Tuesday, December 24, 2019
I have seen commercials about how much safer helmets are in the NFL lately. I think the NFL is trying to bring back fans, like me, that have quit watching football because of how badly the players are damaged by the sport. The NFL may also want to convince parents who are thinking about pulling their children out of peewee league football that football is getting safer. I do not know they can win over either group.
I grew up in small-town Nebraska during the Tom Osborne years. We were bred to be football fans. On Fridays you went to the high school football game, on Saturdays you watched the Cornhuskers play on television (hopefully), on Sundays you went to church. I never had a favorite pro team as a child because Nebraska does not have a pro team, so I was wide open to becoming a Raider’s fan when I started dating my significant other.
I loved football. We named our son Marcus Allen because Marcus Allen made a touchdown the day he was born. Marcus was conveniently born in the morning, so I could watch the Raiders play while recovering from childbirth. Marcus Allen was one of the names we had been considering, and his touchdown sealed the deal. Both Marcus and my older daughter, Megan, played peewee league football until they started high school.
In recent years, former football players have publicized how destroyed their bodies and brains are at the end of their careers and the joy football brought me has disappeared. I do not enjoy sports I know will likely destroy someone’s quality of life. I quit watching boxing after Mohamed Ali’s health issues were publicized. I quit watching professional wrestling after several wrestlers died tragically. I quit watching gymnastics after I found out how it destroyed Mary Lou Retton's body (she has had replacement surgeries that have given her a better quality of life).
The curtain has been pulled back; I cannot unknow what I have learned. I cannot watch any of those sports without feeling sad for the athletes. That sadness has sucked all the joy and love of football out of me. An advertisement about safer helmets will not bring the joy and love back. New rules to improve player safety will not bring the joy and love back. Football is a brutal sport like boxing, MMA fighting, and professional wrestling (even if we did think it was safe because it was staged).
I think the extreme damage risk can be diminished in some sports. I coached Megan’s spring soccer team from the time she was nine until she started high school. Ten to fifteen sets of parents each year entrusted me with the safety of their daughters for training and games. I started every year telling parents I would not teach their children to head soccer balls. I explained their children had developing brains and I did not feel heading was healthy for their children. I told the parents they were welcome to teach their daughters on their own if they liked, but I could not, in good conscience, do so.
I am ready to hug and release football from my life. My younger daughter turned seven this year and, unlike her older brother and sister at that age, Mika did not play peewee league football this fall. Part of it was because of my cancer treatment, but it was mostly because I do not want to go to the games. I no longer love football, not even the flag variety she would play for three years before switching to tackle.
My piece of advice to you is to let go when something no longer feels right. People’s perspectives change as they experience life. In politics they call it flip flopping. In the real world we call it growing up. I still love the Raiders and am happy if I hear they won their game. I can still love them even if I plan to never see them again.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
I have seen commercials about how much safer helmets are in the NFL lately. I think the NFL is trying to bring back fans, like me, that have quit watching football because of how badly the players are damaged by the sport. The NFL may also want to convince parents who are thinking about pulling their children out of peewee league football that football is getting safer. I do not know they can win over either group.
I grew up in small-town Nebraska during the Tom Osborne years. We were bred to be football fans. On Fridays you went to the high school football game, on Saturdays you watched the Cornhuskers play on television (hopefully), on Sundays you went to church. I never had a favorite pro team as a child because Nebraska does not have a pro team, so I was wide open to becoming a Raider’s fan when I started dating my significant other.
I loved football. We named our son Marcus Allen because Marcus Allen made a touchdown the day he was born. Marcus was conveniently born in the morning, so I could watch the Raiders play while recovering from childbirth. Marcus Allen was one of the names we had been considering, and his touchdown sealed the deal. Both Marcus and my older daughter, Megan, played peewee league football until they started high school.
In recent years, former football players have publicized how destroyed their bodies and brains are at the end of their careers and the joy football brought me has disappeared. I do not enjoy sports I know will likely destroy someone’s quality of life. I quit watching boxing after Mohamed Ali’s health issues were publicized. I quit watching professional wrestling after several wrestlers died tragically. I quit watching gymnastics after I found out how it destroyed Mary Lou Retton's body (she has had replacement surgeries that have given her a better quality of life).
The curtain has been pulled back; I cannot unknow what I have learned. I cannot watch any of those sports without feeling sad for the athletes. That sadness has sucked all the joy and love of football out of me. An advertisement about safer helmets will not bring the joy and love back. New rules to improve player safety will not bring the joy and love back. Football is a brutal sport like boxing, MMA fighting, and professional wrestling (even if we did think it was safe because it was staged).
I think the extreme damage risk can be diminished in some sports. I coached Megan’s spring soccer team from the time she was nine until she started high school. Ten to fifteen sets of parents each year entrusted me with the safety of their daughters for training and games. I started every year telling parents I would not teach their children to head soccer balls. I explained their children had developing brains and I did not feel heading was healthy for their children. I told the parents they were welcome to teach their daughters on their own if they liked, but I could not, in good conscience, do so.
I am ready to hug and release football from my life. My younger daughter turned seven this year and, unlike her older brother and sister at that age, Mika did not play peewee league football this fall. Part of it was because of my cancer treatment, but it was mostly because I do not want to go to the games. I no longer love football, not even the flag variety she would play for three years before switching to tackle.
My piece of advice to you is to let go when something no longer feels right. People’s perspectives change as they experience life. In politics they call it flip flopping. In the real world we call it growing up. I still love the Raiders and am happy if I hear they won their game. I can still love them even if I plan to never see them again.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.