Momma Don’t Let Your Sons Grow Up to Be Football Players
Let’s just start by saying I am Ohio-born and for the most part Ohio-raised, bred on Tom Landry football, not corn (my family were typical mid-western snow-birds and invested in Florida property so a good amount of my time growing up was also spent in Florida, anyhow). The year I graduated from high school our football team, the Panthers, won the state championship. Legendary wide-receiver Paul Warfield graduated from my high school way back in the day and the Pro Football Hall of Fame is in Canton, Ohio not so far from Warren. As I recall growing up, Canton and WGH high schools shared a healthy rivalry. I won last week’ s football pool with my dad (a former sports journalist) and my brother, picking 10 winners and one loss. I won the week before as well picking 9 winners and 2 losses. I’m Steelers, and of course, Packers fan. So yeah, I like the game. Growing up, falling leaves signaled spirited games of touch football in our neighborhood. How we loved to slide into a fresh pile of autumn leaves, faking a fall for a TD! Yes there were football injuries on and off the field in Big Ten Ohio and maybe I have this all wrong, but a malicious ‘intent to injure’ I don’t feel dominated anyone’s roster.
Intent to injure most notably made public by the New Orleans Saints a few years back these days continues to discourage me from watching much of the NFL. True, it’s tricky to prove a non-accidental injury and if you sign up to play ball you are entering the world of increased risk, but Come On Man, the game has become exceedingly violent and brutal. Even my dad a huge sports enthusiast watches more tennis than the NFL these days. It seems like the players are so jacked up on hype, roids, and their own egos that I am beginning to wonder if some feel a twisted sense of pride when they’ve contributed to a knockout or cart-off? Maybe the NFL’s recent and might I add, long-overdue participation in the NOMORE.ORG campaign could toss some of that NOMORE mentality toward an intent to injure campaign into their own back yard. I can hear the PSA’s now, “No More, “It’s just football.” “No More, dishonorable sacks.” No More, intent to harm.”
Whatever happened to competitive integrity? Will the NFL ever return to Paul Warfield standards? Maybe if more players adopted a personal code of ethics or some semblance of dignity their fans would sober up long enough to not only question the increasingly insane price of their tickets, but also question the cruel culture behind the intent to injure mindset. IDK, but when a mega- star like Le Bron James follows Brett Favre and Bart Scott’s sentiments by announcing to ESPN that his sons will not be allowed to play football that must have raised some eyebrows among NFL owners.
Pop Warner the nation’s largest youth football organization noted that their enrollment was down by nearly 10 percent from 2010-012. Hmmm. No offense Le Bron, but it will probably be we moms (over 80 % of single parents are moms) tired of the head injuries and the intent to harm who will take charge and prompt NFL changes.
The evidence of mom’s impact on the game was no more apparent than while watching the World Series. As I listened to the commentators relay stories about the players, there was this increasingly popular back story, amplified expression, or theme if you will: “His mom refused to let him play football and he had to choose another sport, so he turned to baseball.” NFL interference by mom.
Stay true,
M