Healing Football's Spiritual Wounds

This is a re-post of an article I wrote for Catholic Online in 2010.

Medical research is reporting with greater urgency how football can damage the body--especially the brain--and the findings are sobering. Two recent university studies have found that dementia symptoms, memory loss, paranoia and depression are highly prevalent among former football players--starting in middle age. Some sources indicate about 43,000 to 67,000 concussions are suffered by high school football players alone each year--with perhaps that many more failing to report their symptoms.

The rest of the body suffers as well. A growing number of former players are reporting debilitating pain years after hanging up their cleats--multiple surgeries, loss of physical functions, not being able to work--and the emotional and spiritual stress that accompanies it all.

Football officials are working to manage the physical risks. Yet there are spiritual concerns that must be addressed as well; who better than the Church to form the game plan. Football is not "only" a sport--it is a major piece of America's lifestyle. Called to minister to the people of God where they are, the Church needs to be at the heart of healing football's spiritual wounds.

Is football moral?

This involves grappling with a number of soul-searching questions, in light of the Church's teaching that "life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good." (CCC #2288) Perhaps first among these questions is how a sport known to be physically dangerous can be morally licit given the care and respect owed to the body.

A fundamental tool of Catholic moral theology can be applied here: the principle of double effect. First formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas, this principle examines the morality of an action that produces both good and harmful effects. Four criteria must be met for the action to be considered morally acceptable in the Christian conscience.

First of all, the action itself must be good, or at least morally neutral. Fr. John Hollowell makes the case that playing football is a good that only becomes dangerous when done incorrectly. A former high school and college player, Fr. Hollowell chaplains the football team at Cardinal Ritter High School in Indianapolis. "I've never seen a concussion in football from anything other than bad technique," he said, "either on the part of the runner or the tackler. If football is played within the rules today it almost never leads to brain injuries."

He is not alone in this opinion. There is a body of professional literature that claims most football injuries are preventable if players are properly conditioned and the game's rules are consistently followed and enforced.

The second and third criteria of the principle of double effect state that the harm cannot be intended, nor can it be a means to the good effect. Fr. Clint Ressler, the Catholic chaplain for the NFL's Houston Texans, believes football passes both tests. "Most Christian players try to play the game the right way," he said. "They are good sportsmen and respect the game and their opponents. In football there is no explicit purpose to hurt or disable the opponent. In this sense, the injuries are, in most cases, truly accidents." Fr. Ressler also notes that most Christian players pray for safety on the field and leave the rest in God's hands.

The fourth criterion says there must be a proportionate reason to allow the harmful effect--the harm cannot outweigh the good. If we accept that most football injuries are the unintentional result of poor conditioning, faulty technique and playing outside the game's established rules, then we can allow that the many good things the game has to offer--teamwork, discipline, dedication to mission, bonding friendships, community spirit--outweigh its real but manageable risks.

Dropping the ball

Yet for years the risks have not been managed well, which is why so many players are suffering today. Football has long surrendered to a broader culture that teaches men to ignore pain, that believes nursing an injury is unmanly, and upholds physical toughness and even violence as the key to manhood.

These ideas have even been interpreted as Christian principles. Both Christianity and football teach self-sacrifice, putting the needs of others before our own, "playing through pain." Jesus himself subjected his body to violence to accomplish his mission.

So how can football players raised in this environment--and the physical and emotional wreckage it has left in its wake--adopt a spiritual approach to the game that rejects the old paradigm and better safeguards their physical health? The Church can take the lead through an outreach to teams of all ages, teaching parents, coaches, trainers and team chaplains solid pastoral skills and vision.

Recovering the fumble

Edward Hastings, Director of the Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development at Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania, frames the issue in the Christian context of physical-spiritual union. "I think we need to help men realize more that our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit," he said. "Men tend to be taught to tough it out, move on and not pay attention to our bodies. I think good pastoral care--especially for men--needs to focus on reasonable, good awareness of the holiness of our bodies, to focus on the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God, and see the sacredness and responsibilities this entails."

Fr. Ressler agrees, and maintains that the problem begins in childhood. "Our culture no longer initiates boys into manhood," he said. "We have, as a culture, a very shallow understanding of masculinity, equating it with physical prowess and, ultimately, violence. Sports easily get derailed without healthy leadership and coaching."

Fr. Hollowell offers a practical, spiritually healthy approach for coaches to help players understand both their obligation to the team as well as to their own health, echoing St. Paul's teaching that when one member of the body suffers, the entire body suffers. "The way to talk to the kid as his coach is to explain to him that if he plays injured, it hurts the team," he said. "Plain and simple. He may want to get out there and he may feel like he can do better than his backup, but if a coach explains to the kid that the player would be hurting the team, most guys understand that."

Another contributing factor to football's troubles is a culture that seems to have an appetite for increased contact in sports. Two newer (though now defunct) football leagues--the XFL and Arena Football League--marketed a more violent brand of the game. (One Arena League team used as its advertising slogan "Bring on the Hurt.")

A sound Christian perspective needs to address this trend as well. It is true that Jesus subjected his body to violence and even willingly allowed himself to be killed. But he entered into suffering and death because they are experiences God never willed for his people in the first place. Sin brought them into existence, and humanity was powerless to defeat them; so Jesus subjected himself to pain and death to conquer them for us. While pain and death remain as the consequence of sin, God does not will any of us to purposely seek them. Rather, we are called to alleviate others' pain--not cause it--and to stand up for the sanctity of the human body in all its stages and circumstances.

The ultimate healing

A final piece of the pastoral plan needs to reach out to those who regret having played football because of the harm it has done to their body. Edward Hastings states it plainly: "The pastoral response seems to be to accept forgiveness from God for this. We need to be sensitive to someone wanting to 'take one for the team' and then getting hurt."

When a football player adopts all of this as his spiritual game plan, he has truly become a man.