The premise that“sport builds character”is often heard but is rarely subjected to careful scrutiny. When the role of aggression at the highest levels of sport in North America is considered, serious doubt is cast upon the sporting process's ability to build character in the sense of enhancing moral excellence; this seems to be the case, at least, in the contact sports of boxing, hockey, and football. Prevailing attitudes within the entire North American sporting milieu regarding aggression need to be further investigated and delineated; once these are more definitively ascertained, more can then be hypothesized about sport and character-building.