Why I Won't Be Watching Football At Christmas

Glenn A. Griffis -- I am thankful for that my parents put little value in their children's athletic development. I, too, am glad that while my wife and I put a greater emphasis on our children's athletic development than my parents did, it was never a priority in our children's lives. Yet all my life I have been told by educators and parenting experts that, "Athletics build character." Does it? Does our cultural experience with athletics support that premise? I submit that once people start getting serious about athletics, usually in High School, that there is no necessary connection between character development and athletics. As a matter of fact, I believe most athletic departments are motivated by popular social trends rather than by virtue. What athletics supports is people who conform to the popular social opinion. These thoughts in no way seek to disparage, athletes or athletics. I enjoy watching a good game or playing a good game as much as anybody, and I recognize that like anything else it takes discipline, hard work skill to play a sport. Being a successful athlete also requires the ability to work in a group and to participate in a team. It is a legitimate field of work that I in no way seek to harm, but what I disagree with is the concept that team sports builds character and virtue any more than does finance or engineering. There is no connection between hard work, discipline character development and athletic success.

It takes hard work and discipline to succeed at anything -- engineering, accounting, ministry, marriage, parenting business, gaming, art, music. Yet all of these vocations have there share of magnanimous participants and nefarious ones. Character has nothing to do with what you do, it has to do with who you are and the values upon which your life is built. Yet the sports industry beginning from high school has built an institution on a false premise-- that sports build character, and that athletes because of their athletic prowess are somehow role models.

Character has nothing to do with what you do, it has to do with who you are and the values upon which your life is built. Yet the sports industry beginning from High School has built an institution on a false premise-- that sports build character, and that athletes because of their athletic prowess are somehow role models. 

So it is fair to ask whether those of us who support these institutions -- through school taxes, local sports and entertainment taxes, subsidies for stadiums-- are recouping our investment. Recent developments in the sports world have caused me to ask is it time to end tax supported organized sports?

President Trump's recent negotiation for the release of three UCLA basketball players show that many athletes in tax supported athletics are hedonistic with little sense of virtue. The sports environment creates a sense of hubris. I argue that what happened with these three athletes is unexceptional in American sports. During a recent trip to the Philippines President Trump learned that three UCLA athletes were in custody in China for shop lifting, and negotiated their release from China. Upon their release the athletes offered no statement of thanks to Trump or the State Department for intervening, and in fact, complained that Trump did not pick them up in Air Force one and return them to the U.S. In other words, they thought they were deserving of Trump's attention and efforts. After the students returned to the United States they read public statements of thanks and appreciation to Trump. The statements were remarkably similar in language and form, frankly, they made me wonder if someone had written the statements for them and had required them to read them. From my perspective they seemed disingenuous. Unfortunately, my suspicion was confirmed when Liangelo Ball admitted that he had been compelled to read the statement. There meaculpa was nothing more than a PR stunt.

It became clear that the athletic athletic culture in which these young men lived created an entitlement mentality that was both narcissistic and nihilistic. Lavar Ball, a sports commentator and Liangelo Ball's father, summed up the attitude that we so often see in sports. He said he owed no thanks to Trump and that his son's “bad decision,” to shoplift was not “a big deal.” Ball stated that ghetto kids had done much worse. Of course, Liangelo was no ghetto kid. He had grown up in the home of a well paid respected sports commentator so the comparison was specious. The father clearly excused his son's behavior because he was a black athlete. Far from building his character the athletic environment at UCLA was rewarding his moral bankruptcy. His father blatantly stated that there were many worse things his son could have done. This example of narcissistic dis-ingenuity is incipient to the modern sports environment, and that one of the things that enables this culture to thrive is the huge amount of taxes spent on sports.

My own experience in junior high and middle school was far from unique. I am not alone in saying junior high and high school were the most difficult years of my life. One of the contributing factors was that in most public junior high and high school students who are nonathletic are social pariah's. This in no way diminishes my own role in my pariah status. Yes, I was awkward, physically and socially. Yes, I not only did not fit in, I made no effort to fit in, and in some ways was a spoiled brat. This post is in no may meant to complain about my treatment. Yet I would argue that the culture of secondary education is difficult for most people, because those who cannot fit into the sports mold find very little support and help to overcome their deficiencies.

The elevation of excellent athletes to hero status has caused a focus on image rather than that substance leading to entitlement mentalities more than it does virtuosity. To me the events surrounding the three UCLA players return from a Chinese jail, are representative of what we see in high school and college sports. Instead of athletes being expected to apply their discipline and hard work to their life off the field, their peccadilloes are excused and even supported. Very few sports leagues are driven by a responsibility to serve the country, the school, or the community. Yet the community is repeatedly asked to to accommodate their every whim and compensate for their failures even to excuse their excesses for the sake of team. I would further submit that football in particular is vacant of virtue.

