Train Up A Child

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 KJV

    A few weeks ago I got an email from a friend of mine. He lives and farms in a small town in North Dakota. He wrote about harvest beginning, crop prices and vacations taken over the summer. He wrote about his daughters who play in sports programs at their school.

   He also wrote about reporting a member of the high school football team who was using chewing tobacco. This is against the team rules and the player received a suspension. The player involved is as a lineman and a good player. My friend wrote that he had received angry emails and a lot of flack. he usually goes to the football games to help the the sideline chains. He did not go that week. (Maybe he is still staying away. I don't know.)

   One of the things my friend wrote is that he is being considered the bad guy. That really struck me. my friend, who reported a player who was breaking the rules is the bad guy. No blame for the player who was breaking the rule. The player is not a fault. He is a victim. If he hadn't been reported, then he would be playing. Am I the only person who sees that as screwed up?

   Don't tell me that the player didn't know he wasn't supposed to chew tobacco. I'm certain that student-athletes are told what the rules are and the penalties for breaking those rules. I also don't accept that the player shouldn't be expected to follow the rules. If he is out on the field playing, he plays by the rules. I'm sure he is careful about that because he doesn't want to be the cause of a penalty that eventually causes his team to lose. I also do not accept that it is a senseless or stupid rule. The American Cancer Society says that chewing tobacco can cause mouth, cheek, gum, esophageal and pancreatic cancers. It also causes tooth loss, gum disease heart disease and increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

  Well, none of this will happen to him yet. He's just a kid. Yes, but tobacco is very addictive. Ask someone who has tried to quit smoking for several years. It's better that a young person doesn't start using it.

   We have all seen instances of athletes acting badly. They run the gamut from offensive language to poor sportsman (or sportswoman)ship to outright illegal acts. Some people may say that this is just the way it is. It's competition. It's no big deal. It's part of the show.

   To me, it is a big deal. I'm guessing it is also a big deal to the person who has been injured in some form or fashion by a pro athlete behaving badly.

  I believe that if you want to get to the bottom of a problem you need to start at the beginning. If you want to know how an athlete blossoms into someone who assaults people, uses banned substances and behaves badly when given a penalty, go to the beginning. How were they handled in high school?

  It's no secret that high school sports especially football are a revenue source. Obviously, teams that play well will have more fans which means more ticket sales which means more money. It's in everyone's best interest to keep the good players on the field despite bad grades or bad behavior. Right?

  Well... except for that little problem of training a child up etc.. A high school player accustomed to having rule breaking and bad behavior overlooked can become a college player who expects the same treatment. Since the money stakes in college are higher than in high school, there is still the same pressure to keep a good or great player on the field at any cost. After all, he has a shot at the NFL and if he's on the bench he may not get that chance. 

  Then you wind up with players involved in gunfights at nightclubs, sexual and domestic assault and players who attack opposing players and officials. Players who behave badly enough that their careers are imperiled or ended sooner than they would be if they had not behaved so badly.

  Actually, I think this is a much wider problem than athletes acting badly. There are a lot of people who believe that they can do whatever they want whenever they want and the rules do not apply to them.  Rules are stupid anyway.

   I feel that it is a lack of following rules, written and especially unwritten that have turned us into the fractured mess of society we are today. Yes, rules can be restrictive and a pain. Some of them are unjust and should be changed.

  But are we better off without them????