Malcolm Gladwell puts the responsibility right where it belongs:Slate: Should the NFL be banned too?
Gladwell: As long as the risks are explicit, the players warned, and those injured properly compensated, then I’m not sure we can stop people from playing. A better question is whether it is ethical to WATCH football. That’s a harder question.
I’m not so sure that it’s hard at all. The answer, at least for those displeased with pro football’s response, seems pretty clear. Doing the damn thing is the hard part.
I now know that I have to go. I have known it for a while now. But I have yet to walk away. For me, the hardest portion is living apart–destroying something that binds me to friends and family. With people whom I would not pass another words, I can debate the greatest running back of all time. It’s like losing a language.
Junior Seau Is Dead - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Entertainment - The Atlantic. TNC brings his usual incisiveness and moral clarity to the table. I’m right where he is: I cannot justify watching football. Not with what I know now. Yet it has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember — and when you’re from Alabama, as I am, and a graduate of the University of Alabama, as I am… .
I was talking with two other Alabamians the other day and we agreed that we all remember exactly where we were when Bear Bryant died. One said, “I was at college. My father called to tell me, and I cried.” For better or worse, it’s part of our formation as people, and a major bond of families and friendships. But TNC’s right: it’s time to say goodbye to it.