NFL has concerns about Esquire Network's 'Friday Night Tykes' series

[highplainsdem]

Source: LA Times

One coach tells his players, "rip their freaking heads off and let them bleed." Another coach smacks a player in the head while telling him, "don't give me that soft crap."

-snip-

This is the Esquire Network's new show "Friday Night Tykes," a documentary about the Texas Youth Football Assn., whose players are under the age of 10.

The coaches say things that might make even Mike Ditka cringe. "I don't care how much pain you’re in, you don’t quit," one crying kid is told by his coach. Besides screaming coaches, the preview clip also shows several helmet-to-helmet collisions.

-snip-

"The trailer is definitely troubling to watch," an NFL spokesman said, adding that the league being shown in "Friday Night Tykes" is not part of its Heads Up Football Program, which seeks to improve player safety in youth football.


-snip-


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-friday-night-tykes-nfl-20140106,0,4982751.story#axzz2pglTdcAw

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The trailer can be found at the link above.

I'd never heard of this new series before catching commercials for it this evening, and I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

[exboyfil]

1. Kind of like a bookend to the

little tyke beauty pageants. What are we as a people????

[yurbud]

15. In one sense it's worse--it will cause brain damage as well as psychological damage

and I haven't met a player yet who didn't complain about his knees by the end of college even if he stopped playing in high school.

[MADem]

2. First time I saw that commercial, I thought it was an OTT advertisement, a goof,

you know how sometimes they put children in adult situations for ironic humor? When I realized it was for real, I was rather appalled.

[LeftyMom]

3. Damn, that's scary.

My kid sister played youth league football at that age, and I'd have let my kid play if her coach was still around (he's an old friend of the family and I'd literally trust him with my kid's life) but unfortunately he moved away.

There's a difference between toughening kids up and being a sadist, and a lot of those guys look like they crossed the line miles back. The joke commercial where Jim Harbaugh is coaching little kids looks less ridiculous.

[Journeyman]

5. Then you compare Coach Wooden, with his quiet demeanor, his earnest teaching of fundamentals. . .

and his emphasis on character and humanity above all -- compare him and his unassailable level of accomplishments against the senseless browbeating and denigration exhibited by these (ultimately) loser human beings, and the proper way to coach a sport, at any level, becomes instantly clear.

My heart feels for those young children. They may win. They may even win many games. But they'll learn little of any lasting value, and their wins will lie as ashes on their lives.

[TransitJohn]

7. Wooden was as dirty a coach as any in the NCAA

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/12227/the-other-part-of-the-wooden-legacy
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/everyone-loves-winner-023700951--ncaab.html

[alp227]

6. These thug ass "coaches" make Phil Robertson sound like Bob Dylan.

I'd rather watch Duck Dynasty than this POS TV show...yep I said that. I think Phil Robertson has better values than these moron excuses of coaches. That's saying a lot, isn't it?

[groundloop]

8. I coached youth sports for many years.... what are those parents thinking?

I've seen the ads for that show and agreed, these coaches are idiots. But why are parents putting up with it? I'll tell you why, each and every one of them envision their kid as a future Heisman Trophy winner and for some sadistic reason buy into the bullshit that pushing kids like that will drive them to excel. When I coached I loved working with the kids but absolutely hated dealing with parents, by and large most of them took each and every game WAY too seriously. So many of those idiot parents had their kids totally burnt out on sports by the time they were 12 or 13, which is really sad.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. Having coached youth sports, as well ...

I'd say these parents don't see their kids as future Heisman Trophy winners"; but NFL first round draft picks ... it seemed that for some parents, their kids are their retirement plan.

I had to tell plenty of parents: "Let's be clear. We all have roles to play here: your kids play and have fun; I coach and you cheer ... for both teams."

[nilesobek]

12. When I played sports as a kid

you had to be 3 times better than the doctor's kid, the lawyer's kids and the elite kids who had vocal and present parents putting undo pressures on the coaches. Otherwise you would be riding the pine.

These were the youth sports Punic wars. I remember, in an exhibition game, I lucked out and made a game winning shot when the clock ran out, and the rival fans stormed the court at the Boy's Club and violently started a brawl with the coaches and fans. We were only 12 years old.

A lot of parents live their dreams and failures vicariously through their children without taking into account any of the effects.

[broadcaster75201]

9. Where the FUCK are the Parents?

Do that to my kid and I would knock the shit out of you.

[yurbud]

16. a lot of them are living vicariously through the coach too

[freshwest]

18. Clearly, the parents are counting up the dollars for contracting their kids to the show. It's legal.

And it's all about the fat checks that will be deposited for entertaining the troglodytes that watch this stuff and buy whatever is on the commercials. It's not a new thing, they're parents to child actors, it's like a movie.

Think what it is doing to the youth of America being babysat by television, learning a lack of empathy and the savagery they're promoting. There are many fine young people growing up and they will have to deal with those who will fall into this.

[Wolf Frankula]

11. I Think Pierre Had the Right Idea for these Coaches

After seeing a middle school football game and the General Patton wannabee coaches he proposed opening a 'leadership camp' for high school, middle school and lower coaches. They would sign up for two weeks in the summer. It would look like a summer camp and have a faux Amerindian name. It would be away in the country.

"Imagine the surprise of those fat hogs," he chuckled, when they get to the camp and find out they've signed up for two weeks of French Foreign Legion basic training." (Pierre had been a Legion officer, up from the ranks.) He had some friends who had been in the Legion, and they could serve as trainers.

I said it would be a good idea, but most of these mouths couldn't survive one day of training, much less two weeks. And it wouldn't be legal to shoot those who tried to desert.

Wolf

[Blue_Tires]

13. LOL...The same NFL who a few short months ago

pressured ESPN to back out of collaborating with PBS on the CTE documentary?

[rocktivity]

17. And the same NFL who hasn't complained to Colin Kaepernick

about the fan violence in this commerical:

Or about the bullying going on in this one?

rocktivity

[OmahaBlueDog]

14. Rule #1 of reality TV: If it were real, nobody would watch

Would anyone watch a bunch of nice dad and PE teachers engaging in sensible coaching? Nope. People tune in to see guys screaming at 10 year old boys like Marine drill sergeants so they can marvel at how horrible it is. I'm reasonably certain the particiants are informed about this.

The problem with shows like this is that gullible people will watch and accept that this is normal behavior, and that this is what coaches should do. Just as folks quit their jobs to go make the easy money in buying storage lockers and selling off the valuable abandoned contents.

[chelsea0011]

19. Got a chance to see this show. Wow, is this sad.

[godevil10]

20. And many believe

we are not preconditioning and desensitizing our young with this sort of thing and movies, TV and games that are ultra, hideously violent and blood-filled, in which guns, swords, clubs, axes, beheading, disemboweling and other assorted horrors are glorified and laughed at.

To that I say HOGWASH!

Hell why did we get rid of the old Saturday morning toons? Was it not because we thought they were two violent?