"It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass
The mobile generation has opened a door that can’t be shut. Not even by the NFL. The days of shrugging our shoulders every time we hear about off the field incidents are over. We have welcomed the violent nature of professional football into our living rooms each and every Sunday, but have chalked up the craziness that goes on during the week as the way it is. Those days may finally be over. Today the game clearly has flaws that go far beyond the field of play.
It’s hard to imagine the trials and tribulations professional athletes go through to get to the highest level. The sacrifice. The dedication. Few ever get there. Some fail when they do. Still, it’s part of what makes it great. Once the goal is accomplished incredible benefits follow, but it isn’t just the fame and fortune. The entitlement and “above the law” attitude professional athletes feel they deserve existed long before Rice, Peterson, Hardy, McDonald, or Dwyer raised a hand to anyone. Blue Chip college athletes are exposed to a number of questionable practices years before they ever reach the gridiron of the National Football League. Big time schools have been pulling strings and looking the other way for decades in order to secure the best players for their programs. Many schools tried desperately to cover-up these practices and paid dearly for doing so. Now it is the NFL’s turn.
The arrogant nature of the people in charge is at the core of what is really wrong with this situation. Clearly, the league isn’t responsible for what players do off the field. Maybe it is time they should be. It is no secret that football players are violent individuals. They need to be if they are going to be any good at what they do. We embrace it and encourage it for 16 games a year, but are we really naïve enough to believe that each and every player in the league can turn that aggression off once the game is over? The league would like us to think so. In fact, the league has even tried to make the public believe that all of this is new to them. How could they not see this storm of scrutiny coming? Why haven’t they made any effort to decrease the level of off the field incidents other than just suspending players months and even seasons after the fact? How is that possible?
For the most part it isn’t anymore. Owners are responding to public outcry and taking action. They have done their best to make us believe they just want to “get it right.” In order to ever get it right the league and its owners can no longer take the fans for granted and assume we accept and follow the same principles they do. Furthermore, the league can no longer down play the violence and criminal activity that goes on off the field. Recent events have opened our eyes to what some of these players are capable of. These events have also exposed what lengths the NFL will go to make light of a situation that was clearly wrong and deserving of more than a two game suspension.
There is no excuse for domestic violence. There is no excuse for child abuse. There is no justification for any of it. Listening to so many say that, “It is the way I was raised and the way it will always be,” does not make right. We learn 90% of what we learn in our life between birth and the age of 5. Therefore, it is imperative that we stop fooling ourselves into believing that it is ever okay to raise a hand to a child. Once anyone does that, they are teaching their own flesh and blood at a crucial developmental stage that corporal punishment is the main way to deal with our problems. It should then come as no surprise that most men who physically abuse women were themselves abused or witnessed it in their home. In other words, once we pass that lesson and behavior on to our children they are likely to do the same to their kids and their wives. It is time to break the vicious circle that follows this ancient practice. The belief that you are making the child stronger or toughening their skin by inflicting bodily harm is outdated and barbaric. Long gone are the days of nuns cracking knuckles in the classroom, but allowing parents to do so is still okay? Our society may always gravitate to entertainment surrounded by violence, but at some point we must learn to draw the line. Teaching our children strategies to deal with problems instead of using violence is a good start.
It’s hard to imagine the trials and tribulations professional athletes go through to get to the highest level. The sacrifice. The dedication. Few ever get there. Some fail when they do. Still, it’s part of what makes it great. Once the goal is accomplished incredible benefits follow, but it isn’t just the fame and fortune. The entitlement and “above the law” attitude professional athletes feel they deserve existed long before Rice, Peterson, Hardy, McDonald, or Dwyer raised a hand to anyone. Blue Chip college athletes are exposed to a number of questionable practices years before they ever reach the gridiron of the National Football League. Big time schools have been pulling strings and looking the other way for decades in order to secure the best players for their programs. Many schools tried desperately to cover-up these practices and paid dearly for doing so. Now it is the NFL’s turn.
The arrogant nature of the people in charge is at the core of what is really wrong with this situation. Clearly, the league isn’t responsible for what players do off the field. Maybe it is time they should be. It is no secret that football players are violent individuals. They need to be if they are going to be any good at what they do. We embrace it and encourage it for 16 games a year, but are we really naïve enough to believe that each and every player in the league can turn that aggression off once the game is over? The league would like us to think so. In fact, the league has even tried to make the public believe that all of this is new to them. How could they not see this storm of scrutiny coming? Why haven’t they made any effort to decrease the level of off the field incidents other than just suspending players months and even seasons after the fact? How is that possible?
For the most part it isn’t anymore. Owners are responding to public outcry and taking action. They have done their best to make us believe they just want to “get it right.” In order to ever get it right the league and its owners can no longer take the fans for granted and assume we accept and follow the same principles they do. Furthermore, the league can no longer down play the violence and criminal activity that goes on off the field. Recent events have opened our eyes to what some of these players are capable of. These events have also exposed what lengths the NFL will go to make light of a situation that was clearly wrong and deserving of more than a two game suspension.
There is no excuse for domestic violence. There is no excuse for child abuse. There is no justification for any of it. Listening to so many say that, “It is the way I was raised and the way it will always be,” does not make right. We learn 90% of what we learn in our life between birth and the age of 5. Therefore, it is imperative that we stop fooling ourselves into believing that it is ever okay to raise a hand to a child. Once anyone does that, they are teaching their own flesh and blood at a crucial developmental stage that corporal punishment is the main way to deal with our problems. It should then come as no surprise that most men who physically abuse women were themselves abused or witnessed it in their home. In other words, once we pass that lesson and behavior on to our children they are likely to do the same to their kids and their wives. It is time to break the vicious circle that follows this ancient practice. The belief that you are making the child stronger or toughening their skin by inflicting bodily harm is outdated and barbaric. Long gone are the days of nuns cracking knuckles in the classroom, but allowing parents to do so is still okay? Our society may always gravitate to entertainment surrounded by violence, but at some point we must learn to draw the line. Teaching our children strategies to deal with problems instead of using violence is a good start.
