I disagree with Keith Olbermann about 99% of the time. But when he goes into a tirade on a couple of things and I agree, it’s shocking. THIS RANT (and there is a bit of offensive language in it) is something I so agree with, I am again re-evaluating my viewing habits for at least a season.

This post is a rant and it is rambling. You can stop here if you like and wait for my next one.

This is about the NFL, sports, our national religions, and sex.

There is a player suspended for an entire season for using marijuana in violation of the NFL’s drug policy. Ray Rice, who was caught on hotel security camera footage dragging his unconscious fiance out an elevator was suspended for… wait for it… two games. He is charged with beating his then-fiance (now wife) unconscious. This we don’t have footage on. But we DO have footage (and it’s in the Olbermann piece linked above) of Rice dragging her body out of the elevator where they had entered and were seen verbally fighting.

There has been some outrage on the NFL’s light slap on the wrist, but not much. The coverage hasn’t been particularly heavy. Rice’s fiance even apologized for “her part” in the incident!

The NFL has become our national religion. They have organized their sport in such a way they make sure we talk about it 12 months out of the year. My Twitter feed is clogged with training camp tweets. All they do in training camp is run sprints and do drills! But the Twitter feeds are just breathless with anticipation.

When we have gods in our culture, we will ignore a lot of things they do. It is so odd how people who normally stand up for women’s rights say almost NOTHING when the NFL does such a stupid thing with Rice! When it comes to treatment of women in sports, the common line is almost that old phrase, “Well, boys will be boys!”

And it’s not just the NFL and sports. When we have something we REALLY like, it’s unbelievable what we will excuse in behavior, and especially toward women. As a pastor, I know the celebrity status we give to pastors of big churches. And I’ve been incredulous at the pass we give some of these guys when they make misogynist remarks. We sit silent. Why? Because, overall, we justify the “effectiveness” of their ministry.

Movies, like The Wolf of Wall Street, are hailed as something “artistic” or other some such garbage phrase when the opening scene celebrates the total objectification of a woman and the celebration of conquering her sexually and elevating the glory of cocaine us.

The NFL has declared that women just don’t matter. They can have their breast cancer fundraising drive in September and wear the cute pink things, but let’s be honest: it doesn’t honor women to focus on that issue when you let a player beat his fiance unconscious then suspend him for TWO games. That will get lost in the shuffle and by breast cancer awareness time, we’ll be celebrating how much the NFL cares…

Several years ago I gave up watching the NFL for a year because there were several stories that demonstrated a league out of control. They had grown so big they were actually excusing incredibly violent behavior. One columnist wrote about several news items concerning NFL players with gun violence, rape charges, and one player who had been convicted of having a hit put on his wife. The columnist ticked off several of those reports and then wrote: “And that is just this week. And it’s Thursday.”

I love football. I can’t ever afford a game, but I love watching.

But not this season. Not when the NFL gives so little consideration of a woman caught in domestic violence. I don’t care how much they raise for breast cancer awareness. It is still clear it is about objectifying women, not honoring them. They won’t miss me at all. Not with the “vast sums of money” I don’t give them. But I can’t stomach watching a game ignore this issue. Not this time.

We celebrate the blood sport, and that’s just the way it is. I know I do most of the time. But this blood sport has gone too far for me this time around. I can’t worship at this altar right now.