Strategic fouling and sport as play

Abstract

This essay argues that defences of strategic fouling in sport are enriched and supported by better recognizing the role of play in sport. A common characteristic of play is its disengagement from the everyday, in particular its moral disengagement. If sport in its best manifestations is a species of play, then we should expect to find some moral disengagement there. And indeed we do in a variety of ways. Strategic fouling affords a useful example to illustrate and support this claim and to examine the limits of that sort of disengagement. It is argued that while strategic fouling is morally problematic, it can be a sort of playful ‘competitive shenanigan’ that should be tolerated at times for the way it adds to the challenge and drama of sport. This allows us to better recognize the complexity and depth of sport and the way it reflects fundamental human values. Like everyday life, sport challenges us to weigh morality, perfection, and play against each other in ways that give each sphere of value its due and that contribute to rewarding and meaningful activities and lives.

Keywords:

• Strategic fouling
• play
• perfection
• Moral Saints
• philosophy of humour

Notes

1. This extension of Fraleigh’s position seems supported by Cesar Torres’ analysis (2012) of the role of aesthetic considerations in sport, and by Torres and McLauglin’s argument (2003) that ties be accepted as a result of the exercise of constitutive skills.

2. See Sutton-Smith’s collection of children’s stories, rhymes, and jokes (2008). Sutton-Smith is arguably the pre-eminent play theorist and researcher from the past 60 years.

3. I thank Warren Fraleigh, Paul Gaffney, and Robert Simon and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. I also thank Mike McNamee for the invitation to write a paper for this volume. We are all in Mike’s debt for his vision in establishing Sport, Ethics and Philosophy and his tireless and intelligent work developing it into a major contributor to the sport philosophy literature. It is an honour to be asked to contribute to Mike’s final issue as SEP editor.