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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