Posted on 01/29/2020 4:31:57 PM PST by Morgana
If you are encouraging your children to watch football, you may be a "crappy" parent. Football exposes players to the risk of brain damage, and the pro game discriminates against Colin Kaepernick and African American coaches. As a parent who subjects children to football's flaws, you may be a co-conspirator to their hedonism, cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy, alleges Time magazine senior writer Sean Gregory. His story, "Is it Unethical to Watch Football With Your Kids?" will appear in Time's February issue.
He begins:
As another super bowl approaches, I keep thinking about a clear September afternoon at MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants, and wondering if Im a crappy dad.
Gregory beats himself up throughout his tortured account of football's evils, but ― spoiler alert ― he takes his young son Will to New York Giants games and watches the sport he crucifies:
"But should I be O.K. with his watching the game? Dont his (Will's) eyeballs help support an enterprise that we know can damage [see image of NFL player carted off field above] its participants? This is on top of the laundry list of other reasons to tune out, like the stain of disturbing NFL domestic-violence incidents. Or the apparent blacklisting of a player, Colin Kaepernick, for a peaceful act of protest. Or a sudden dearth of African-American head coaches: three now, as opposed to seven in 2018. Around 60% of the NFLs players are black. There are no African-American majority owners."
Parents who subject their kids to football do so in age without innocence, he says. A 2017 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed 110 of 111 brains of former NFL players showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Several high-profile former players with the disease committed suicide. Some current players have retired young, including Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly, just 28.
Some 100 million fans will watch Kansas City and San Francisco battle it out in the next Super Bowl, "in what may be Americas foremost annual display of mass hypocrisy," Gregory claims. "... As a sportswriter whos relished the opportunity to park myself in multiple Super Bowl press boxes, Im even more compromised. Not only have I introduced my son to a problematic game, writing about it is part of my job."
Jim Taylor, a California psychologist specializing in sports and parenting, shares Gregory's contempt for football. "By watching football, 'youre gaining enjoyment from other peoples suffering,' he says. 'Theres no doubt about that.' We house conflicting thoughts in our brain: Football is dangerous; we love football. To ease this inherent conflict, we can either quit football coldor at least cut back on consumptionor talk ourselves into minimizing its risks. ..."
Taylor says we are hedonistic beings who choose the path that gives us "the utmost pleasure. Not only am I a co-conspirator, now Im making my kids a co-conspirator. ... "
Michael Bennett McNulty, a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota and a former fan who's tuned out football, says viewers of the game are complicit in its physical toll on players. Without all the individuals supporting the sport, the harms wouldnt happen. Saying one is complicit is right and justified.
Gregory and his son agree theres a lot to dislike about football, but "theres still so much I love. So even as I feel some guilt about what Im watching, I continue to tune in week after week, often with my impressionable teenage boy by my side. Abandoning the game would not just alter his fall Sunday routine but cause parental resentment my heart couldnt bear." Football may bring them joy, but it's not unadulterated, he writes.
No wonder the conflicted Gregory says he feels like a hypocrite.
Watch Ice Hockey. Watch the Iditarod. Watch anything but the NFL.
If you let your children read Time magazine you’re a crappy parent.
I second the motion.
I agree with Time but probably not for the same reasons.
Hmmm. Crappy parents who let grrrrrrrreta* condition their kiddies?
*NOT a TM issue. Yet.
But if your boy wants to become a girl, that’s cool.
A society of neurotics. This guy has too much time on his hands. Take the kid out in the backyard or garage and build something.
Is it Time magazine that has Kobe Bryant on the cover this week?
Staffed by drug addicts and rehabbed drug addicts, all with the usual brain burn-out symptoms and CPUSA affiliations...
Football isn’t nearly as dangerous as they are pretending. This is a farce based on money and the SJW effort to destroy everything masculine and American.
The NFL is social engineering. Neither Time nor the NFL are what they were in 1975. Agreeing with Time for the wrong reasons. Everyone enjoy the tranny TV commercial coming up in the Super Bowl (pro life commercial was unacceptable). I can hardly wait. So brave.
die nfl DIE!!!
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Because boys should be doing comparative studies on lube and trying on their sister’s clothes instead, according to time?
This soi boy is one of those so-called 'men'.
Hear...hear!
Oooo, liberal Time is for boycotting the liberal NFL. I love it. BTW, probably boycotting the Satan Bowl myself for their rejection of the pro-life ad in favor of the trans-freak ad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.