Our Fumbling Legal Code: Is Football a "Sport"?

Somebody has dropped the ball.

What's wrong with this quote, "Here, you had better put these pads on because I -- and my very big friends --are about to beat the stuffing out of you, and dive on you, for money."? Is this -- if carried out -- criminal behavior?

The answer to the question above, of course, will depend on the legal code one uses to define "crime." The law of the Lord would surely forbid it. Ordinarily, actions taken on the part of one person which deliberately put another person in harm's way will be construed as at the least an act of "reckless endangerment," if not "assault with intent to do bodily harm."

The definition for "reckless endangerment" offered at lawyers.com reads this way:

"the offense of recklessly engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury or death to another person. Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor but sometimes rises to a felony, as when a deadly weapon is involved."

I can hear the consenting adults argument coming a mile away, or in legal terms, a "civil [i.e. tort] assault" (Pardon me, while I pound on this fellow). This will do no good, since the U.S. outlaws all kinds of actions between consenting adults, including insurance fraud (I take out a sizeable policy from you, and I burn down my house, and we split the insurance money), dueling with pistols at dawn (this was considered socially acceptable in the early 1800's so long as both parties agreed), polygamy, and a host of other assorted mutually-contracted crimes.

The fact that our society cherry-picks some kinds of assault with intent to do bodily harm as "okay" (so long as you do it wearing the right jersey), and not others merely highlights the self-contradictory (hypocritical) nature of the legal code at present.

But do the actions of football players create a substantial risk to other plays in the playing of the game? In professional football athletes are paid to "do whatever it takes" to stop a man from advancing the football, sometimes even violating the rules of the game in order to prevent a loss. So not only is the game violent in the nature of the case, but it rewards, even requires and encourages, violence likely to injure another party. This happens all the time.

Knee injuries are extremely common, as are back and neck injuries, the latter of which has killed several players on the field over the years. This is a deadly sport because it is a professional sport. The money paid to athletes to "stop that man" increases the likelihood of severe injuries exponentially. Those who recall Jack Tatum's paralyzing of Darryl Stingley (who never recovered and never walked again) may also recall that not only was Tatum not charged with any crime for this incredibly vicious assault, but the referee didn't even call a foul on the play. Tatum walked. Stingley didn't.

Only a kind of blind socialization could possibly prevent our noticing that this is not a sport, but a crime in progress called a sport. The Bible says "It is a sport to fools to do mischief." Accidental injuries happen in any sport, but there is an important difference here.

**Professional** football players are encouraged to "hit 'em as hard as you can." College players face the same pressure to perform. High school football is not much different. What makes this doubly wicked is this: The pros celebrate this violence on the Lord's Day -- Sunday, where sins carry a double aggravation, because God has set this day apart from the others as holy, to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

It goes without saying that boxing remains of like manner for its deliberate (paid) violence inflicted on others for personal profit. This is no different than the Roman gladiator games, except that the damage is usually -- though not always -- less severe. Death is not intended as a consequence of the game, but it does happen from time to time as a direct result of the injuries inflicted.

Countless others have been paralyzed, killed or severely injured playing a sport. Chris Canales' example is instructive, which mentions 12 high school football players paralyzed since 2003.

See short article http://www.cbc.ca/cp/football/070911/f091116A.html

The following list offers a shorter version of those killed in the NFL (and other football leagues) as a result of injuries due directly or indirectly to playing the "sport." In a recent interview I heard, John Madden refered to it (American football) as "a very violent sport." Statistics confirm Madden's warning.

Here are a few of the fatalaties who died for "entertainment."

- Howard Glenn, New York Titans, offensive tackle, neck injury
- Stone Johnson, NFL football, fractured vertebra in his neck
- Chucky Mullins, University of Mississippi, complications from a spinal cord injury suffered in an on-field collision
- Curtis Williams, University of Washington, complications from a spinal cord injury suffered in an on-field collision

Recently, a 25 year-old tight end for the Buffalo Bills, Kevin Everett, "sustained a 'catastrophic' and life-threatening spinal-cord injury and his chances of regaining a full range of body motion are very small, an orthopedic surgeon said Monday."

See the Everett account? http://www.realgmfootball.com/src_wiretap_archives/5728/20070910/paralysis_likely_for_everett/

The Bible would (more consistently) simply outlaw any actions taken to deliberately put others at risk, or which one could have taken precautions to help prevent (i.e. you must fence off swimming pools where infants live nearby, etc).

Isaiah 58:3-5 has God calling violence on the Lord's Day (the Christian Sabbath) "wickedness" -

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

On no day should Christians (or anyone else) find violence-for-hire entertaining. And those who with wicked fists, or shoulders, or what have you, deliberately inflict injury should have to repay "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life," or else as the victim (or victim's next of kin) shall accept a payment in lieu thereof -- as the victim and judge determine. The Word of God accepts pecuniary commutation (a ransom paid to the victim instead of retaliatory injury of like kind inflicted on the perpetrator) of sentence in the case of noncapital offenses.

The fact rebuts the jab that "if everyone took eye for eye the whole world would go blind." in other words, "eye-for-eye" can also take the form of "$50,000 for eye," unless the victim declines the offer. And, for the record, the whole world is blind. Or they would not call football or boxing "a sport." And by way of counter-jab at the violence of pagan "sports," we can note the tongue in cheek report,

"Last week I went to a boxing match, and it got so bad a hockey game broke out." For those unfamiliar with hockey, this is basically football on the ice, only the frozen "football" moves really fast, and can do twice the damage (since not only body checks, but the puck itself can bring calamity -- and has on numerous occasions).

Many states in the U.S. have outlawed the death penalty, either in principle or simply by default (they no longer or rarely impose it) for its alleged "barbaric" character. But these same people will pay to go watch (subsidize) people beat the crud out of each other and hope no one dies in the course of it. Sometimes they do, and usually they just break an ankle or crush a knee. But man the pile drives, "helicopters," left hooks and body checks are spectacular. Go team. I mean the medical team.

Look on bright side -- sports medicine and therapy is booming. Scottish adults consenting to a good old-fashioned brawl at the local pub will, of course, continue to do time for their classless tackles, and ill-timed swings. These guys aren't pros, so off to jail they go. The charge? Assault with intent to play football badly, and battery without a helmet.

But if people simply did what the Bible says and dropped the violence altogether, calling it what it really is, then what would we do to fill up all that empty time slots on Sundays?

Now THAT is a puzzler.