Over the last couple of weeks the sport of football has taken it on the chin, but does it really deserve it?
Football is a violent sport, that would seem to be self evident, even the terms are violent like “crack-back block,” ouch. Good defenses bend, but they don’t break. Most times I don’t even want to bend let alone break. Even trap play sounds dangerous. However, the violence, controlled as it may be, needs to stay on the field where it belongs.
The acts of former Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice are deplorable in every way imaginable. A real man does not strike his wife, let along deck her in an elevator as video evidence has shown Rice doing.
I have not said anything all you reading this don’t already believe, at least I hope you believe it, nor have I said anything that much better writers than I haven’t already penned. However, I would like to take a moment to defend the game of football.
One sin we are often guilty of in this country is grouping things together and assigning guilt to them. Ray Rice is an African American who beats his wife, but that does not make all African Americans bad husbands that punch their wives. That is the root of racism.
A similar statement can be made for football. Just because Rice is a football player doesn’t make all football players bad either.
Do football players, at least the good ones, like to hit? Of course, they do. Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor even once said that he liked the feeling of a man that he had just crushed. But that action should be confined to the field.
There are many more men, or women, that clearly understand when you walk off the field that violence must end. Obviously, Rice doesn’t understand that transition and I hope he gets help for his problem.
The sport of football, on the other hand, teaches most people lessons that can help them be better persons. How about teamwork? Think that just works in football? No, it works in life.
Let’s think about life teams for a moment. How about husband and wife. A good marriage is built around being a good team, you help each other, and don’t expect that your partner score all of the points. Mother and father? Raising children takes both and is not the job of one or the other, you learn to use each person’s strengths. Construction managers, grocery store managers, or police chiefs better be good at leading teams.
One of the more important lessons is battling adversity. You don’t find out who your leaders are when you are winning by four touchdowns. You find out who they are when you are down by six with less than a minute to play. When the guy across from you is kicking your butt, you find a different way to go about it, so you start winning the battle.
It’s the same in a military campaign. You don’t find out who the real leaders are when everything goes by plan, but when things break down, and you have to find another way. Think things went just as planned on “D-day?” Read the books.
I am not saying football is the end all either, but many more men who play it become good husbands, fathers, bosses, and employees, than do not.
After years of toil and sweat behind radio station microphones, longtime broadcaster, Jeff Swank joined the new generation of sports followers on the web.
Swank launched his internet radio station with nothing more than some wire, a box with some knobs and switches, and an itch to do much more than just scratch the surface of everything sports.
Richland Source is proud to introduce Jeff as a writer focused on high school sports. He will contribute a weekly column and analysis of a featured game of the week from one of our area high schools.
In addition to his work at Richland Source, Jeff provides complete high school sports coverage for over 70 Ohio schools at his web site, http://www.swankonsports.net76.net/.
