This Sunday, and for the next five months, Americans will watch multimillionaire athletes try to move a ball from one side of a field to the other. We’ll have tailgate parties outside massive stadiums paid for with taxes. We’ll get together with friends and relatives in living rooms so giant strong men can entertain us with a showcase of rare talents and physical prowess.
This Sunday, and for the next five months, Americans will watch multimillionaire athletes try to move a ball from one side of a field to the other. We’ll have tailgate parties outside massive stadiums paid for with taxes. We’ll get together with friends and relatives in living rooms so giant strong men can entertain us with a showcase of rare talents and physical prowess.
Professional football is a sign of strength. It’s more American than Old Milwaukee Beer.
So, when we see the Ravens’ Ray Rice punch his then-fiancee in the face, dropping her to the ground unconscious — dragging her like a doll — it’s our problem. When the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson appears to have whipped his child senseless — scarring the boy with serious lacerations — it’s our problem. The Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez sits in jail on charges of first-degree murder. Panthers defensive lineman Greg Hardy abused and assaulted a woman. Ray McDonald, a 49er, stands charged with domestic abuse of a woman.
It’s time fans stand up and say “enough.” Fame and fortune are not exemptions from civilized behavior. Quite the contrary, in fact.
It is not enough that big athletic men can throw, tackle, run and block. It’s not enough they help the right team win. It’s not anywhere in the near vicinity of enough that they perform well on the field and then do whatever they please.
The average NFL salary is $1.9 million, which includes the men who sit on the bench. The stars — the men mostly making fools of themselves — get paid considerably more. They are paid well because large audiences pay to watch them. We pay to watch them because they’re part of the American experience. No matter how much they may protest, these men of privilege are symbols of the cities in which they play. More importantly, they are role models for our boys. Who cares whether they asked to play such a role? It goes with the job, like it or not.
Fans determine whether the NFL, or any given franchise, gets to flourish and survive. They are the only source of revenue the enterprise has.
If a proven wife-beater, dog-fighting ring leader or suspected child abuser takes the field — which almost happened in the case of Peterson — fans at the game should get up and leave. At home, we should turn off the set. We should call the team’s office, and the NFL, and tell them we want to watch winners — people who put other people first — and will not pay to see abusive, criminal-element losers. If we want athletics without regard for character, we’ll advise the state corrections departments to start the NPL — National Prison League football.
Winning games is important, but not at any cost. Far more important is preserving the quality of a sport that’s supposed to showcase American exceptionalism. It’s even more important for we, the fans, to ensure the men who play the game teach our boys to respect women and children and others who can’t defend themselves against large athletic men. Stars of the NFL should uphold higher-than-average standards, not the I’m-a-celebrity-so-anything-goes arrangement that seems to rule the day.
Life in the NFL is not a right. It’s the essence of a privilege. It’s time fans make this fact loud and clear, taking back their sport from a few bad actors who are tainting its image.
— Colorado Springs Gazette