Reality Check

Peter Beinart: There Never Was Honor in Football

The Penn State scandal stirred up lots of laments about the disappearing “honor” in football, but The Daily Beast’s Peter Beinart says football fans should stop kidding themselves. “To be a fan of a brutal sport like football is to put your moral faculties on hold. It is to hero-worship players while considering them disposable as human beings.” Coaches and fans are indifferent toward the life-altering injuries players sustain as a regular part of the game, and it colors the entire sport with callousness. “They say that if senators’ sons went off to war, American foreign policy would look very different. I suspect that if senators’ sons played Division I and professional football, the NCAA and NFL would look very different as well.”