As the deadline for cutting all active rosters to 53 creeps closer, we’ve noticed various admonitions on social media and elsewhere that it’s important to remember that the players who will be losing their jobs are human beings who deserve empathy and compassion as their NFL dreams come to an end.
That’s admirable. But how about this? Let’s remember they are human beings every single day.
It’s not enough to shed engagement-conducive crocodile tears on the last Tuesday of August to show true appreciation for the fact that the gladiators aren’t robots. Players are cut throughout the year. They’re injured throughout the season. They deal with insults and indignities from fans who aren’t happy with their performances, because it affects the scores of fantasy teams.
Really, it’s the rise and influence of fantasy football that has caused many fans to regard players not as people but as game pieces. And while they truly are interchangeable parts in giant football machines that will keep rolling long after we’re all dead and gone, the players at any given moment are humans who have reached the highest level of their professions, through a combination of innate skill and extreme effort, sacrifice, and risk.
Fans root for the laundry, as Jerry Seinfeld says. That’s ultimately why fans are more likely to align with the billionaires than the millionaires during contract disputes. Fans just want the players present and happy and productive. It’s easier to wag a finger at the player for wanting too much than to blame the owner for not offering enough, especially in a salary-cap environment.
So let’s not just check a box today, feel badly for the players whose dreams come to an end, and move on. Let’s remember that the men who play the game we love to watch deserve compassion and empathy every other day, too. Whether it’s because they’ve been cut, they’ve been injured, or they’ve been unable to get fair compensation for what they bring to the game.
