NFL means not for long: The life and career of the NFL athlete
Item
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Title
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NFL means not for long: The life and career of the NFL athlete
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:ff9b0fdffd11:10687
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identifier
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10838
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Creator
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Turner, Robert Winston, II,
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Contributor
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Stanley Aronowitz
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Organizational behavior | African American studies | Sports Management | Inequality | Labor Markets | National Football League | Political Economy | Race | Sports
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Abstract
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Over the past four decades, the National Football League (NFL) has become the most popular professional sports league in the U.S. Yet within this popular discourse, the NFL is usually regarded as a medium of entertainment and is rarely discussed as a tightly structured corporate organization that enjoys legal cartel status. Likewise, NFL athletes receive extensive media coverage for their multi-million dollar contracts and public behavior, yet little attention has been directed at the challenges confronting these high profile athletes both while in the league and upon retirement -- in particular the fact that only a few players are handsomely rewarded with long-term fame and fortune, while the vast majority wind up economically destitute with few marketable skills after playing only a minimal number of seasons in the league.;By focusing on the daily interactions of NFL athletes and their relationship with management, my work applies the principles of economic sociology, sports psychology, and role exit theory in order to interrogate the following question: how do the structural inequalities of the NFL -- particularly those of economics and race -- impact athletes after leaving the game? To answer this question, the project draws on research from the league's collective bargaining agreement, archived and online sources, and, most centrally, in-depth interviews conducted with 120 present and former NFL athletes and members of the NFL community. In exploring the lived experiences of NFL athletes grappling with such issues as labor struggles against management, economic hardship, forced retirement, physical and mental health problems, and family conflicts, my work demonstrates the ways that sports both reflects and informs core sociological issues of race, marginalization, socialization, and stratification.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Sociology
