Walking The Line

I love the Denver Broncos Football Team.

I have rooted for them, through good seasons and bad ones, as long as I can remember. No matter where I have gone or where I have been throughout my life, the Broncos have remained a connection to home, and to family. I love watching the games, cheering for the players, understanding football. It is happy and cathartic, to cheer, yell, disagree with referee calls, shout “GO! GO! GO!” on a spectacular breakaway play. They haven’t been doing so well for the last seven years. But they are still the team I root for.

Except now they have a new coach, Sean Payton. Payton used to coach the New Orleans Saints. The Saints, back around 2009, got caught in what is now called “Bounty-Gate.” Players on the team created a pool of money, a list of players, and a schedule of values, of sorts. They made it known that any player on the Saints team would get paid from the money pool if they inflicted a specific injury on a specific player, according to the list and schedule. They put out bounties on valuable players from other teams. Payton knew about the bounty program and did not shut it down. He got suspended for a year. I don’t care for Sean Payton, and I do not endorse or approve of what he and the others did.

So, where do we go from here? I heard talk of boycotting the Broncos because of it. My question is….how do you boycott the coach without also boycotting the other players on the team? As far as I know, they weren’t part of it. I don’t believe they are perfect people, but they are innocent in this. So how do you punish the guilty member of a group without also punishing the rest of the group that is innocent? Where do you draw the line?

Maybe the NFL isn’t the best example. They are paid quite a lot of money and don’t care one way or another if I watch the games. There could be other reasons to not watch. Roger Goodell (NFL Commissioner) doesn’t have a stellar track record of taking care of players, not until publicity started to show him and the league in a bad light where player safety is concerned. And there are some bad apples as far as players go as well.

So where is the line? How does a person decide that enough is enough? By not boycotting what you see as the negative side of things, are you giving them permission to not change? How many good people is it acceptable to catch in the crossfire of a boycott—of anything—before you are doing them more harm thaan good? If your boycott manages to shut down a clothing factory, for example, that pays the workers dollars—or pennies—a day, is that a good thing? Yes, they no longer work in deplorable conditions, but they also don’t work. Isn’t some income better than none, if there is no alternative? Fighting for change is wonderful and vital, but how do you do it without harming the innocent?

Is there room for forgiveness? Is it safe, or wise, to think that Sean Payton has paid his debt, learned his lesson? I can’t hold a grudge against everyone who has made a mistake, been punished, served their time, and moved on. Don’t we at some point, have to forgive and move on as well? I have certainly been given many second chances. Who decides who deserves a second chance and who doesn’t?

Where is the line?

I don’t have answers. Only more questions. I suppose all I can do is make the best decisions with the information I have, keep my heart and mind open if possible, and keep on keeping on.

And…Go Broncos.

Kat