The sport ethic becomes a source of dangerous deviance in sports when

• A. People in sports don't set boundaries to limit overconformity to the ethic
• B. People always enforce boundaries
• C. There is excessive emphasis on underconformity
• D. The sport ethic is ignored by everyone

Answer: (A)

The sport ethic includes a commitment to hard work, sacrifice, and pushing one’s limits for the team or sport. It becomes dangerous when there are no boundaries to keep that overconformity in check. Without limits, the drive to win or prove oneself can lead athletes to take unsafe risks, play injured, bend or break rules, or engage in harmful behaviors in pursuit of success. If boundaries were always enforced, overconformity would be curbed and these dangerous acts would be less likely. The other options don’t capture this dynamic: emphasizing underconformity shifts away from pushing limits, and ignoring the sport ethic removes the normative pressure that can produce overzealous, risky behavior rather than its avoidance.