Monday 9th, February 2004
It's not that I don't like football, but...09:56:46 AMWritten By : Scott Good
...I'm not so sure about the football players. Or maybe it's the system. I don't know, but something seems out of whack. Like, maybe, values.
OK, I'll admit it right up front: I didn't grow up as an athlete. Maybe that's not such a surprise.
I wasn't a computer nerd, either (the computers in those days filled whole rooms and used punch cards--too much work for me), but I was into music. With a specialty in saxophones and the ability to play
pretty much all the other woodwinds, sports were important mostly because that was the excuse for the marching band and/or pep band to play.
And, while we played a lot of football and baseball in our back yard, the sports I participated in as a kid--and even today--tend to be more individualized than team: racing in many forms--sailboats, bicycles, cars--plus sports like swimming, tennis, golf...activities like that. I am a bit of a loner in many ways but also self-sufficient so I tend to like activities with smaller teams (if any).
Maybe I'm just anti-social.
But I can understand the appeal of team sports. I really enjoy watching college football. I love the NCAA basketball tournament. I'll even watch the World Series (though I have to say, many more baseball games than those seven would be hard to take in the same calendar year).
What I wrestle with is the adulation piled on these team sports athletes, especially football players, from such an early age. I think it's both inappropriate and, well, bad for them.
It's most obvious, and most obscene, in football. I have a high school senior in my house who's a football player. We live in Upper Arlington, Ohio, which prides itself on many things but particularly its sports, especially football. The bleachers on the Away side of the UA stadium are an order of magnitude larger than the Home side at my college (OK, Rochester Institute of Technology is not exactly a major football power, but go with me on this).
We go to the games. Heck, with a child in them we pretty much have to. And, I enjoy a good football game. What I wonder and worry about, though, is what effect it has on the young athletes to have literally thousands of screaming, fairly-passionate fans rooting their every move? My observation is it is not a good effect, on the whole.
It makes them think they are somehow more important than the rest of us. Teenagers have plenty of narcissistic leanings without any outside help; what these boys get makes it all the worse. And, because they're generally the biggest, strongest kids in the school, too, they have a lot more ability to do whatever the hell it is they feel like doing. There aren't many who can stop them.
I'll admit to a certain amount of pre-existing bias here. Through much of my life I've felt football players, as a group, tended to be rude, rough, abrasive folks with little regard for others, for rules or for appropriate behavior. Time and again I've seen them assume whatever they do is OK, mostly because it's them doing it, regardless of how much or how it affects anyone else.
Yes, I know, that's a gross generalization. And, yes, I know not all football players are like that. My brother played football and is one of the nicest, most polite and gentle people you'll ever meet. My partner is a former footballer. I know lots of people who played and who are "normal." The problem is, I know a lot more who are, well, assholes.
There are a lot of team sports in this world--and particularly in high school. In addition to football there's basketball, baseball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, swimming, track, rugby, wrestling and on and on. And other "team" activities, like the various bands (marching, concert, jazz, pep, orchestra, etc.), choruses, theatre, and so on.
Even the most popular of these activities which, in terms of fan base and attention, has to be basketball, gets not even a fraction of the attention of football. Most of the activities on this list are lucky if they pull in anyone who isn't either a good friend or close relative of one of the participants.
Yet, time after time it's the football players getting into trouble. You'd think all the focus and attention would make them more cautious about what they do. If nothing else, like driving a stolen car and trying to obey all the traffic rules.
Yet, quite the contrary, the attention seems to tell many of these young men they're more important than the rest of us. And, strangely, they believe it.
We had several incidents this last summer where carloads of UA football players drove their vehicles onto the tees and fairways of Scioto Country Club, a very old and nationally-respected golf course (I am not a member, but I've had my share of alcohol there...maybe some of your share, too). At least one tee was ruined and I can't even imagine the expense required to fix it, let alone the justified outrage of the course members.
One of the drivers was the son of a Member AND one of the stars of the football team. If no one else, you would think he, at least, would have an appreciation for the country club and the fabulous golf course there, but apparently not.
Another of the drivers--and a rider on a second occasion--lives at my house, I'm very sorry to say. What's shocking to me even more than the stupidity of the whole thing is the lack of remorse. Or even an appreciation for the problem. Instead, what I hear is outrage the country club didn't just look the other way after the boys were tracked down and decided to make a nice apology to the Course Manager.
In the end, all any of them got was a slap on the hand--some hours of civic volunteerism. Big deal. In my opinion, at the very least they should have been kicked off the football team and forced to work at the club until they earned enough money to pay back all the costs of their damage. Let them learn there are consequences to your choices and actions.
But, they were spared the lesson. What they learned instead was they can get away with more or less anything.
