The Great Equalizer: Part I focuses on a young man who was faced with obstacles he had to overcome to participate in life. Everyone around him was there to support and help grow into a person with a sense of right and wrong, and how to play fair even if the playing field wasn't fair to him. The Bounty situation that has come to light in the NFL goes against everything I believe in when it involves athletics. I hope you will read the The Great Equalizer to give a better perspective of why I feel any attempt to injure another player on purpose should be dealt with severely.
To excuse an act that we know is wrong many times we just say that is just tradition or part of the sport. This is the excuse we get from hockey fans as to why fighting is allowed even though me and my friend settle our differences in that manner we would be carted off to jail.
The NFL recently uncovered a bounty program in New Orleans where player's had incentives to knock another teams player out of the game and they would receive more if a certain player was carted off the field. Not only is this practice barbaric it is unbelievable that these players would participate in a program that called on them to try and injure intentionally a fellow player in the league. Football is a barbaric sport to begin with, and needs no assistance in adding to the injury list. The players involved should be ashamed of themselves and not only because they got caught trying to take away a persons lively hood in such a way. They should be ashamed because of millions of young people idolize them everyday.
NFL players are gifted physically and that is something that should never be taken for granted. I know how it feels to maximize your body, and how it feels when you are limited in how far you can hit, throw, or smash a golf ball. For the players involved to go beyond the sport and feel pride in trying to cart someone off the field by playing a little more dirty than they normally would is an embarrassment to the sport. I think this is a bad a mark on the league, but commissioner Goodell took swift stern action and he is to be commended.
I am waiting for more information to come up before judging if the punishment given to Coach Payton was harsh r not, but for any coach who endorsed this the league should never let them coach again. In fact no college, high school, middle or recreation team should allow any coach that would endorse going beyond the game to injure anyone. Whether or not they ever said play after the whistle or give cheap shots is irrelevant. When you put cash in front of a guy for hurting a player they are going to go a little extra to try and reach that goal.
The commissioner's stance on this should have been how baseball treated steroids, and we could have avoided a era of baseball where every number is tainted and questioned. Commissioner Goodell could have been softer on this, but he chose not too. I hope he continues to look into this and deal with the players who participated in such a disgusting program. Just because some practices are said to be part of the game does not mean they should be.
Please check out Part I and Part II of the "Great Equalizer", as always comments are appreciated.
You can follow us on twitter @MandMsportshow and you can also find Haley on Keepingitheel.com.
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