The notion of equality stretches across many parts of our
society. People are fighting all
over the country for quality education, acceptance, and to stand up to
bullying. In the non-professional
athletic portion of society we are taught to embrace these qualities. There can be consequences if we try to
bully or discriminate against someone else. However, it seems that these qualities do not carry
over into the world of the NFL.
There have been three recent events concerning the NFL that have shown
how the league’s, and those that cover it, culture runs counter to the rest of
society. Let’s take a look at
them:
Richard Sherman’s
Exuberant Post Game Interview
We all know what happened after Sherman’s game saving play
in the NFC Championship game. Erin
Andrews had to interview him moments after and he was so pumped on adrenaline
that he gave one of the most talked about interviews in American sports
history. Many NFL analysts and
news personalities re-acted to this by calling Sherman a thug. They hated how brash he was even though
many of them complain how boring post-game interviews are. They called him uneducated – despite
having a GPA over 4 in high school and a Stanford education – because he’s from
Compton. These same people who
salivate over the brutality that is professional football were somehow offended
when a player showed raw, extremely raw, emotions very shortly after making the
play that sent him team to the Super Bowl.
Michael Sam Announces
He’s Gay
Sam, the reigning SEC defensive player of the year,
announced that he is gay shortly after the NFL season ended. As of right now, before the pre-draft
process begins, he is considered to be a 3rd round pick. He played defensive end in college but
many scouts consider him to be a candidate to switch to outside linebacker in a
3-4 scheme. Everyone praised his
decision to come out and called it a defining moment to equal opportunity in
the NFL. Despite hearing all of
the right talk there are reports coming out that not everyone is comfortable
with an openly gay player in the NFL.
Like in other parts of society, it is not surprising to hear that there
are some players are not comfortable with this, but it is more than a little surprising
to hear that there are NFL general managers and even some team executives who
feel the same way. It is quite
possible that Sam will slip in the draft because some team leaders cannot get
passed their own homophobia instead of focusing on how Sam the football player
can help their team.
The Miami Dolphin’s
Situation
It is unfair to call this the Incognito/Martin scandal as
the recent Well’s report has implicated many more parties in this
situation. This whole ordeal has
shown us greater insight into NFL locker rooms than any Hard Knock’s episode. The Well’s report has faulted
Incognito, two other linemen, and the offensive line coach in the harassment
and bullying of Martin and another player. This report also cleared head coach Joe Philbin and the
Dolphin’s front office of having any knowledge of this situation. If this is true then the Dolphin’s have
a lot more problems than any one realizes. If it’s not true, than the Dolphin’s leadership is guilty of
allowing, perhaps even encouraging, this problem to grow to the point where one
player, one man, felt it necessary to walk away. Many players were quick to call Martin weak for abandoning
his teammates, but imagine if more of us had the courage to walk away from an
unhealthy situation.
While these three situations are only a sliver of the NFL
world they still show a side of the NFL that we would not tolerate in any other
forum. We watch NFL games for
entertainment but we do not have to stomach players, or anyone else involved in
the game, devalue the game through bigotry. Some will point out that the culture of the NFL is just
different from the rest of the society but that’s no excuse to lessen the value
of education, not support players from all walks of live, and to support those
who need to make themselves feel better by making others feel worse. As fans we pour our time, money, and
hearts into our favorite franchises.
Maybe it’s time we let them know that we will not tolerate these kinds
of behaviors if they want our continued support.
