Do we need to share the blame of Domestic Violence in Sports?

To be honest, the FIRST thing I thought when I saw the #RayRice video was: "Is the #NFL doing enough to protect players from #TraumaticBrainInjury and #concussions?" because I would not be surprised if it plays a part in violence overall as well as poor judgement and impulse control.

Do sports allow dangerous violence - much of which is integral to the game?

Does protective gear go far enough?

Do fans love a rough game, cheer on the most aggressive players?

Do teams put players back on the field too early? Do players hide injuries and symptoms so they won't be pulled from the game?

Concussions and whiplash are PART of football, like it or not. And week after week of hard hits does serious damage, not just physically but mentally and emotionally.

I do not in any way say head injures are an excuse for domestic violence or violence in general, because there are so many players who DO NOT beat their wives or girlfriends, and many people who do not play professional sports DO.

But head trauma and CTE are a dangerous reality of many sports, football and boxing being at the top of the list.

This article is important, well written and honestly quite fascinating - in a morose way: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2014/09/16/does-football-make-you-violent-examining-the-evidence

Heather J. Kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk www.heather-kirk.artistwebsites.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

What is "Warranted" for Pro Sport Players Who Committ Domestic Violence May Not Be Best or Even Realistic

I am so glad that the NFL didn't go from one extreme (let's pretend domestic violence doesn't happen....until caught on camera) to the other extreme, as sugguested at one point, caught twice and you will never play in the NFL again.

Would they deserve it? YES.

Would it change a damn thing? NO.

And, yes my mantra of Unintended Consequences holds true here - a woman whose "fault" it was to get a man kicked out of pro sports would never report it. Why?

(1) Remember the mindset of an abused woman already is one of low self-esteem and wrongly thinking she actually deserves it somehow or did something  to cause it, and

(2) she would either be afraid, be threatened, or actually end up dead.

Yes, education is a much better way to go --- as long as there are real consequences, both in the league and with the law, to go along with it.

Where to get help, where to give: http://www.ncadv.org/resources/StateCoalitionList.php

Heather J. Kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk  www.heather-kirk.artistwebsites.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk  http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

Never heard of John Carter before the Super Bowl? You have now!

At the end of December my sister-in-law, who works for 4D, Publicis Groupe/Disney said that after War Horse, Disney’s next big movie will be “John Carter”. I said, “I loved that book!” (John Carter is the main character, but the books he is in are ‘A Princess in Mars,’ ‘The Gods of Mars’ and ‘Warlord of Mars’ and several more that are now available on Librivox that were not there before.) She was a bit shocked, not because it was technically a boy’s, war, sci-fi book, but that it is a very old book and she had never met anyone who had even heard of it before. Well, as of February 5th – due to it’s Super Bowl commercials – millions more know about it!

And why had I read it? As some of you who read my blog know – I listen to books on-line. But before I found the Greater Phoenix Digital Library http://phoenix.lib.overdrive.com/26FD75C1-B31F-4378-980F-30657F7D0006/10/288/en/Default.htm I used to listen to http://www.librivox.org/. All of those books are in the Public Domain, meaning that the copyright has run out, the book usually being over 100 years old.

I have decided this is how Hollywood is trying to save a little money in the current market!

Public domain also means they only have to pay a script writer – not the author AND a scriptwriter. This is how I also had read the book The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – which was a horrible short story and I almost refused to see it, even though my brother and sister in law were visiting and had first right to choose as guests. The movie was so much better and I’m glad I saw it. I’m including the link here if you are curious, partly because it’s part of a collection of short stories that includes other better stories and partly because the author is F. Scott Fitzgerald.

http://librivox.org/selected-short-stories-by-f-scott-fitzgerald/

Again, if you don’t want to listen but would rather read – find it here.

And, following that loose line of thought, because I am going to see a play by F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix this March – The Great Gatsby. (A much, much better story!) See To Do in Arizona - Planning Ahead for March 2012.

Back to John Carter. The odd thing about people never hearing of the Barsoom (a dying Mars) Series and John Carter is that the author is Edgar Rice Burroughs – who also wrote a series about (drumroll please) Tarzan. All stories by Burroughs on Librivox click here:

If you don’t want to listen but would rather read – find it here.

Learn about the Barsoom Series and John Carter on Wikipedia click here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom

Here’s a chance to win tickets to the NFL after watching the preview and getting the “secret code”: http://www.nfl.com/johncarter

Posted by Heather J. Kirk