When children are growing up, it is perfectly acceptable for little girls to wear dresses, pink, play with Barbies and cry. But a boy, no. A boy is supposed to make the girl cry, play with G.I. Joes, leggos, break things, and play sports. This is our culture; this is a social stereotype, and this is what is generally ‘socially acceptable.’ Now I am not saying that these are my views, I am just saying they are observations in life.
In the adolescent years, girls join dance class and boys join sports. Throwing all their newfound testosterone and teenage angst into their love for sports, boys get really passionate and competitive about it. They will do anything to win and their coaches remind them of that with praise, punishment, long drawn out speeches and rallies. Again, this is our culture. The culture of sports as a whole, professional or not, is to win. You cannot be the best if you do not win; giving it your all isn’t going to cut it, you have to win.
It is with this mentality that I am not in the least bit shocked that teams in the NFL have ‘bounty incentive programs.’ Why is everyone so surprised? The sport of football is all about pummeling your opponent, yet being in complete control over your body. If you hit the quarterback after the ball has been thrown, penalty. If you hit a player helmet-to-helmet, penalty. So why would anyone think that any time a player is hit and needs to be carried off the field that it was an ‘accident’ and it was not meticulously calculated before hand. Football is all about control and results. There would not be so many injuries if they were all ‘accidents.’ Let’s be honest with ourselves for a minute. We, as viewers, turned a blind eye to the bounty program, because it was a whisper and we did not want to believe that our heroes could be so ‘evil’, but let us not mistake ignorance for genuine shock. It is more shocking that no one cared about the issue until it was blatantly brought to the foreground. Furthermore, athletes make a lot of money. I do not ever want to see anyone get hurt, especially not anyone on my fantasy team, but the sport is violent and they knew the risks coming into this profession. That is why they get paid a lot. Every job has their risks and rewards, and unfortunately for athletes, the NFL has the highest of each.
I am sorry to all ‘true fans’ who [ignorantly] are genuinely surprised by this news. It does not change the sport or your heroes; it just shows what an aggressive sport and culture it is we live in. I am sure one coach just wanted his team to play harder so he enticed them with money and before you knew it, it spun out of control. But please don’t all act genuinely shocked. It happened, it sucks, but it was always a probability that this was going on. We are a culture of violence. Just look, for example, how traditional boxing has been replaced and overshadowed with the much more violent sport of UFC and MMA. It is with all these popularly violent sports that we should be embarrassed at ourselves for idolizing and encouraging this kind of behavior. Not turn a blind eye and then once the story comes out condemn all parties involved. But alas, ignorance is always bliss, isn’t it? And once something comes to the forefront it is hard to stuff it back in Pandora’s box and ignore it all over again.
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