Wink, wink, don't worry...we'll take care of you and make sure you don't suffer. After all, boys will be boys. Uh huh. Right. Just imagine what would have happened if the perpetrators had been somebody else like, heaven forbid, a carload of goth kids with their black outfits and piercings. I'll bet the outcome wouldn't have been the same.
It's a simple--and simplistic--example, I know, but is illustrative of the problem. I have heard my own stepson justify things he does (which I consider unacceptable) with the phrase, "You don't understand, Scott, I'm an Upper Arlington football player," as though that demands special treatment or lowered thresholds of expectation.
I know I'm concentrating on a single instance that's close to me personally, but I think it's symptomatic of a much larger issue. Over and over again we see sports "heros" getting away with murder, both literally and figuratively. Consider, for instance, O. J. Simpson.
You see it over and over again to the point it's not a suprise anymore. What it really is, is a shame. There's a lot about sports that's great and a lot of people who are better and more confident people as a result of their exposure to sports. That's all great. But then there are the others.
I understand that even at the high school level there is serious money at work here, particularly in football, and that serious money always tends to encourage those in charge to make poor choices, but shouldn't we--especially at the high school level--be big enough to Do What's Right? Shouldn't we as parents and our school administrators be big enough to make the Hard Choices?
I certainly think so.
Everyone involved worries too much about the short term--about hurting the team this season or about denying little Joey his chance to play--while blissfully ignoring the big picture which is what kind of adults we are training our children to be. Showing athletes--or anyone else for that matter--preferential treatment because of who they are or what group they're a part of is self-defeating. We're teaching them that it's not as important for them to play by the rules, to respect others and to do what's right as it is for lesser mortals.
What I wonder is, if it's so important for our kids to be on these teams, why aren't our expectations higher, rather than lower, for their behavior? Why shouldn't we expect the players from the most visible and "important" sports to be role models for the rest of us, rather than expecting and accepting them being slightly "beyond the law?"
But, hey, I'm just a Band Geek. What do I know?
OK, I'll admit it right up front: I didn't grow up as an athlete. Maybe that's not such a surprise.
I wasn't a computer nerd, either (the computers in those days filled whole rooms and used punch cards--too much work for me), but I was into music. With a specialty in saxophones and the ability to play
pretty much all the other woodwinds, sports were important mostly because that was the excuse for the marching band and/or pep band to play.And, while we played a lot of football and baseball in our back yard, the sports I participated in as a kid--and even today--tend to be more individualized than team: racing in many forms--sailboats, bicycles, cars--plus sports like swimming, tennis, golf...activities like that. I am a bit of a loner in many ways but also self-sufficient so I tend to like activities with smaller teams (if any).
Maybe I'm just anti-social.
But I can understand the appeal of team sports. I really enjoy watching college football. I love the NCAA basketball tournament. I'll even watch the World Series (though I have to say, many more baseball games than those seven would be hard to take in the same calendar year).
What I wrestle with is the adulation piled on these team sports athletes, especially football players, from such an early age. I think it's both inappropriate and, well, bad for them.
It's most obvious, and most obscene, in football. I have a high school senior in my house who's a football player. We live in Upper Arlington, Ohio, which prides itself on many things but particularly its sports, especially football. The bleachers on the Away side of the UA stadium are an order of magnitude larger than the Home side at my college (OK, Rochester Institute of Technology is not exactly a major football power, but go with me on this).
We go to the games. Heck, with a child in them we pretty much have to. And, I enjoy a good football game. What I wonder and worry about, though, is what effect it has on the young athletes to have literally thousands of screaming, fairly-passionate fans rooting their every move? My observation is it is not a good effect, on the whole.
It makes them think they are somehow more important than the rest of us. Teenagers have plenty of narcissistic leanings without any outside help; what these boys get makes it all the worse. And, because they're generally the biggest, strongest kids in the school, too, they have a lot more ability to do whatever the hell it is they feel like doing. There aren't many who can stop them.
I'll admit to a certain amount of pre-existing bias here. Through much of my life I've felt football players, as a group, tended to be rude, rough, abrasive folks with little regard for others, for rules or for appropriate behavior. Time and again I've seen them assume whatever they do is OK, mostly because it's them doing it, regardless of how much or how it affects anyone else.
Yes, I know, that's a gross generalization. And, yes, I know not all football players are like that. My brother played football and is one of the nicest, most polite and gentle people you'll ever meet. My partner is a former footballer. I know lots of people who played and who are "normal." The problem is, I know a lot more who are, well, assholes.
There are a lot of team sports in this world--and particularly in high school. In addition to football there's basketball, baseball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, swimming, track, rugby, wrestling and on and on. And other "team" activities, like the various bands (marching, concert, jazz, pep, orchestra, etc.), choruses, theatre, and so on.
