A few weeks ago, in an NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, Chiefs starting quarterback Matt Cassel suffered a concussion after receiving a crushing hit from Ravens defensive end Haloti Ngata. Cassel was knocked out; he spent a significant amount of time on the ground before being helped off the field by medical staff.
Chief fans booed as Cassel, now on his feet, walked off the field and into the locker room.
Your reaction to this situation should be pretty obvious.
For many fans, the NFL is a huge deal. Lots of people live and breathe by their respective NFL teams. To watch fans boo a seriously injured player for lack of on field production makes sense; the fans want their money’s worth. But this does not justify the act; it was, of course, morally wrong.
Booing at a guy who just got run over by a 300-pound man-truck! A truck-man who, I might add, is actually being paid to demolish said guy!
C’mon people!
But it isn’t the moral failings of these 68,000 plus fans that I wish to discuss with you.
In an interview after the game, Chiefs offensive lineman Eric Winston gave a fiery speech in defense of his teammate. Winston, who will be compensated 22 million dollars over the next four years for trying to stop guys like Ngata from knocking out his quarterback, was more than upset; Eric Winston was disgusted. Here’s some of what he had to say:
We are athletes, OK? We are athletes. We are not gladiators. This is not the Roman Coliseum. People pay their hard-earned money when they come in here and I believe they can boo, they can cheer and they can do whatever they want, I believe that. We are lucky to play this game. People, it’s hard to economic times, and they still pay the money to do this.
But when somebody gets hurt, there are long lasting ramifications to the game we play, long lasting ramifications to the game we play. I’ve already kinda come to the understanding that I won’t live as long because I play this game and that’s OK, that’s a choice I’ve made and a choice all of us have made.
I take issue with the things said here. Not issue against Winston, or any NFL player for that matter, but against the NFL, the highest profiting sports corporation in America. According to a September article in Forbes, the NFL made a staggering 1.3 billions dollars in operating profit last season.
Sorry Eric, you may not be Russell Crowe status, but you are a modern day gladiator. You do battle in an arena for the entertainment of people and the profits of the owners. You physically destroy your body; you do this while gaining obscene amounts of muscle weight in the gym, and during practices and games, when you throw your weapon of a body at teammates and opponents alike.
Winston leveled with us and admitted he has made a conscious decision to do this to himeslf, great, 22 million dollars is a lot of money. But does anyone else see the problem here?
The National Football League exploits human bodies more than the NBA, NHL, and MLB combined. The only difference then, between gladiators and NFL players, is that we reward football players with millions of dollars, and Russell Crowe, well, we all know what happens to him and his friends. I’m not sure this should make the principle of the matter any different. It’s morally wrong to exploit human bodies for our personal enjoyment, isn’t it? Especially if the only real winners are the obscenely wealthy owners?
This isn’t to say that we don’t exploit bodies in all major sports, we do. But the sheer violence of football makes the NFL an easy target. No one should be shocked to hear that contemporary studies have linked ex football players to issues with deteriorating bodies, and, more seriously, brains.
We let NFL players destroy their bodies for our enjoyment, without feeling too bad, because, after all, they get paid the big bucks. This doesn’t justify the underlining immorality of the league.
No one should be surprised that Chiefs fans chose to boo an injured player. Die-hard fans, they never intended to use their money to support the emotional or physical well being of Matt Cassel, quite the opposite.
But, like I said, your reaction to this situation should be pretty obvious.
Now if you’d excuse me, I have a fantasy lineup to attend to.
