Playing Football Mark Edmundson Analysis

Thousands of kids across the country play football in some form, from peewee to Jr High to High school. With the dangerous nature of the game, to the constant demands on their time on top of school. What motivates these kids to enjoy a sport where they’re tackled, beat, and roughed up by their peers? What makes parents approve of a sport that can physically injure and hurt their children? Are the benefits really worth the risks? Mark Edmundson’s article “Do sports build character or Damage it? Sums up the benefits he felt he received from playing football. He explains the pros and cons of children who grow up playing football. Firstly, he believes the perseverance it requires to show up for grueling practices as useful later in life. …show more content…
They teach children from an early age that violent behavior is acceptable. Football games are playing at violence, so that actual violence does not take place. It’s a controlled environment where children can tackle, and slam into each other and get up and walk off the field in one piece. In theory giving kids, this constructive outlet is beneficial and keeps them from being so violent off the field. That is not the case though; football is usually the most violent sport high schools offer. That much violence and adrenaline don’t adhere to Monday through Thursday practices and Friday night games. It spills over into off the field activities and most often ends up with children bullying other children. Bullying follows power (Paul Coughlin, Why Football is the Source of so Much Bullying) and there is no greater power than that of forty or fifty kids pumped up on testosterone and adrenaline ramming into each other on a football field. On the field these athletes feel strong, empowered, and with that come approval, status and privileges. They can do what they want on the field so long as they win the game. Very few coaches will willingly kick their winning quarterback off the team for some off field bullying or other misconduct. This not only teaches that kid that he can get away with misbehaving as long as he delivers on the field, but it teaches the other kids that they can get away with sometimes …show more content…
Fitzpatrick is an economics major from Harvard and Young has a law degree and regularly speaks for political functions and ESPN. Fitzpatrick and Young are what football is supposed to be about. They are like Hector, compassionate, and controlled and turned off from being the football player. They are well-rounded individuals who see more to their lives than just the brutality of a football field. If all of football’s professional athletes were like this, then it would be a sport of the honor and positive outcomes that Edmundson wants to believe. As it stands, we have people who have been treated like heroes for so long- they think they are special because people like their coaches, and people like their fans, have shown them they are special. (Doyle,