To Bruce Arians: Screw You

I wanted to be polite in the headline, but I won't hold back from using vulgarities in the body of this post.

Let me get the harsh words out of the way first:

Fuck you, Bruce Arians.

Your ignorant comments, made public in a video you did with Peter King for The MMQB, called people who won't their kids play tackle football "fools."

I take offense to being called a "fool" for making a decision related to the long term health and safety of my son.

From the Washington Post article quoted above:

“I think it teaches more values than any other game that you play,” Arians said
“You have things that happen in your life that aren’t going to be good,” the 63-year-old coach added. “If you play football, you know how to handle them. It doesn’t necessarily equate in track and other things.” Other sports, Arians said, “are not as physical, and you don’t grow as a man — or a woman, if you play the game — like you should, in other sports. (Emphasis mine.)
“We have this fear of concussion, that is real,” Arians continued, appearing to choose his words carefully, “but not all of those, I think … statistics can prove anything. We’ve got new helmets coming out, we’ve got safety issues. There are more more concussions in girls’ soccer than in football at that age, the number two sport with concussions is women’s soccer, but no one says we’ve got to stop playing soccer.”

Fair point, I guess. Except...

A 2015 study found that, as soccer has grown in popularity, so have the numbers of concussions among high school players, and that girls suffered concussions at a higher rate than boys. However, an author of the study told CNN, “The rate is certainly much lower than football. Football is more than double that.” 

There go those silly statistics proving things again.

Obviously I take issue with Arians's stance on multiple levels.

Never mind the fact that it holds up some bullshit idea about masculinity and "being a man" being tied to being physical and violent in playing a sport.

Never mind that it seems to disregard the fact that other sports (i.e. hockey) are pretty damn physical, too (and that hockey also might be suffering from a brain trauma problem).

There is plenty of contact in basketball. The level of repetitive, sub-concussive blows to the head is minimal in comparison to football. And it still teaches you how to work in a team, overcome adversity, and grow as an individual.

Plenty of activities and organizations at the youth level can teach you these things.

And while an individual sport like golf or tennis doesn't naturally lend itself to learning about teamwork, you can't tell me that competing in those sports doesn't help you learn how to deal with loss and how to battle back from tough circumstances.

Look, I think I get it. Bruce has been a coach since 1975. He hasn't worked outside of football in that time frame, and I am sure that he is viewing things through the prism with which he is familiar. When something that you love, something that is your life's work is now viewed as dangerous, you feel the need to defend it passionately.

Oftentimes, though, our passionate love for something also blinds us to its harsher realities. The fact of the matter is that the research is continuing to bear out something unseemly and horrifying about what tackle football does to the body and the brain in particular.

Given that it is an evolving situation, I know that I, personally, would rather assess the risk my own way and not put my child in a situation where a ticking time bomb may be started prematurely. Other people can look at the evidence and assess the level of risk that they want to take with their child.

I don't view that as being foolish; I view it as doing what I can as a parent to make sure my son has a (potentially) longer and fulfilled life. I would never denigrate another parent for letting their kid put on pads.

The tactic that the NFL in general, and Arians in particular, is using right now is appalling. Which is why I went harsh in my opening statement. You're not going to shame and bully those of us who want to hold our children out of football into playing the game. You're not going to use the mantle of, "Physicality builds character and manliness" in order to get every child to strap on a helmet and put on pads to run into each other every week in the fall.

That dog don't hunt anymore. I'm sorry.

Not when it's my kid's brain that is on the line.