Ethics in Sports Public Relations

Ethics can be defined as a system of moral principles shared among a common group.  These ethics, or rules, should be followed on a day to day basis in order to uphold the integrity and standards of said group.  In today’s society of modern sports, a popular ethical topic is cheating.  Cheating can be seen as breaking the rules in a game, using others to get ahead and even something as simple as steroid use.  One athlete recently found himself tied up in a web of lies and accusations that he found hard to defend and the athlete, as well as a distinguished college football program, found themselves on the edge of such an ethical issue.

On July 22, 2010, ESPN Los Angeles wrote a story about the Heisman Trophy Trust’s consideration of stripping Reggie Bush of his 2005 Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious honor in college football.  This article discusses the possible repercussions the University of Southern California, where Bush played, would face if it was found that Bush was ineligible to win the award in 2005.  It was reported that Bush was ineligible for the Heisman trophy because he left his career at USC for the NFL before 2005.  Bush has repeatedly said that he and his family did not receive any lavish gifts while he was at USC.  Newsydotcom posted a video on YouTube regarding the facts surrounding the case and that is where I found out that Bush actually forfeited his 2005 Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust.  After the pressure from a number of dignitaries, the media and the denial of any wrong doing, the trophy was given back.

However, I think that some of the social pressure that was placed on Bush came from the fact that USC pretty much seemed to throw him under the bus and made the issue seem as if Bush was the only party at fault.  USC’s president, C.L. Nikias, ordered the school’s athletic department to return their copy of Bush’s Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust.  He also ordered the school to remove all references of the Super Bowl Champion and disassociate the school with the athlete.

According to the College Sports Information Directors of America Code of Ethics, an ethical issue that could have played a factor in this event was the role of the public relations person in keeping his loyalty to the program.  It is an ethical principle to hold loyalties to the program and its athletes.  As much as it was not a hard position to back USC and its program, it was probably hard for the PR person to see that the right thing to do was put Bush under the bus in the situation and not handle the situation in a crisis management manner.  Bush was considered a member of the USC community and was one of their star athletes while playing there but when it came to upholding their own brand image, they let go of all they wanted and went for what they thought was an easy way out.