¶ … Boswell points out, sports are about the "commonsense ethics of everyday life." Both within and between teams, ethical issues are raised on the field. Individual athletes confront ethical questions as well. Although everyday life is not a sporting event, sporting events do illustrate ethical conundrums and their solutions.

The simple act of winning or losing raises questions about right and wrong. Ethical behaviors are played out on the field, in the locker room, and in the media. The extent to which athletes go to win is one of the most obvious ethical problems in sports, as well as in everyday life. Cheating occurs in everyday life as well as in sports. For example, how far a person will go to achieve a promotion or to make more money off a sale is the same ethical issue as how far an athlete will go to win a game. A player on a team might choose to withhold information about a health problem in order not to be benched, which could cost the team a win. This is clearly an ethical choice that would be played out equally in the non-sports arena of daily life. For instance, an employee of any company -- sports team or not -- chooses whether disclosure of information is an ethical duty or not.

Sports that are highly physical raise their own set of ethical issues that reflect the commonsense ethics of everyday life. The use of performance-enhancing drugs might be an ethical one. Players often claim that steroid use is so prevalent that it is becoming normalized and therefore no longer unethical. Gambling on sports is another example of how sports are about the commonsense ethics of everyday life.

Sports can demonstrate how to treat opponents with respect and how to lose or win with dignity. Respecting opponents is a valuable tool for everyday life, being able to confront adversity with strength and power. Some athletes embody graceful winning, whereas others show how greed and egotism can come in the way of good sportsmanlike behavior.

Sports sometimes allow the temporary suspension of commonsense ethics. For instance, a player may trash-talk an opponent, saying things that one would never say to another stranger. In these cases, sports represent the fluidity and flexibility of ethical codes.