As investigations into the alleged assault on a football team bus from Glacier High School continue, School District 5 authorities are hunkering down, issuing terse promises of full and fair investigations, and reiterating their pledge to do the situation justice. This is what they should be doing, and the extent to which the public finds their comments and behavior trustworthy now depends on their record of trustworthiness in years past. In my opinion, that record is pretty good, and I recommend cutting them some slack while their work through the issues.
These incidents are part of a larger problem, bullying in schools. It will continue to bedevil our school long after the Glacier High bus ride incident is resolved — and I have doubts it can be addressed in any meaningful way until administrators, teachers, parents, and local sports boosters face up to the fact that high school football programs tend to create bullies because of the very nature of the game.
Sports enthusiasts will resist that proposition. The convention wisdom is that team sports build character by instilling in their players a work ethic, respect for authority, the value of teamwork, and the virtues of discipline. Football, its fans contend, makes men out of boys.
That’s the noble theory. The troubling reality is that football games are won by the teams with the biggest, fastest, hardest hitting, and not infrequently the meanest players. Strength is revered, weakness is despised. Might makes right because might creates wins. And wins lead to spoils, such as come-ons by cheerleaders.
Moreover, in football, strength means size. Only the biggest and strongest play (yes, there’s the occasional lightweight but fleet-footed wide receiver, but there are no little linemen). Merely being chosen for the team tells these young men that they’re special. Little perks and privileges (when I was in high school, the football team was served lunch in a special room, and provided better food than the rest of us ate) reinforce that message: you play football because you are bigger and stronger than most, and because of that you are entitled to special treatment.
Is is any wonder that this goes to the heads of some, that some of these young men become bullies? How can that not happen — especially when we all know that some parents are bullies who teach their children to become bullies, who preach that might makes right, and conduct their lives not according to whether something is fair and just, but according to whether they think they can get away with it?
Whether the game of football is itself a major contributor to the making of bullies cannot be ignored. Yet, unless trustees, administrators, parents, and teachers are will to ignore taboo and muster a yet unseen level of courage and intellectual honesty, the relationship of football to bullying will not be discussed. And there will be another bus ride during which football bullies rough up those who are not as strong.