Cargando…

Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating

Racial bias in sport is a prevalent research topic. Much of the previous research regarding bias among referees in sport focused on sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. Professional American football is unique because race is more clearly defined when compared to these other spor...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Eiserloh, Dawson G., Foreman, Jeremy J., Heintz, Elizabeth C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869455
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00048
_version_ 1783674987051220992
author Eiserloh, Dawson G.
Foreman, Jeremy J.
Heintz, Elizabeth C.
author_facet Eiserloh, Dawson G.
Foreman, Jeremy J.
Heintz, Elizabeth C.
author_sort Eiserloh, Dawson G.
collection PubMed
description Racial bias in sport is a prevalent research topic. Much of the previous research regarding bias among referees in sport focused on sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. Professional American football is unique because race is more clearly defined when compared to these other sports. Additionally, by examining holding penalties, which are known to be more subjective and called predominately by a single official on the field (i.e., the umpire), racial bias in officiating can be more efficiently analyzed in professional American football. The purpose of this study is to examine potential racial bias regarding holding penalties in the National Football League (NFL). Three years of data from the 2013 to 2014 through 2015 to 2016 NFL seasons were used, including the races of officials and players involved in holding penalties. Results showed no evidence of racial bias in the calling of holding penalties by White officials. However, Black umpires were found to call more holding penalties when led by a White referee. Additionally, Black players were more likely to have holding penalties called on them earlier in the game by all officials.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8022699
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80226992021-04-15 Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating Eiserloh, Dawson G. Foreman, Jeremy J. Heintz, Elizabeth C. Front Sociol Sociology Racial bias in sport is a prevalent research topic. Much of the previous research regarding bias among referees in sport focused on sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. Professional American football is unique because race is more clearly defined when compared to these other sports. Additionally, by examining holding penalties, which are known to be more subjective and called predominately by a single official on the field (i.e., the umpire), racial bias in officiating can be more efficiently analyzed in professional American football. The purpose of this study is to examine potential racial bias regarding holding penalties in the National Football League (NFL). Three years of data from the 2013 to 2014 through 2015 to 2016 NFL seasons were used, including the races of officials and players involved in holding penalties. Results showed no evidence of racial bias in the calling of holding penalties by White officials. However, Black umpires were found to call more holding penalties when led by a White referee. Additionally, Black players were more likely to have holding penalties called on them earlier in the game by all officials. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8022699/ /pubmed/33869455 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00048 Text en Copyright © 2020 Eiserloh, Foreman and Heintz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Eiserloh, Dawson G.
Foreman, Jeremy J.
Heintz, Elizabeth C.
Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title_full Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title_fullStr Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title_full_unstemmed Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title_short Racial Bias in National Football League Officiating
title_sort racial bias in national football league officiating
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869455
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00048
work_keys_str_mv AT eiserlohdawsong racialbiasinnationalfootballleagueofficiating
AT foremanjeremyj racialbiasinnationalfootballleagueofficiating
AT heintzelizabethc racialbiasinnationalfootballleagueofficiating