My High School "mascot" was "the gladiator." Roman-era busts adorned banners as our Football team went off to battle. I don't think it was a wise choice for a school emblem and was thankful when years later it was changed.
I thought about 'gladiator mentality' the other day when I heard how a stadium of fans cheered the injury to one of its own players because they wanted him yanked from the game. Isn't that what Romans did when Gladiators faced lions in order to try to win their freedom? People would cheer when they were injured, gored or killed. Is that the kind of entertainment we want nowadays? Is that what our culture has progressed to? Cheering when a player gets injured?
Football is dangerous enough as it is. I played in High School just as most of my friends did. I enjoyed playing the game. I also feared when someone got hurt.
I think it is time to rethink our cultural values when we tolerate cheers for injured players. It is also high time we think through the long-term injuries that football players sustain. I wonder if someday in the future, human beings will look back on our times and marvel how barbarous our sports were, just as we do when we think of throwing someone to the lions.
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