One Painful Moral Decision

 Last month, a book with boring cover but an inspiring story called Against Football—One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto was published by Melville Press. The writer, a man named Steve Almond who, though he adores football, considers the facts and makes a painful decision: to quit following it.

Almond describes his love for the complexity and sophistication of the game, but acknowledges its overt racism—most players are black; most viewers white—violence, taxpayer rip-offs, and basic dishonesty: the NFL is a non-profit like the Red Cross, Cancer Society, ballet or symphony!

No matter what scandal football generates—players beating their wives in public, raping co-eds in private, pay-offs, dog fighting, concussions, high school footballers sexually abusing younger players, or college ones getting grades they don’t earn—Americans keep watching.

About all Almond doesn’t see is how American football looks from outside the U.S. Around the world football confirms our status as a brutally violent nation. It may be only a game, yet it defines us in foreign eyes. Even women are fans.

 The final assessment that forces Almond’s decision is that football is immoral. Wow! Then why don’t religions speak out against it? Well, religions have far more in common with corporations: building churches, schools, and most of all, donation bases.

I don’t care what the Supreme Court says; it takes a person to make a moral decision. There are moral people in religions, but the reaction to clergy abuse here and abroad is abundant proof a corporation will do what is in its best interest.

As of a gesture respect to a genuine Critical Eye, I am donating my copy of Almond’s remarkable book to the Cascade Public library, so anyone can witness a moral person making a painful, moral decision.