Joe Biden goes to Ireland and tears into a distinctly American sport, one that is in its various forms the fastest growing sport in the world—Football. Instead of being an Ambassador for American sports, he attacks them. Biden told the Irish Parliament on April 13, “I’d rather have my children playing rugby now, for health reasons, than I would have them playing football…Fewer people get hurt playing rugby. And you have no equipment. You have 280-pound guys like we do, and you just don’t hit each other in the head very often.” First, and foremost, once again Joe is misinformed, but he is feeding a narrative that is shared by his mentor Barack Obama and others in the Democratic Party seeking to ban the sport.
A fact check by PolitiFact points out that there are a lot of various studies with conflicting conclusions. But overall, PolitiFact says: “Perhaps the leading meta-analysis, published in the journal Sports Medicine in 2021, looked at 83 studies. It found that rugby had the highest concussion rate of any sport, or about three times higher than the second-place sport, American football. The third- and fourth-place finishers were ice hockey and wrestling. Rugby was the only one of the sports studied that the authors labeled “high risk” based on these numbers.” PolitiFact’s conclusion: Significant academic research suggests that rugby results in higher rates of overall injuries and concussions than American football does — often two to three times higher.” Biden’s statement is, therefore, false. But it is indicative of a larger, more sinister agenda.
In the lead up to the Super Bowl in 2014, Obama said, “I’m a big football fan, but I have to tell you, if I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football.” A lot of other Democrats have taken up that same mantra. California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey all have various bills to ban youth football introduced by, guess who? Democrats. They all cite various safety reasons and studies, but they don’t cite who pays for these studies and how independent they are of large special interest groups that would benefit from such a ban. One study touted by a New York Democrat as the main reason to ban football has a disclaimer that its sample size was too small to draw a definitive conclusion. But these crusaders, like Biden, won’t let the facts get in the way of their agenda targeting America’s youth.
Overwhelming evidence indicates that kids who play football have higher graduation rates, perform better academically, and are more likely to stay out of trouble than those who don’t. Youth and high school football also add intrinsic value to society by inspiring character, leadership, tenacity, resilience, teamwork, and other transferrable skills needed to achieve a successful life. Isaiah 22:18 says of the judgment of the evil servant Shebna, “He [The Lord] will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country.” Commentaries agree that Shebna was in the hands of the Lord like a ball in the hands of a strong man, and would be thrown at a great distance by a strong arm. Historians point to the origin of football as far back as 28 BC. It was a way to train up young men in the way they should go. Banning it, in my opinion, is, say it with me…Stupidocrisy.