Like so many other things football has been politicized by government money. The Minnesota Vikings will be playing next year in a stadium that will costs state and local taxpayers $678 million dollars. This in a state that has a 1.1 billion dollar government deficit. The team will pay $13 million dollars a year to use the stadium but will recoup that plus profit from parking, food, luxury boxes, naming rights and more. The team is worth $800 million and its owner has a net worth of 374 million dollars. Why should taxpayers pay for this? What do they get for it? This scenario is repeated in city after city, and professional football is only part of the story. Last year Rutgers's University, hardly a major football school, received a $29 million grant from the from the state. Multiply that by all of the university football programs and a lot of heath care could be funded with the money. The defense budget could be funded. It doesn't stop there. Excessive government spending on sports goes as far down as High School. Last year the state of Texas spent $60 million dollars to build a high school football stadium in Allen. The United States government spends several dollars more per high school football player than it does to support any student in a math program. When you compare the US educational out comes with countries where athletics are funded equally to classroom costs, or less than classroom costs, or lack public funding all together, they are far superior in the educational quality of the students.

When you compare the US educational out comes with countries where athletics are funded equally to classroom costs, or less than classroom skills, or lack public funding all together, they are far superior in the educational quality of the students.

What do we get for tax dollars spent on sports?. We get sports officials who advocate and promote an entitlement mentality. Star players are elevated as heroes or role model regardless of their lives. 

Nearly two years ago while a football star at FSU now Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of rape. The University circled the wagons around Winston to protect their star's reputation. The Tallahassee media and FSU alumni association paid for his defense and continually maligned and insulted his accuser until she settled out of court. Now that Winston is an NFL quarterback he has sued his accuser. She agreed to an out of court settlement, but is participating in a documentary about how college football contributes to the rape culture on campus. (Good for her.) Of course only the two people involved know the truth and either Mr. Winston or the woman is lying, but Winston and FSU have a lot more to lose from the rape accusation than does the woman, and there is no doubt that team protected their star player. 

So football players whether they be high school, college or pro come on the field to among other things protect the institutions that supports it. For many in the NFL and the sports networks that cover it, football players are rewarded for advocating a statist, progressive, hedonistic or nihilistic lifestyle. Is this not what Colin Kapernik's protest is about? It is about the supposed white supremacy and privilege and injustice in our society, especially seen in recent shootings of African American men by police officers. The institution of football has become a vehicle for a liberal social agenda. Players who kneel before the flag and the anthem to make a statement, based an entirely false premise, supposedly point are bringing attention to injustice in the United States. They have turned the games into venues for political discussion. It is for this reason that I won't be watching football this Christmas, and for which Samson's Jawbone is calling for the defunding of extra-curricular, intramural school and professional sports.  (Can you name any other extra-curricular or intramural activity that receives so much tax support? How much money does the drama club get?)

For high schools, other than basic wooden or concrete bleachers, not one penny of tax payer money should go into extra-curricular sports programs. While some would argue that this would disadvantage minority students. I believe tax dollars spent on sports in minority areas is a red herring. While many minority students dream of a sports career to get them out of poverty, an infinitesimally small percentage will ever realize that dream. It is a false hope.

While many minority students dream of a sports career to get them out of poverty, an infinitesimally small percentage will ever realize that dream. It is a false hope.

If tax payer dollars were spent on Science, Chemistry, Math, or vocational training that were spent on Football a much higher number of poor students would find the American dream. Let the extra-curricular and intramural sports be supported by fees for players and by local boosters. Colleges and Universities football should be supported by students, family and alumni and booster contributions. Professional football should get their revenue from tickets, sales, television advertising and contracts. Their teams should compete for talent in the free market like every other business. 

When football players are allowed to demean and disrespect the American flag, and anthem, and insult their audience to the extent that the game suffers enormous losses, it's time to do something. When football players representing the United States of America commit crimes in other countries with no remorse and only disingenuous apologies the mendacity of the sports culture becomes evident. And like so many other areas of life, government funding exempts the individual from responsibility for their actions and corrupts the environment. Far from building character organized sport has become perfidious. It's time to take politics out of the sport, and the only way that will happen is if we cut off the tax dollars from the sports. The only way to put character and virtue back into sports is to get politics out of it. The best way to get politics out is to cut the flow of government money. It is time to defund tax supported football and other sports programs immediately.

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