I'd press a button to banish football

Posted

I have a terrific photo of my grandson, Jacob, running with the ball for a touchdown. He was 9 at the time, and playing in a flag football league in Florida. The kids weren’t wearing protective gear, but the grownups assured me it was safe because it was only flag. Still, two boys got hurt in the game I watched, and the week before, two 9-year-olds had suffered broken clavicles on the field.

I have come to believe that football is an unhealthy American obsession that we encourage at our peril. The rules of the game, the coaches, the owners and the fans support a culture of violence, brutality and exploitation.

The football industry is so big and seemingly so indomitable that I considered not taking on the subject at all. After all, our communities have football teams; some players on those teams have gone on to fame and fortune. Most people I know, even if they don’t like the game, attend a football party at one time or another.

Still, all the attention, money, audience participation and publicity thrown at the game don’t make it right, don’t make it a healthy or ethically sound enterprise. As the game has evolved in America, it represents the worst of our culture: violence, not only on the field, but in the players’ lives; avarice on the part of owners; and exploitation of players, many of whom are cheated out of a good education by their consuming obligations to the games and practices.

This isn’t about some adult players who give the sport a bad name, but about a sports ethic that encourages kids to mash the opponent’s face in the dirt.

Numerous medical studies point to the extreme risk and dire outcomes for football players who sustain repeated concussions and other head injuries. How can it be OK to compromise the good health and cognitive integrity of young men naively seeking fame and possibly their only opportunity for a college education?

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