoyment in participation, the lived experiences of junior players and coaches, to the causes of youth dropout from football. In addition, the significance of social stratification and various forms of social division which structure children’s participation in grassroots football are discussed. These include female participation and the role of elite female role models, and issues relating to the participation of immigrant youth. The book is intended to appeal to practitioners, academics and football enthusiasts alike. This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.