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I grew up playing several contact sports, and contrary to many articles I’ve read lately, I do not resemble a punch-drunk boxer or have severe head trauma. Also contrary to the suggestions of these articles, I am not a mindless, beer-guzzling womanizer. Most of the time I can put together coherent, grammatically correct sentences as well. My teammates, now lifelong friends as a result of playing sports, are also functional – businessmen, grad school students, teachers.
I’ve read that physical, traditionally male contact sports are good for nothing but brain injuries, and warping young minds by teaching them to drink and chase women. It’s important to note these accusations are often written by people who have never stepped foot into a men’s locker room.
But in either case, I must’ve missed those lessons. My coaches, whose mentorship can be put in a class right under my father, skipped beer drinking 101 and intro to getting laid.
Instead, they put young men ages 14-18 in the advanced classes of self-respect, self-worth, ethics, discipline, and perseverance. As a wrestler, they also taught me how to properly diet. Teaching a 16 year old kid to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to exercise, eat vegetables and grilled chicken all day, and then stay after school for hours of practice is an art.
I learned how to grind through the ups and down of a grueling season with my peers. We would lean on each other and formed a camaraderie that matured into lasting friendships I have to this day. My drinking buddies came and went. The kids I grinded it out with through long, cold winter days are still around. The high of victory, the jokes and laughs, the fights we had with each other – we went through it all together, as a team. That is an experience a kid shouldn’t miss.
Let’s also address the elephant in the room that these scathing articles on contact sports fail to address. Their white, upper-middle class centric point of view. For many kids, sports keep them off of the streets and out of trouble. If those authors watched sports, which I am almost certain they do not, they would hear interviews of players who describe how these “games” literally saved their lives. I have seen countless players choked up with tearful eyes as they describe their coaches as their father figure. Many schools don’t have a chess club or golf club, but every school has a football team.
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For sports like football and wrestling (which has the highest rate of concussions of any sport), the recent advancements in medicine and technology for identifying head trauma is a Godsend. These advancements now allow us to change how we teach our children to play contact sports. They give us the knowledge we need to make these sports safer, and they give us the tools to treat concussions more efficiently.
Opponents of contact sports want to use those medical and technological advancements as battle cry to make people afraid of contact sports – essentially restricting the freedom we have. Since when does advancement result in restriction? That is an absurd contradiction fabricated by people who had an agenda against contact sports to begin with. Advancement of any kind, especially in medicine or technology, is supposed to give us more freedom. In this case, the freedom to revolutionize a sport in such a way that it becomes safer and head injuries decrease. Hundreds of thousands of children who want to play sports like football but whose parents are afraid to let them, now have the freedom to do so.
There is a war on masculinity in America of which many people, myself included, have written about extensively. Contact sports like football are the latest arena this is being played out in. “Locker room culture” is a phrase I never heard of until this past year and it’s a clever phrase that is supposed to falsely conjure up imagery of misogyny, racism, and rape culture. The great irony in this is that the field, court, or mat is the one place many of us who actually play sports, male or female, black or white, find refuge from society’s issues.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
I remember talking about my 2 AM walks, which were quite relaxing. I recounted how a friend mentioned that the neighborhood I was in, it was crazy to walk around at 2 AM especially for no reason. I laughed. Pointed out that I kick boxed and said that if someone had a problem with it, it would be his problem not mine. One commentator here had mentioned that she never considered that being confident in your ability to defend yourself was a type of freedom. IMO, I have no issues with people bring up research and explaining the risks of… Read more »
I’ve come to my senses, and I now realize that I did wrong. I could have contributed to this topic, but I blew it. I am sorry and apologize for disrupting Michael’s topic and being antagonistic to him.
