Are you Ready for Some Wife-Beating?
categories: Cocktail Hour
6 comments
In the mad swirl of the NFL, it has been good to finally hear the voice of reason. That was of course Reggie Bush, who assured reporters that while he beats (“disciplines”) his one-year old, he tries not to leave bruises. Wait a second. Did he just “one-year old”? Is he really saying he beats his baby? Holy Shit.
Here is the video of Bush.
Meanwhile check out Steve Almond’s book Against Football: A Reluctant Manifesto.
My father was a Patriots season ticket holder and took me to Schaefer Stadium as a kid to watch Jim Plunkett and Randy Vataha. Doubt I will give up the Pats any time soon. But this bullshit right now is pushing me away, and the moralizing about the bullshit (by the likes of Ray Lewis) is almost worse than the bullshit itself.
Maybe it’s time we celebrate a more civilized but equally exciting sport. Ultimate Frisbee, anyone?
Awful, I know, and hard for diehard fans like me. I read Almond’s book and liked it, but here’s the thing: There are wifebeaters and child abusers and all manner of dreck in every single profession: teachers, doctors, heating installers, IT technicians, endless, endless. Thousands of men (players, coaches, scouts, etc.) are in the NFL, and most of them are decent people, I presume. Football is a beautiful, exciting, interesting game, and I’m not boycotting it because of a few awful people like Lewis, Hernandez, and Reverend Ray the Murderer.
You had me at “awful” and I was shouting amen by Reverend Ray. I agree almost completely. But one thing they CAN do is stop letting the seedy characters (see Rev Ray) into the announcer’s booths.
I’m with you, Monica… Let’s root the scum out of all walks, but let’s not give up on whole professions… Except heating installers.
And these are just the guys we’re hearing about. Sorry, but beating your baby, knocking out your wife, torturing dogs, etc., etc.? The whole NFL should be suspended–from management to players–and sent to a reeducation camp.
I think in the spirit of our outrage we should boycott writers, some of whom have done terrible things!
Yes you should be outraged, I could tell you a soccer story but wont do it online. The whole culture has this underbelly. Now the issue is alcohol and sexual harassment in the college environment. and by the way why dont you look into the art department and others. Football is way out of control, but then many who are brought into it have grown up in the poverty jungle we have created, Bigotry, economic slavery, misogyny are all rampant in the sports, including wildly Lacrosse, Rugby, Tennis for God sake look at those men, and no women, Its not just football, mixed martial arts, Nascar, and how about basketball , look into some of the horrifying situations there. Lets be fair, its the culture of violence and music is at the top celebrating domestic violence, Football is out of control, the helmets were not designed correctly, the old leather helmets kept people from spearing and crashing into each other for the violent sound of car crashes. its a blood thirsty culture, crude and arrogant. We see it everywhere. guns killing children, and foul language, some of that was held at bay in the NFL twenty years ago. you had to be a solid citizen and contribute then MONEY the GOD in this culture was more important than sportsman ship. WINNING WAS EVERYTHING> So lets be honest and fair. there is a lot of work to do in this culture. Kids are brats, they are rude often in public to older people. OK? I am not for anything the NFL has become at all, but the game has possiblity to be a very fascinating test of physical and intelllectual prowess? IT just got lost in the culture and How about contemporary Art, now porno and chaos, like crude addiction to violence? Where are we, Dorothy we are not in Kansas anymore?