As part of the Hart House Black Futures series, the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) and Hart House teamed up to host a panel discussion on the harms of sport under capitalism on September 18.
Moderated by Morgan Campbell, a senior contributor at CBC Sports, the panelists included Daniel Sailofsky, assistant professor, teaching stream at KPE and Nathan Kalam-Lamb, associate professor in sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Their conversation took aim at on- and off-field violence, exploitation and inequity in sports, exploring these challenges using cases from college and professional football, hockey, wrestling and more.
“There’s nothing wrong with sports being a big part of the university experience,” said Kalam-Lamb, kicking off the discussion by focusing on the exploitation rampant in football in post-secondary institutions in the United States. “The problem is we should not ignore the fact that the money that is being generated by these institutions is coming in because college athletes are doing the work; playing sports. Up until this very moment, these athletes haven’t been compensated. Universities are directly benefiting from college athletes.”
Sailofsky, author of Playing Through Pain: The Violent Consequences of Capitalist Sport (UNC Press, 2025), expanded on the idea that the current model leads to exploitation in both professional and collegiate sports. “The incentive structure that underlines sport is at primary fault for the harms that we see,” he said, highlighting the material and financial ways that athletes are rewarded. “You get the next starting position, you get the honours, you get scouted. You’re incentivized financially and you’re incentivized to play through pain.” That exploitation is also often racialized, as Kalam-Lamb illustrated by highlighting the ‘Power Four’, the four dominant conferences of college athletics in the United States—all predominantly white institutions outside of their athletic departments.
Comparing the experiences of Canadian and American student athletes, Sailofsky pointed out that "the Canadian system has a lot of merit to it….what we see, at least at most schools, is that [sport] can help you get in. Not only are you expected to go to class and perform but you’re given opportunities to go into the major you want to do. [American] football players are not given that option; they don’t even let student athletes in the U.S. take the classes they want," he said, citing an example from Kalman-Lamb’s book, The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game (UNC Press, 2024). “Here, it’s a lot of practice time, it’s a lot of commitment, but [student athletes] are still in class.”
As the evening wound to a close, the panelists responded to audience questions about ways to combat capitalist sport, identifying strategies such as unionization and different coaching styles.
Athletes can perform at their best possible level without the imperatives of capitalism, Sailofsky argued. “As people, we are not programmed to only try and do things because they financially benefit us. People want to succeed at whatever they’re doing because it provides inherent pleasure to us.”