Sports and Athletics

ATHLETICS CARTOONS

Cartoon #16

"Football Rape"

Erik Fox

PUBLICATION Penn Live DATE April 18, 2014
CARTOONIST Signe Wilkinson U.S.
TITLE OF CARTOON "Football Rape"

Tone of the cartoon:

1. Negative framing of the issue
2. Framing is supportive of supporters
3. Framing is opposed to opponents

What action is taking place in this cartoon?

On the left is a college athlete. Strong, standing in a power pose, head cockily tilted back. Depicting that the athlete understands the University will do anything to protect him. The man in the middle has the title college administration rape investigations on his sweater. Letting the reader know that this cartoon is about rape, and the school is protecting the athlete. The rape investigator is looking over at the strong athlete asking if he is ok. The athlete, putting the icing on the cake is forcing tears to come out. He knows that the University values him much more than any girl. The girl on the left is getting no attention at all. She has several bruises, her hair is matted and her clothes are ripped. She appears to be very scared and tired. She has clearly been through a lot. The cartoonist here is showing that Universities will flat out ignore the victim. Even turning it around and making the athlete appear as they are the ones who got hurt. The rape investigator is going to make sure his college superstar is still on the field when it is all over.

ANALYSIS:

Labeling is shown in this cartoon to let us know exactly who we are looking at. The athlete on the left has College Football across his shirt. While the man in the middle is labeled College Administration Rape Investigation. Letting us know who and what we are looking at and what the problem is.

The girl in this cartoon is beaten, sad, scared and alone. No one is concerned about her and how she is doing. The strong and confident football player is crying. The investigator is giving all his attention to the athlete and putting the blame on the girl. The irony is that there is no way that girl could have harmed this huge football player. She should be the one getting the attention. He should be the one sad and alone in the corner. He should be suffering the consequences of hurting this girl. Sadly, the irony of the matter is that the football player is receiving no punishment for his actions. While the female has no one else to turn to for help.

n the year 2013 Ohio State University made 58.2 million dollars, Florida University made 74.6 and Texas University made 104.5, all just off their football programs (Gaines, 2013). The more successful the program is the more money the school will make. In 2015 Outside the Lines did an investigation on this topic. Just how many Universities cover up the crimes of their athletes. They investigated several Universities and the results were astonishing. The University of Florida had eighty athletes who have committed a crime of some sort. Yet none of them faced charges (Lavigne, 2015).

This cartoon is depicting this special treatment even happens with sexual assault situations. Sam Ukwuachu was a prized All-American player and Baylor University was very happy to have him. The coaches were bragging and talking about his talent when they all knew he had a sexual assault court date that could very well land him in prison. Winning was the only thing going on in their minds. Ukwuachu was eventually found guilty of sexual assault (Luther & Solomon, 2015).

Another example is with Katie Hnida who was a female athlete playing kicker for the men’s football team. She told the magazine Sports Illustrated that her first day of practice she was verbally abused by five teammates. During the season the abuse just got worse. Sports Illustrated reported that while the whole team were huddled up they would “stick their hands on her crotch.” One teammate even threw footballs at her head. One night she was even raped by a teammate at his house while watching a movie. Katie eventually told her father everything that has been happening, except the part about being raped. Her father so upset at the news went and talked the athletic director and head Coach Barnett about everything. Sadly the father commented that talking to them did not help. “Talking to Barnett was like talking to a wall” (Reilly, 2010).

A few different parts of this cartoon are exaggerated. The athlete has a football as a head. Doing this lets everyone know that he is referring to all of college football. Not just a few scenarios or situations. The features of both people on the outside are exaggerated. The girl is very small. She has extremely skinny arms, showing just how weak she is, while the athlete is abnormally giant. The cartoonist is showing there is no way a female of her size could harm this giant man.

Cartoon #17

"Steubenville Football Values"

Erik Fox

PUBLICATION The Columbus Dispatch DATE August 17, 2014
CARTOONIST Nate Beeler U.S.
Title of cartoon: "Steubenville Football Values"

Tone of the cartoon:

1. Negative framing of the issue
2. Framing is supportive of supporters
3. Framing is opposed to opponents

What action is taking place in this cartoon?

A giant high school football player towers over his coach. The player’s jersey is the same colors as a prisoners, black and white pinstripes. The name on his jersey is rapist. The coach that we know is from Steubenville is addressing the situation. The first speech bubble above the coach states “son were giving you a second chance so we can reinforce critical life lessons”. While immediately following that the coach quickly adds “Now go out there and murder them.” This is showing just how little the coach actually cares about his second chance. Winning is winning. He wants him there to play football so he can win games. The only life lesson that will be established is murdering opponents and winning is more important than crime.

ANALYSIS:

On each character the artist uses
labeling on their clothing to show who and what they are. The name of the athlete is Rapist. Leaving us no room to imagine this athlete in any other light. The other man has the label Steubenville Big Red giving us the context of the cartoon. We now know that this cartoon is referring to the rape case of Steubenville high.


The colors and stripes of the athlete’s jersey is similar to a prisoners outfit. Symbolizing where the “rapist” has been and how we should think of him. The giant zero on this back I believe symbolizes his place in society. The cartoonist is portraying that he could have very well ruined a girl’s life, and the coach is ignoring that. Welcoming him back on the field to help murder opponents.

The size of the athlete is exaggerated. He is drawn as this giant, muscular kid. Exaggerating just how intimidating and scary he could be in certain situations, like sexual assault. With the size this kid is most people would have a hard time defending themselves from him. The cartoonists exaggerated this to let the image of the poor defenseless girl trying to resist this giant kid.

In March of 2013 two football players for Steubenville high school were found guilty of raping a sixteen year old girl (Opell, 2013). Trent Mays, seventeen years old, and Ma’lik Richmond, sixteen, both took advantage of her as she was passed out drunk. Although the female did not remember anything that happened, the two men were proved guilty by the text messages and photos that were shared through different people (Opell, 2013). However, the following year Ma’lik Richmond was back on the field for his high school. His coach Reno Saccoccia was quoted saying “Everything the judicial system of Ohio asked him to do upon his release he completed.” “I just feel that he’s earned a second chance” (Fox Sports, 2014).  People right away took to social media in hatred of this decision (AP, Mashable, 2014). However, interestingly enough the day of the football game there were no protesters shouting their voice of disgust (Warsinskey, 2014).

Title IX makes it so every University is required to help students who have been sexually assaulted. The school is then required to do an investigation and make sure that the victim is safe. A survey found that twenty-two percent of all colleges have the athletic department handle sexual assault cases that involve an athlete (AthleticBuisness, 2015). This is not fair seeing how the athletic department is biased towards winning games, which would mean keeping their players out of trouble. High school kids often look up to these athletes for inspiration. If they see people who are committing sexual assault and getting away with it they might fall in that same pattern.