How Much is Too Much? In an NFL playoff game in 2007, I witnessed something that is etched in my mind as one of the most violent tackles in recent football memory. New Orleans running back Reggie Bush was stopped dead in his tracks by Eagles safety Brian Dawkins. Bush was hit so hard that he literally had to crawl off the field and was diagnosed with a concussion from the violent thud of his head to the earth. In any athletic event that one may watch, the threat of serious injury or even death is a very real possibility. Obviously, the object of the game is not to murder the opponent, but to those such as Welsh boxer Johnny Owen, this tragedy has happened. To the spectator, witnessing a sprained ankle or broken hand is part of the game; life changing injuries or death are not. The crowd wants to be entertained and hard hits and knockdowns provide that thrill. Severe injuries should never be applauded, but they can be at times when the crowd becomes too rambunctious. Spectators fail to realize that these athletes are not robots or super-humans, but human beings. As a society, we must acknowledge where to draw the line in regards to advocating violence in sports, and possess the self-control and discipline to discern excitement and inappropriateness. In recent years, physical injury caused by contact sports has been shed in a light portraying such sports as potentially life-shortening or brain damaging. The NFL Players Association has filed lawsuits against the NFL for not properly addressing head injuries in the past or warning about brain issues the sport may cause. Even though these suits brought attention to the possible brain damage one may face, it falls way short of actually dealing with players who have such injuries. In Hugh McIlvanney’s essay, he even argues that we haven’t the slightest clue about the extent to which the brain cells of these athletes are affected, but from constantly having the brain clash with the skull; one could assume that the tissue in the brain isn’t functioning correctly. A more recent example of how contact sports injure the brain is the story of former Patriots linebacker Junior Seau’s suicide. After his passing, Seau was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease that doctors still don’t completely understand. Obviously, twenty NFL seasons of high contact play are enough to perform serious damage to the brain and cause depression, which is what made Seau pick up a gun in May of last year. So, why do we, as a society condone this extreme violence? Quite simply it is because we love the excitement of a hard hit or an in-game fight. We also succumb to what is known in psychology as deindividuation, one’s loss of self-awareness in a group. For the most part, we aren’t thinking of the athletes as people with lives outside of sports, we see them as gladiators or robots fighting for our enjoyment. We see a concussion as just an injury and wait to hear how long until the player is ready to play again, rather than seeing the life altering effects of a concussion. Evidence of this is shown by the Kansas City Chief’s fans in October of last year. After suffering a concussion in a game, Matt Cassel’s injury was actually cheered for by the fans because he hadn’t performed to their standards. After the game, Cassel’s teammate criticized the fans by insisting that fans can, “Boo him all you want… Say whatever you want. But if you are one of those people… I just want to let you know… that I think it’s sickening and disgusting. We are not gladiators and this is not the Roman Coliseum. This is a game.” Clearly he does have a point. In seeing such high contact sports, we as fans do get too carried away and cheer inappropriately or behave poorly. While writing about Johnny Owen’s death, George Will highlights spectators’ poor behavior in saying that Owen’s mangled body was carried, “under a hail of beer cups, some… filled with urine.” Outside of cheering inappropriately or dehumanizing athletes, fans have even resorted to violence with players via deindividuation. In 2004, the Detroit Pistons’ fans and the Indiana Pacers players engaged in one of the worst fights in basketball history. How did it all start? After tensions were cooling down from a foul that began a brief skirmish, a senseless fan threw a beer cup at Ron Artest which caused him and other Pacers to storm the stands throwing punches. No, Artest shouldn’t have reacted so impulsively, but the fan who started what became known as the ‘Malice in the Palace’ is a prime example of fans going too far and treating athletes without dignity. As a society, we need to wake up to showing sensitivity in such athletic events and behave in a civilized fashion. Norman Cousin’s statement that fans want to see a man hurt is, for the most part, just simply not true. Fans should never root for injury or begin brawls with players, but the adrenaline of sports makes us lose our self-control sometimes. I am not an advocate for completely abandoning contact sports because they are part of society, but what needs to be done is for spectators to be able to separate enthusiasm and inappropriateness. Moreover, in order to prevent tragedies such as Johnny Owen’s, precautions must be taken and player safety must be of paramount importance. We must realize that athletes are not warriors on a battlefield, but human beings and should be shown a sense of dignity while performing.

Works Cited
Gantt, Darin. “Eric Winston Rips Chiefs Fans for Cheering Cassel Injury.” NBC Sports. 7
October 2012. Web. 3 April 2013.
Lange, Larry. “Pacers-Pistons Game Halted by Brawl.” USA Today. 20 November 2004.
Web. 3 April 2013.
Wilner, Barry. “Researchers: Junior Seau Had Brain Disease.” Boston Globe. 10 January 2013.
Web. 11 April 2013.