I don’t watch football. If upon reading this, you decide to close this post immediately, I won’t be offended. I also wouldn’t be surprised. People in the United States take football seriously. I understand this completely. I have recently had a discussion with members of The Good Men Project discussing the topic.
People have explained for decades now that NFL football is replacing baseball as the American pastime. But football is not a pastime. People are completely engaged within the football community. Dedicated fans gather around the TV offseason just to cheer for the draft pics. Loyal followers read through the sports stats in newspapers like wall street investors follow the Dow Jones. Furthermore, you don’t have to be a jock to pledge your loyalty to the NFL. You can enjoy the power of being a true participant through fantasy football.
As a storyteller, I recognize the importance of ritual and tradition within a community. This is prevalent in the celebration of NFL football and I flippin’ love it! Remember when it used to be church where people would gather together on Sundays and sing and rejoice and together? Now, it’s football! Football isn’t even on Sundays anymore. Over decades, Monday night football became such a huge hit that it blitzed its way into Thursday night, and NFL Sunday got sacked into Saturday! This football frenzie is awesome!
If anything shows how much football has grown in the United States, follow the dollar. The reasons why the NFL has grown past Sundays is because of demand. Restaurants and sports bars find their businesses jam-packed at the first preseason game. Furthermore, are all of these patrons die-hard football fans? No. How many people have you heard say, “I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.” People want to follow the games, but they also want to have a reason to rally together as a community.
Football is family. Because of the state of our nation today, it is probable that our communities are more invested in football than they ever have been. They love the joy, the excitement, and the sense of community. But after President Trump’s recent statements about NFL players taking a knee, that has all changed.
Football was the happy American family. What we are now seeing in our country is that the football family is having a problem. There are players within the football family who are suffering from grief, frustration, and anger. They aren’t refusing to be a part of the family, but they are upset and they want the family to know about it. They have seen injustices within our American families. So, these players are doing something about it. They are saying, “We are not happy. Something needs to be done. We are doing something. We are taking a knee.”
I am a daddy. I call myself The Legendary Daddy. If my family is not happy, and I am the leader of this family, I have some work to do. I have to listen to my children. I have to investigate these injustices. This last Saturday, my 6-year-old son ran to me saying, “Daddy, there’s a kid at the top of the slide, and he won’t let people go down.” My son can handle himself, so I immediately knew that the reason he came to me at this moment is because he needed big daddy’s help.
Legendary daddies don’t sit on their butt. They stand up. I walked over to the slide and saw that there was a line of frustrated toddlers wanting to go down, and a 7-year-old boy was laughing, blocking the top of the slide. When that boy saw me reach the top of the slide, he immediately zoomed down and ran off. The slide was now open. The toddlers were happy. But I wasn’t done yet.
I told my son, “We have to find his mommy or daddy, and I’ll tell them about what he’s doing.” “Okay, daddy,” my son replied. His parent never made themselves visible or engaged within our park community. We only saw his guardian when he called on the boy to leave. My son has an attitude and voice louder than mine, so that 7-year-old boy watched his behavior for the remainder of his time at the park, because that boy knew that if he didn’t, my son would call for daddy.
We are now seeing that invested members of our American football family are upset with American injustice.
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We have invested time, money, love, and attention to our American football family. We are now seeing that invested members of our American football family are upset with American injustice. As a father who understands love for his family, I would sit down with the distressed members of my family. I would listen. I would investigate the injustices, and if I saw that these claims of injustice were true, I would right the wrong. That is how you love your family. You get off your butt and right the wrongs for the ones you love.
Our President of the United States had a different point of view. “You’re fired.” That is his solution. Kick these people out of the family. We’ll find someone else to take your place. Does President Trump understand family, community, and the responsibility of being a father? Yes, I believe he does. But in order to feel the love, attention, and protection of the President, you need only have the name Trump somewhere in your family tree. If not, you are not family. You are expendable. You are not part of his winning team.
I am a daddy. I know that I have to play the tough daddy role once in a while to keep things in line, but I only do that when chaos is ensuing and it is the only option. Are these players causing chaos and promoting division within the family? I don’t believe so. Do they need daddy to get tough with them and threaten to kick them out of the family? No. They need to be heard. They want all members of their football community to know that it is hard to call ourselves a family, when our very own family members are being killed under contentious circumstances and there are no signs of this stopping.
I don’t watch football, but I do know that the football family is beginning to fall apart, and we need to do something about it fast. I saw this happen with Catholicism, when young men and women were reporting that they were abused by priests. The community became divided. Dedicated Christians found no true leadership, where someone stood up and said, “I understand there has been injustice, and I am going to do my best to solve this problem.” No. People simply stopped going to church saying, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t do it for me anymore.” That is an example of a community falling apart. They stepped away because the community no longer filled their hearts with joy. It filled their hearts with disgust.
We know President Trump’s view on this matter. There is no reason to run to him for help. I hope to see true leadership within the NFL and their community. You have been failing on taking responsibility for hearing the cries about CTE within your family. Let’s hope you don’t continue to cover your ears as the nation becomes divided through America’s great sport of football. This is the time when we need true leadership. This is the time we need you to be legendary.