Football Is a Friend

Football Is a Friend

The children of America are missing crucial childhood experiences, such as discipline, responsibility, and hard work. These neglected juveniles have been turned from potentially remarkable individuals into criminals and bums. There is, however, a way to thwart this subsisting trend: football.

Young men and women living in dismal situations are often encouraged to join gangs and lead lives of crime. They crave the support and acceptance of the gang, often because of the neglect they experienced in their younger lives. Sven Mørch and Helle Andersen expanded upon this concept in their study, “Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth.”

Mørch and Andersen explained that gangs focus on “ensuring mutual support in everyday life.” This practice draws in vulnerable youths by giving them hope for a sustained sense of acceptance and accomplishment. Peer pressure is then instilled to harden the new recruits, and soldiers are born. Acts of violence and the use of drug paraphernalia follow consequently as “missions” for the soldiers to prove their worth to the gang. Upon execution of the “mission”, gang members may find their way to correctional facilities due to capture and arrest.

Alternatively, troubled youths may choose to spend their free time in a more constructive fashion. Some may follow the path of Pablo Picasso and become an industry-changing artist. Others may become world-renowned musicians in the likeness of Yo-Yo Ma. Unfortunately, the majority of adolescents will not become prodigies in the fields of art or music composition.

There is, however, a silver lining for youths without these gifts. Youth football programs are often sponsored by schools. Scholarships may be awarded to underprivileged stud...

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...the choices they make throughout their career. It’s an opening for greatness to seep through the cracks in a shattered generation of poverty and despair. It’s a way out. As the door to football is opened and commitment is attained, the doors to crime and strafe are closed ever so slightly day-by-day. As children come up through the programs, morals and ethics are instilled into the core of their being, and they are molded into hard-working, determined, sound individuals. Strong character, along with mental toughness beyond levels of comprehension, is a characteristic of football players near and far. All experience different situations throughout their tenure, but if asked, “What made you keep going when you were tired?” The answer may come in various forms, but the message will be the same, “Football changed my life forever. I don’t know who I would be without it.”