Sport management programs are essential pathways by which aspiring professionals in the sport industry achieve their university education. Although a substantial segment of sport management scholarship has focused on driving for higher rates of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sport industry, less attention has been paid to the sport management academy. In this study, we examine the gender representation of full-time faculty positions, publications, and research methodologies in sport management. Our results show that men are employed in higher numbers overall. In the 329 sport management programs studied, the percentages of women employed at each level are assistant professor 46.8%, associate professor 39.5%, and full professor 37%, suggesting a drop-off aligned with the concept of career derailment or a time lag in reaching equity in the discipline. Women are also less published in top sport management journals (Journal of Sport Management, European Sport Management Quarterly, and Sport Management Review). Implications of these findings are discussed, as well as future research directions.

On 6 May 2020, photos were leaked from a conversation in which Brendan Leipsic of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, his brother Jeremy of the University of Manitoba Bisons and several others made vulgar, misogynistic comments about women and about other hockey players’ girlfriends and wives. Following the release of the conversation and the subsequent dismissal of both Leipsic brothers from their respective teams, many took to Twitter to explain their thoughts on this situation. This study analyses nearly 1000 Twitter replies to the Leipsic situation and explores how these responses are shaped by questions of masculinity, accountability, legality, privacy and hockey culture. Contrasting responses to both the scandal and the institutional response to it are emblematic of larger contemporary questions regarding narratives of ‘cancel culture’, ‘woke capitalism’, acceptable masculinities and interactions between them.

Between 2000 and 2018, the number of fights in professional hockey decreased by more than half, reflecting rule changes intended to preserve player health. A 2019 playoff fight ignited debate on social media over the place of fighting in hockey. This research involved a content analysis of an incendiary tweet and the 920 replies it solicited. Content analysis confirmed that cultural backlash exists in sport and provided insight into manifestations of backlash. Comments exhibiting backlash varied by subject (i.e., what or who is being discussed in the tweet) and attitude (i.e., positive approval for fighting and negative attitude toward change), with many defending hockey masculinity. Connections are drawn to manifestations of backlash in the political realm, the extant hockey masculinity literature, and implications for sociological theory and the sport of hockey are discussed.

Arrests for acts of violence against women are a common occurrence for professional athletes, including National Basketball Association (NBA) players. Many sports fans, players, and those involved in professional sport believe that arrests for acts of violence against women, whether they result in a conviction or not, are highly detrimental to an athlete’s career. We matched all 30 NBA players arrested for acts of violence against women between 2000 and 2016 with similar players who were not arrested and examined the effects of the arrest on postarrest average annual salary and career longevity. We found no significant difference between arrested players’ careers and the careers of nonarrested counterparts. From a social learning perspective, this lack of punishment or loss of reward could be an important factor in continued acts of violence against women among NBA athletes.

This article examines whether arrests for an act of violence against women have a negative impact on National Football League (NFL) player careers and whether this impact has become more negative over time. Framed by criminological deterrence and conflict theories, I conduct a Bayesian multi-level negative binomial regression on a matched pairs sample of all 117 NFL players arrested for an act of violence against women between 2000 and 2019 ( n = 234). Results show that the effect of an arrest on player careers is negligible, though it has become slightly more detrimental over time. Player value and performance are stronger predictors of post-arrest career trajectories, and average or better performance negates any detrimental impact of an arrest.