Even the most popular of these activities which, in terms of fan base and attention, has to be basketball, gets not even a fraction of the attention of football. Most of the activities on this list are lucky if they pull in anyone who isn't either a good friend or close relative of one of the participants.
Yet, time after time it's the football players getting into trouble. You'd think all the focus and attention would make them more cautious about what they do. If nothing else, like driving a stolen car and trying to obey all the traffic rules.
Yet, quite the contrary, the attention seems to tell many of these young men they're more important than the rest of us. And, strangely, they believe it.
We had several incidents this last summer where carloads of UA football players drove their vehicles onto the tees and fairways of Scioto Country Club, a very old and nationally-respected golf course (I am not a member, but I've had my share of alcohol there...maybe some of your share, too). At least one tee was ruined and I can't even imagine the expense required to fix it, let alone the justified outrage of the course members.
One of the drivers was the son of a Member AND one of the stars of the football team. If no one else, you would think he, at least, would have an appreciation for the country club and the fabulous golf course there, but apparently not.
Another of the drivers--and a rider on a second occasion--lives at my house, I'm very sorry to say. What's shocking to me even more than the stupidity of the whole thing is the lack of remorse. Or even an appreciation for the problem. Instead, what I hear is outrage the country club didn't just look the other way after the boys were tracked down and decided to make a nice apology to the Course Manager.
In the end, all any of them got was a slap on the hand--some hours of civic volunteerism. Big deal. In my opinion, at the very least they should have been kicked off the football team and forced to work at the club until they earned enough money to pay back all the costs of their damage. Let them learn there are consequences to your choices and actions.
But, they were spared the lesson. What they learned instead was they can get away with more or less anything.
Wink, wink, don't worry...we'll take care of you and make sure you don't suffer. After all, boys will be boys. Uh huh. Right. Just imagine what would have happened if the perpetrators had been somebody else like, heaven forbid, a carload of goth kids with their black outfits and piercings. I'll bet the outcome wouldn't have been the same.
It's a simple--and simplistic--example, I know, but is illustrative of the problem. I have heard my own stepson justify things he does (which I consider unacceptable) with the phrase, "You don't understand, Scott, I'm an Upper Arlington football player," as though that demands special treatment or lowered thresholds of expectation.
I know I'm concentrating on a single instance that's close to me personally, but I think it's symptomatic of a much larger issue. Over and over again we see sports "heros" getting away with murder, both literally and figuratively. Consider, for instance, O. J. Simpson.
You see it over and over again to the point it's not a suprise anymore. What it really is, is a shame. There's a lot about sports that's great and a lot of people who are better and more confident people as a result of their exposure to sports. That's all great. But then there are the others.
I understand that even at the high school level there is serious money at work here, particularly in football, and that serious money always tends to encourage those in charge to make poor choices, but shouldn't we--especially at the high school level--be big enough to Do What's Right? Shouldn't we as parents and our school administrators be big enough to make the Hard Choices?
I certainly think so.
Everyone involved worries too much about the short term--about hurting the team this season or about denying little Joey his chance to play--while blissfully ignoring the big picture which is what kind of adults we are training our children to be. Showing athletes--or anyone else for that matter--preferential treatment because of who they are or what group they're a part of is self-defeating. We're teaching them that it's not as important for them to play by the rules, to respect others and to do what's right as it is for lesser mortals.
What I wonder is, if it's so important for our kids to be on these teams, why aren't our expectations higher, rather than lower, for their behavior? Why shouldn't we expect the players from the most visible and "important" sports to be role models for the rest of us, rather than expecting and accepting them being slightly "beyond the law?"
But, hey, I'm just a Band Geek. What do I know?
Comments :
1. dan dupler,asst football coach UA03/29/2006 09:25:29 PM
ua band makes the football team go.Without the bear band drummers and the band marching up the path by the tennis courts about 6:45 on a Friday night it wouldn't be golden bear friday night...there are no geeks at UA..alternative life styles but no geeks...we love the band
2. Scott Good03/29/2006 09:55:15 PM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com
Thanks for your comment Dan, and for reading this, but I'm not sure what it has to do with my points here. Maybe I'm missing your point.
Scott
3. Wicked Ones01/31/2007 03:41:30 PM
I do not agree with your comments. I believe you have generalized football players into one category based on your own personal experiences. I believe that a lot of young teenagers and young men do a lot of stupid stuff and not just necessarily football players. I feel that football teaches people discipline, leadership, teamwork, and a sense of self confidence. I believe that everyone should learn these trait and not envy and despise other because they have shown a progression of character and affiliated with a sports team. 
4. too funny11/14/2011 12:43:04 AM
too funny football players are jerks always were and always will be.
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