Game-Day Gangsters

In the complicated interaction between sport and law, much isrevealed about the perception and understanding of consent andtolerable deviance. When a football player steps onto the field, whatdeviations from the rules of the game are considered acceptable? Andwhat risks has the player already accepted by voluntarily participatingin the sport? In the case of Canadian football, acts of on-fieldviolence, hazing, and performance-enhancing drug use that would beconsidered criminal outside the context of sport are tolerated and evenpromoted by team and league administrators. The manner in which leaguereview committees and the Canadian legal system understand such actionshighlights the challenges faced by those looking to protect playersfrom the dangers of the sport. Although there has been some discussionof legal and institutional reforms dealing with crime and deviance inCanadian sport, little exists in the way of sports law, with most casesfalling into the legal categories of criminal, administrative, or civillaw.

In Game-Day Gangsters, Fogel argues for a review of thesystems by which Canadian football is governed and analyzes the reformsproposed by football leagues and by players. Juxtaposing material frominterviews with football players and administrators and from mediafiles and legal cases, he explores the discrepancies between theplayers’ own experiences and the institutional handling ofdisciplinary matters in junior, university, and professional footballleagues across the country.