There is no "I" in Team, and There Shouldn't be Hazing Either

In 2002, the football team at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh was banned from the playoffs for a hazing incident. Perennially one of the top teams in the state, Central Catholic had its season cut short because two players on the team held down one of their teammates and slapped him in the face with their genitals.

I have just one question for this and other circumstances like it: Why? Why is it necessary to commit such a childish act against teammates? Furthermore, why do sports teams need to haze new members at all?

These types of acts are committed on sports teams in high schools and colleges across the country. They scream second grade level bullying. Older or stronger players feel the need to pick on their younger or weaker teammates by embarrassing them in front of other members of the team. If they are going to stoop to that level of immaturity, they should just ask for the kid’s lunch money.

The ridicule facing players that come out about these things makes it rare for the public to find out about specific hazing situations."
- Andrew Zivic, iMPrint Writer, on hazing in college sports.

One of the main reasons hazing is so prevalent is that there is such a pack mentality behind it. It’s a top-down situation where the team takes its cues from the leaders and popular people on the team. Those people can control how everyone on a team views the other players on the team.

This creates athletes who strive to do what the upperclassmen want because that will make them cool by extension. Leaders can influence people to participate in hazing rituals by saying: “Hey, you won’t really become part of the group until you do this,” or “I won’t invite you to any of our parties unless you join in.”

The group mentality causes less powerful athletes – usually freshmen – to take part in a hazing ritual. This happened with the University of Vermont hockey team in 2000. The team’s season was cut short after it was discovered that on their “Big Night,” the freshmen had to wear women’s underwear, drink warm beer and hard liquor and take part in an “elephant walk” – walking in a straight line while holding each other’s genitals.

Besides team hazing, there are times when some players are singled out to be hazed. Many times this happens because those players do not conform to the pack mentality and become outsiders on the team. People who let a group do the thinking for them hate opposition and that is how they see these outsiders.

Both the Central Catholic and UVM stories came out only because the victims spoke out about what happened. I’m sure those athletes were ridiculed even more after doing this and probably called pansies for not just taking their hazing “like a man.” The ridicule facing players that come out about these things makes it rare for the public to find out about specific hazing situations.