Monday, November 11, 2013

There are better ways to "toughen up" a football player than using childish methods



I was listening to Doug Gottlieb’s CBS Sports radio show today, and he was talking to an Arizona Cardinals football player about hazing. The player didn't think it was so bad, calling it part of the "maturation" process and to "toughen" you up. I beg to differ; this is just an attitude of acceptance of something that is allegedly acceptable behavior. Hazing has nothing to do with either. The point of "hazing" seems to be to allow grown men to act out the bully in themselves and have "fun" belittling and humiliating people with insipid acts. In the NFL, the "point" is to make a young player "know his place." To "toughen up" in this context can only mean the target becoming infused with a desire to humiliate and belittle someone else, preferably an opponent; but it has nothing to do with "character building." When it's over you haven't learned anything except to be glad you "survived" it and don't have to go through it again.

Why is "hazing" even necessary to "toughen up" a young player, or "know his place"? Whatever happened to "practice," or being humiliated on the field by an opponent and not wanting that to happen again? How being "humiliated" by being taken out of the game, forcing a player to realize he has to "toughen up" to get back in? How about the threat of being cut if you don't "shape up?" If this isn't sufficient to "toughen up" a player of average skill to raise his play to another level, then maybe he shouldn't be in the league. But an intelligent, skilled player really doesn't need to "toughen up"--at least not in the way it is defined by the less skilled players who want to "teach" a teammate to "respect" them, when in fact they are probably doing the opposite.

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