There are detractors writing here, so lets cut to the chase and take a look at what “sports culture” actually is, and who these men actually are. Take a moment to give yourself a chance to understand what we are talking about. Watch this video from the New England Patriots (yes, the guys that everyone hates LOL) super bowl 49 win. This is an inside look at what “sports culture”, really is, and what I’ve always known. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdnWmKnUcWg Listen to the coaches, the depth of feeling and love and respect for each other. Most importantly, I want you to watch… Read more »
Scorched-earth detractors of contact sports need to acknowledge the benefits you described as well as the fact that some of these sports have existed for all of recorded human history. To expect people to simply stop is unrealistic at best, and to force the issue is wrong, on many levels. Proponents should be realistic about the dangers. I’m uncertain of which “medical advances” you’re alluding to, since the primary course of treatment for concussion is still rest and inactivity – not so different from what might have been recommended to Greco-Roman wrestlers and pugilists. Body imaging technology such as MRI… Read more »
Dave
Well said !
Outstanding, Michael, an oasis of truth in a desert of deceit. I’ve shared your experiences almost to the letter, and I too am a better man because of it. There is a war on masculinity, of that there is no doubt. It is a guerilla war laced in a fog of “caring”, and male contact sports are the most recent target is all. One has to ask why that? Yes, head trauma is something to be addressed, but is such concern actually concern or opportunity? Men die every day in this country just doing their jobs trying to support their… Read more »
So, any critical evaluation of the culture of school sports is nothing more than evidence of a feminist war on masculinity? (I guess I should get with the program, or I’ll be considered a traitor to my sex.) Should all boys be forced to participate in sports as if sports are the primary standard of masculinity? Were Albert Einstein and Raoul Wallenberg deficient as men because they hated sports when they were boys? (It is to laugh.) There has never been a problem with bullying in mandatory PE classes? The “jock bully” stereotype is just a creation of Hollywood? By… Read more »
“So, any critical evaluation of the culture of school sports is nothing more than evidence of a feminist war on masculinity? ” How you got that from anything that I wrote is beyond me, especially when I stated that CTC IS in need of study. You are doing the liberal thing here sir, talking both sides of the discussion so as to redirected to something that you have a preconceived notion of. Bullying is not, and has nothing to do with sports culture. It has to do with upbringing and there are plenty of bullies that never played a sport.… Read more »
I have never depicted you as defending or excusing bullying. I never thought you did. Far from it. But I will say there is a war against nonathletic boys that has been going on for generations. I’ve seen it all my life, but I’ve never heard anyone acknowlege the reality of its existence. Nonathletic boys have been rejected, ridiculed, denigrated, marginalized, bullied, and even vilified in print. (For example, see The Feminized Male by Patricia Cayo Sexton, who was a sociology professor in New York City. Please read it. It reads like white supremacist and antisemitic hate literature except the… Read more »
Thank you
Speaking as a 66-year-old man who’s been on a bodybuilding program for the sake of my health, I would hope that those who play sports would have respect for those who instead have other interests. That certainly wasn’t true in my school district. Sports-centered mandatory phys ed was often a source of misery for those who weren’t athletically inclined; and there was no concern for the health and wellness needs (i.e., physical fitness) of nonathletic students, especially boys. I suspect this is still true in many school districts today. As far as I’m concerned, there has always been a war… Read more »
A few more comments: I agree with you that sports programs should be retained in the schools for those who need them. But I don’t see a tendency to eliminate sports from the schools, which are just as extremely popular as they’ve always been. If masculinity is defined in terms of athletic prowess, then the logical outcome of such a mindset will be to denigrate nonathletic boys, who sometimes are bullied in school for the supposed offense of not having an interest in sports. I call it bigotry. I might point out there are character traits that sports do not… Read more »
I agree with you Bill. As far as Phys. Ed. classes go they should be abolished! The Phys. Ed. teachers let go and in their place hire personal trainers. Every school has a weight room/training room for their athletic teams. So why not use that for a “Personal Fitness” class for the everyday students. You could have classes on healthy diets and every child could have a workout tailored to his or her’s ability. I see it as a win for the students in general.
Thank you for your supportive reply. I expected to be personally attacked by sports fans. You have a great idea! I ought to know because I’ve been working with a personal trainer on my bodybuilding program for years. I love workout sessions! I leave the fitness studio in a state of complete exhaustion. So, nobody can accuse me of being sedentary. The truth of the matter is that I get more exercise in a single workout session than I ever did in 3 1/2 years of mandatory PE in school. When I took my last class of PE, I was… Read more »
Michael
I disagree with you 100% and actually think you do not see this issue clearly.