After hearing the pros and cons of allowing a girl to join the boys' football team, I do not believe that women should be allowed to play football on a boys’ team once they get to high school. The main reason why I believe that is because the risk of a girl being part of a high school and college team far outweighs the benefits. The main issue would be simply being in the locker room with other guys for an entire season. If I was a father, the dangers of my daughter being in the locker room with other guys in high school would make me remove my daughter from the men’s team.
Hazing is a major part of team sports (especially football) and it is not discussed nearly enough in the media. Certain people on the team may get hazed more so than others. For example, a typical non-starting freshman would get hazed more than a varsity starting freshman. Another example would be perhaps guys hazing other guys on the team that they are not friends with. Hazing, while it serves its purpose of “paying your dues,” is very dangerous and uncomfortable. The actions lead to fights, disputes, and other issues that lead to trouble. So if an attractive girl is on the team, there will be guys on the team who will attempt to haze her with no limits. She could go to a coach, but a coach can only do so much before it’s out of his control.
Hormones among the guys would be the other issue. Many high school football teams have endless hours’ worth of training camp consisting of 2-a-days (or even 3-a-days) during the month of August. Camp usually last a few weeks before school started. Some teams do not allow their players to go home after practice and see the “outside world,” for at least a week. As a result, they cannot see any females. But if there is a girl on the team, there would be a major concern for her safety. She would simply be outnumbered.
Finally, the issue of immaturity would be a huge problem. While many good football teams have mature players, there are just as many immature players on the team. The immature players cannot handle the added responsibilities of having a female on the team because of reasons previously stated among others. Some high school players are on the team just to say they are on the football team, so they have no incentive to follow the rules. Thus, the female is more at risk especially during the summer.
This article is not to suggest that girls cannot play on the boys’ team because there are some very talented female football players in America. But as a guy who has been on a high school team and have coached youth sports, the risks at this point far outweigh the benefits. Hopefully, overtime the demand of females playing football grows to a level where high school female football teams can be formed and real female professional football leagues can be formed and be taken seriously.
By: Taylor Brown
ReplyDeleteI will have to agree with this post. Like I stated in the other post, I think that there are just as many great girl athletes as boy athletes. And for a while the playing field is very even. But at a point, the risk DOES outweigh the reward. Title IX is one of the great things to happen to sports because it helps stop sexism in sports and allows girls to play certain sports that maybe they weren't allowed to 50 years ago. But when you come to be our age, physically, many men are a lot bigger than women and that's where the disadvantage becomes evident. It isn't that I don't think girls should be allowed to participate with boys, because I do. But I think allowing women to get hurt to prove a point can only be taken so far. It becomes about people getting hurt, and though it isn't right for them not to, it is an issue of safety and fairness to women.
This was a good post. I agree that girls competing with boys in the game of football can only be fair up to a certain point. You also brought up the issue of immaturity. I would think that the younger boys (elementary and middle school football players) would be more immature than the older boys (high school and college football players). I do agree that immaturity can be found on any football team at any level. However, hazing and immature boys could also be an issue that a girl could have to face even if she was playing with boys at the earlier stages. By high school or college, people would like to assume that boys are mature enough to play with a girl on their team. However, elementary and middle school boys are not held to this standard. Even so, I do agree that by high school and college, boys' bodies have physically matured to the point where it would be unfair to compete against most girls.
ReplyDeleteBy David Shelmon
As a female I have mixed feelings about this post; I would love to be able to prove this post wrong but the arguments given are well put and make a good point, but just because these thoughts are possible doesn’t mean they will all happen. Males and Females are at very different points in maturity, strength, and size while in high school. However it is hard for me to say that all females should not play football in high school; I am a strong believer of if there is a will there’s a way. I think that the females that really want to play football will do whatever they have to. Hazing is not permitted just to male sports a lot of female teams haze their members also and although I have no experience in it I know that some female teams can be pretty brutal. I think the hormones argument is interesting, if a team were to have an overnight camp the coach would need to put a lot of effort in making the female member feel included but safe. The argument that males want to take advantage of her is valid being cut off from everyone else this one girl could be a target for many on the team. I think another thing that would be a problem would be if the female on the team was dating a teammate, how would that affect the team and their relationship? This is a very hard topic because if nothing else available for a female then I believe she should have the right to play on her high school football team. I guess it all goes back to she knows what she is signing up for. This is why I am having a hard time I agree with the article but I also think that females should be able to play whatever sport they want to.
ReplyDeleteBy Jessica Gatten
There are some aspects that I disagree with within the post about immaturity, hormones, and hazing. Yes, these are possible of happening when girls play a sport such as football. However, I believe the biggest problem with a girl trying to play football would be that their isn't any structure for her to try to succeed within the sport, like there is for boys. There isn't normal protocol for girls within the sport like there is for boys. Helping encourage things such as what is mentioned above with hormones, and hazing. For instance, if there were some structure for girls with locker room situations, half the problems of discrimination would stop along with sexism. Conversely this wouldn't help with any aspect of girls playing on the field. However despite this, structure would help set up success for girls within the sport because by meeting the need for different sexes it would be a move in the right direction for equality.
ReplyDeleteBy: Anthony Pape