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Sanctioned Violations: Professional Sports
In most games, rule violations threaten to destroy the magic circle. However, there is one category of game in which rule-breaking by players and punishments for violations of the rules are an important part of the overall game structure: professional sports. Double-dribbling in Basketball, icing in Hockey, using hands in Soccer-these are all rule-violations, but they are violations that are punished within the game itself, in ways that let the play continue. It is expected, and even anticipated that these kinds of events will occur in a sports game. It would be extremely unusual for an entire Basketball game to occur without a single foul being committed. What is interesting about the way that sports handle rule-breaking is that there is always a sliding scale of severity for different rule violations, and often extra punishment for repeated offenses, as when a basketball player "fouls out" and cannot play in a game after committing six personal fouls. A single foul might be the result of an "honest mistake" and is therefore treated somewhat lightly. Six fouls, on the other hand, creates a pattern of rule-breaking behavior, and the player is ejected from the magic circle entirely. Sports referees, as extensions of the formal system of a game, have authority to decide when violations occur and how to interpret the rules to mete out punishment. For example, referees generally have the authority to throw players and coaches out of games if their behavior becomes too extreme.
When rule-breaking becomes sanctioned, as it is in sports, a whole new layer of implicit rules enters into the space of play. Whereas it is considered aggressive play (and a foul) to elbow an opponent on a Basketball court, it is truly bad sportsmanship to punch that same opponent in the face. As rule-breaking is integrated into a game, it is incorporated into the space of possibility. Depending on the particular game, players may strategically transgress rules, accepting a short-term punishment for a long-term strategic or psychological advantage. This intentional brokering of rule-breaking can be quite complex. In Basketball, the players can attempt to "draw fouls" from opponents. This risky practice can result in the player who is attempting to draw a foul committing a foul himself. Players who charge the basket on offense hoping to be fouled on their way to the hoop are often called for "charging," an offensive foul that results in the loss of the ball for the offensive team. In professional sports, the complex system of violations and punishments within a game is also reflected in the professional legislative bodies which can sanction penalties for larger violations. Outside the scope of an individual game, these organizations govern more serious offenses. If a professional athlete is found to be fixing games or is convicted of a criminal act, he can be banned from the sport for life by the game's professional body. Why is there so much attention to breaking the rules in sports, particularly professional sports? One answer is the nature of athletic game play. On a Chess grid, there is little or no ambiguity about which square a piece occupies; a Chess player will not gain an advantage by having a little corner of his Rook peek into an adjacent square. But in the infinitely granular space of the real world, milliseconds and millimeters can mean the difference between winning and losing. The runner does not want to start running before the starting gun fires, but springing forward as close to that moment as humanly possible will certainly offer an advantage. As a result, many false starts occur in races. Most sports fouls are motivated by an attempt to maximize an offensive or defensive advantage. In looking for a motivation behind the prominence of rule-breaking in sports, we must also acknowledge the economic component of the games. A great deal of capital is connected to professional sports, from player salaries to ticket sales to network advertising. When the external stakes of a game are high, it is especially important to maintain and enforce the level playing field of conflict. The premise of a professional sport, even more than with most games, is that it is being played fairly. This emphasis on fairness extends naturally to its opposite: an emphasis on breaking the rules.
