Sunday, September 14, 2014

Are You Ready For Some Football?

I played football in my backyard when I was a kid with my brothers. That was pretty much it for football and
No Shit. Pic from Morningstar
me. I was really good at soccer and basketball. I got so good that boys would actually pick me first. You rarely got knocked down in soccer or basketball, if you did it was usually an accident. In football, it seemed to me that getting knocked down was the whole point. People were always getting hurt, especially my brother, he was always in the emergency room. Watching football was always a big deal on the holidays. I spent many miserable days when my husband would sulk or flip out because of whatever his football team did. I just don't like football.
The big topic at work wasn't bombing Iraq or ISIS, or as my friend would say as a joke, "is, is", it was that Ray Rice knocked out his wife with a punch in an elevator. "Did you see the video?" I kept getting asked. No I didn't and I don't want to. Here's the thing, domestic violence goes down everyday, everywhere. It's just that now with surveillance people behaving badly are caught on film. I am sure that the incident on that elevator wasn't the first time that asshole punched his wife. He'll probably punch a woman in the future. As long as men think they can get away with this behavior, they will continue to do it. Because keeping their hands to themselves isn't an option. It really doesn't surprise me that the NFL was utterly incompetent handling this situation and it did remind me of the whole Penn State affair. Because we worship these football people. They are like Gods. What is one punch worth?  Two games, which is what the NFL initially suggested.
We live in a culture of violence, football is a violent game, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a whole lot more stories or incidents of domestic violence that surface after this, what do you know? There are, only this time it's a grown man beating a 4 year old. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson faces two years in prison if found guilty of child abuse - NY Daily News
These are just the incidents we know about. It seems to me that the football industry is run by corrupt millionaires just like our government. The NFL has an image to keep polished but that image just keeps getting tarnished. Michael Vick abused animals and he's still playing. The litany of abuse is pretty bad, but then you are dealing with an organization where brain injuries and death are just part of the game. I don't know how much this could affect these players behavior but the whole culture of football is something I could never identify with. I did however, observe a whole lot of bad behavior based on a persons status on the high school team and how many women the captain of the team could use. Fights that would break out depending on which team you were cheering for. Then there's the whole insanity of cheerleading. To me football was just a huge waste of time. Being in a room full of yelling, screaming, wing eatin', beer swilling dudes, never did anything for me. The more I learn about what really goes on in football, the less I want anything to do with it.

4 comments:

  1. $$$ over rules all. These behaviors and criminal acts have been part and parcel of pro/college football for decades.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The Steelers, the Cowboys, the '70s, and the fight for America's Soul"

    I think that soul has been sold to the Devil.

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  3. Wife and child beaters are a police matter and should be dealt with by the police and prosecutors. A guy going to prison for five years has the same effect as a five year suspension and gets sports franchises and universities out of the police business.

    Let's stop being a nation of busybodies that demands suspension for unprosecuted crimes and instead call the cops! Did everybody hear that? CALL-THE-COPS!

    Yours crankily,
    The New York Crank

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Crank is right. This is a law enforcement matter. The NFL is out of their league on this one.

    See what I did there?

    ReplyDelete