Overview
Sports provide people around the world with unmatched entertainment, from the excitement of victory to the agony of defeat. Unfortunately, it also has become painfully clear that the agony of sports goes well beyond athletes losing games or competitions. Playing through concussions, the abuse of pain medicine, the use of performance-enhancing substances, and other health-related issues have become a constant reminder that being a professional athlete can be as dangerous as it is lucrative. In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame, John Weston Parry examines the health-related transgressions and hot-topic issues in America’s top spectator sports, particularly in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, cycling, tennis, and Olympic competitions. Parry delves into the unique health risks that pertain to each individual sport and scrutinizes how the various leagues and organizations have handled these issues. Controversies and scandals surrounding elite athletes are also included, highlighting the need for changes in how sports are governed and regulated in the United States and worldwide. From football and soccer players returning to the field too soon after concussions to Olympic athletes using performance-enhancing substances, The Athlete’s Dilemma provides a broad perspective on the health risks prevalent in sports and what can be done to reduce these risks in the future. Accessibly written yet carefully researched, this book will be of interest to athletes of all levels, sports fans, academics, and health professionals.
Full Product Details
Author: John Weston Parry
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 3.10cm
, Length: 23.70cm
Weight: 0.662kg
ISBN: 9781442275409
ISBN 10: 1442275405
Pages: 364
Publication Date: 16 June 2017
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand 
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Table of Contents
Preface Introduction PART I: PAIN, INJURIES, DRUGS, AND TEAM DOCTORS Chapter 1: Real Men Play Hurt Chapter 2: Teammates, Coaches, Fans, and Other Unhealthy Influences Chapter 3: RG3’s Painful Stay in Washington Chapter 4: The Pitfalls of Team-Directed Medical Care PART II: PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING SUBSTANCES: THE PERILOUS SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL Chapter 5: Performance-Enhancing Measures: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Chapter 6: Baseball’s Tarnished Legacy Chapter 7: Football’s Brazen Lack of Compliance Chapter 8: Cycling, Olympic Sports, and WADA Chapter 9: The Laissez-Faire Approach To Doping in Tennis Chapter 10: The IOC, WADA, IAAF, and State-Sponsored Doping in Russia Chapter 11: Regulating PEDs to Promote Athletes’ Health PART III: PHYSICAL AND MENTAL IMPAIRMENTS Chapter 12: A Litany of Sports-Related Impairments Chapter 13: Football Concussions in the NFL: Myths, Deceptions, Denials, and Lies Chapter 14: Concussion-Related Lawsuits Filed against the NFL Chapter 15: Football’s Unholy Trinity: Brain Traumas, Bounties, and Deliberate Injuries Chapter 16: Children Playing Football: The NFL’s Achilles Heel Chapter 17: Following Suit: Concussions in the NHL and NCAA Football Chapter 18: Concussion Concerns for Female Athletes Chapter 19: Brain and Other Severe Injuries in Baseball PART IV: WHY ELITE ATHLETES SACRIFICE THEIR HEALTH Chapter 20: Performance-Risk Rewards Undermine Health Chapter 21: Arm Injuries to Elite Young Pitchers in Baseball Chapter 22: Football Injuries in the NFL and College Chapter 23: The NCAA Provides Shamefully Inadequate Health Care for Its Student-Athletes Chapter 24: Stigma, Stereotypes, and Secrecy Undermine Athletes’ Mental Health Conclusion: Protecting Athletes’ Health in Cartel-Governed Sports Notes Bibliography About the Author
Reviews
The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame by John Weston Parry does an excellent job of exposing less than ethical behavior of the world of elite competitive sports. He provides extensive coverage of the contradictions-and there are many-between the elite athlete's drive to succeed in a highly competitive, pressure-filled environment with the concomitant costs and consequences to the athlete's short-term and long-term health. Parry has written an insightful and revealing expose about a sports culture that needs to improve its high quality, ethical treatment of athletes during and after their sports career. -- Mark H. Anshel, professor emeritus, Middle Tennessee State University, and author of In Praise of Failure: The Value of Overcoming Mistakes in Sports and in Life John Parry has written a wonderfully readable tour de force of a book on the dangers of athletic cutthroat competition. In my experience as a forensic neuropsychiatric expert there is an all too steep and slippery a slope from narcissistic to neurological injury, from basking in the glory and freedom of being a modern gladiator to traveling back to the brutality and slavery that were the epitaphs of the Roman gladiator. A must read for all of us, experts and fans, athletes and parents. -- Harold J. Bursztajn M.D., co-founder, Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School
The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame by John Weston Parry does an excellent job of exposing less than ethical behavior of the world of elite competitive sports. He provides extensive coverage of the contradictions-and there are many-between the elite athlete's drive to succeed in a highly competitive, pressure-filled environment with the concomitant costs and consequences to the athlete's short-term and long-term health. Parry has written an insightful and revealing expose about a sports culture that needs to improve its high quality, ethical treatment of athletes during and after their sports career. -- Mark H. Anshel, professor emeritus, Middle Tennessee State University, and author of In Praise of Failure: The Value of Overcoming Mistakes in Sports and in Life John Parry has written a wonderfully readable tour de force of a book on the dangers of athletic cutthroat competition. In my experience as a forensic neuropsychiatric expert there is an all too steep and slippery a slope from narcissistic to neurological injury, from basking in the glory and freedom of being a modern gladiator to traveling back to the brutality and slavery that were the epitaphs of the Roman gladiator. A must read for all of us, experts and fans, athletes and parents. -- Harold J. Bursztajn M.D., co-founder, Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School In The Athlete's Dilemma, John Weston Parry builds a compelling case that numerous health-related crises are impacting our athletes-from the pro level to the youth level-due to a combination of a laissez-faire approach to sports industry regulation in this country, and win-at-all-costs and profit-at-all-costs ethos. The result is a sports world that is indeed pathological. -- Ken Reed, sports policy director for the League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan When most fans watch their favorite sports on television or in person they only see the drama, excitement, and spectacle of the games. In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame John Parry asks hard questions about our favorite spectator sports-questions about performance enhancing drugs, concussions, and how professional athletes and big-time college players are treated by the various sports establishments. They are important questions that fans should think about even when they are busy cheering. -- Fred Bowen, Washington Post sports columnist for kids and children's book author
Author Information
John Weston Parry is a lawyer, writer, and host of the website and blog sportpatholgies.com. He is the former director of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights (1982-2012) and editor/editor-in-chief of the Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter (1979-2011). He has published numerous books and articles on mental disability and health law, diversity, and the rights of persons with disabilities, including Mental Disability, Violence, Future Dangerousness: Myths Behind the Presumption of Guilt (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013).
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