In a recent interview, Brandon Marshall quite possibly had the best and most profound take on this whole NFL bullying mess:
A little boy falls down and the first thing we say as parents is ‘Get up. Shake it off. You will be OK. Don’t cry.’ When a little girl falls down, what do we say? ‘It’s going to be OK.’ We validate their feelings. So right there from that moment, we are teaching our men to mask their feelings, don’t show their emotions. It’s that times a hundred with football players. You can’t show that you’re hurt. You can’t show any pain. So, for a guy that comes into the locker room and he shows a little vulnerability, you know, that’s a problem. So that’s what I mean by ‘The Culture of the NFL,’ and that’s what we have to change.
Nice job, Brandon. And I can’t help but to agree with him. This story has taken on something way bigger than just two dudes playing a sport, it’s about an entire culture, in the NFL and in sports.
You can see the video of Marshall’s statements over at SportsGrid.
