"Final Reflections"

Before taking Introduction to Critical Sport Studies I always just viewed sports as entertainment and a way to stay in shape. I played sports all through high school but once I arrived at college, they just became entertainment, nothing else. Sitting around with friends watching football all Sunday and eating pizza pretty much sums up sports for me. This class interested me because I wanted to learn the sociological components found within sport culture. Now that class is about to come to an end, I would definitely agree that my understanding of US sport culture has changed through taking class. I learned about so many topics that impact sports such as gender, race, disabilities, violence, LGBTQs, the sport ethic, paying college athletes, and more. Paying college athletes stood out to me the most because it was something I used to be completely against but after doing research, a class debate, and writing a paper on the topic, my opinions changed and this does not happen to me very often. I will definitely start asking more critical questions about the US sports world. I also would highly recommend this class to any of my friends because it provides very interesting and useful information about sports.