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Abstract
In this study, we investigated what drives players to endorse an aggressive style in Swiss ice hockey and football. We selected a sample of 16 players on the basis of their penalty statistics. We used semi-directed retrospective interviews to collect players’; biographic narratives. The results show a socialization process into an aggressive style, supported by the dominant gender and socialization norms of the sport, which is under the influence of the structure of the sports organization. However, there are large differences between players, with only some of them adopting an aggressive style. Although many studies have underlined the influence of moral disengagement, the present results suggest that time also matters and that the diversity of career paths may explain the diversity in attitudes. Socialization differences in the sports field, bodily capital, a career path marked by thwarted reputation are the key factors that drive players to adopt an aggressive style.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 With respectively 11,000 and 7000 people for each match in 2015/2016, football and ice hockey are the most-attended sports in Switzerland. The highest level of the Swiss championship (NLA) is the most-attended league in Europe.
2 Sponsoring sportif: nos chiffres exclusifs, Bilan, 30 October 2013.
3 45.7% of the Swiss population cites football as the sport that causes the most interest, and hockey, at 20.2%, is ranked fourth (Lamprecht, Fisher, and Stamm Citation2014, 47).
4 We chose only players from the 1st leagues in hockey and in football (third level) in order to have a comparable playing level.
5 In ice hockey, the ‘aggressive players’ selected were all in the first decile (i.e. in the top 25 in the ranking of penalized players), with an average of 77.6 min of penalties per player. Regarding the less ‘aggressive players’ selected, they all appeared in the eighth decile (or between 175th and 200th place in the ranking), with an average of 9 min of penalties. The aggressive hockey players chosen were thus on average 8.6 times more penalized than their less aggressive peers. The same distribution was applied to the selection of the 311 football players.