Anger on the Gridiron
By: Milenko Budimir
Tags: Stoicism, Football, Anger, Sports

Anger on the Gridiron

Fans of the American brand of football have probably heard about or seen the ending of the now infamous game between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers almost two weeks ago. That game ended with a Cleveland win but the final minute of the game was marred by an ugly incident in which the second-year Browns defensive end Myles Garrett ripped off the helmet of Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph. And then, while some Steelers players were attempting to separate the two, Garrett swung the helmet and hit Rudolph squarely in the head.

I was at home watching the game (rooting for my beleaguered but up-and-coming Browns) and couldn’t believe what just happened. I mean, on the one hand I could, knowing the depth of the Browns-Steelers rivalry, one of the oldest in the NFL. And so any time the two teams meet there is bound to be some… chemistry.

But this seemed to rise to a whole new level. Using a helmet as a weapon to strike a player on the head, when so much had been done by the league over the past few years to specifically address the issue of head injuries and concussions that happen during the course of a game, was beyond the pale.

What’s Stoicism got to do with it?

Of course, being a novice Stoic (or rather, having over the past several years taken a deep interest in Stoic philosophy) the incident brought to mind the lessons that the Stoics taught about anger and its far-reaching consequences. Right away, I recalled the Roman philosopher Seneca’s maxim that anger is temporary madness.

In fact, anger is so destructive and toxic that, according to Seneca, we should do whatever we must to avoid allowing it to exert control over our actions. He advised going for a walk when we feel anger rising within us. Easy when one is at home; perhaps not so easy on a football field in the heat of a game.

Another famous Stoic, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, writing in his classic work of Stoic philosophy the Meditations, had this to say about anger:

Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on — it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance — unlike the angry and complaining. (11. 18. 5b)

The point that both Seneca and Marcus Aurelius are making is that we should deal with anger before it overtakes us, sending us into a blind rage (an apt descriptor) and making us act irrationally. And why should we strive so hard to avoid this? Because the consequences of giving in to anger and letting it get out of control can be, and often are, far worse and longer lasting than whatever triggered the anger in the first place.

In the case of Garrett, the consequences were swift; suspension from the league indefinitely, which means at least for the rest of this season. That suspension resonates into the future; as a huge loss to his teammates and the team’s prospects for the playoffs, and potentially for his career prospects in the NFL. It also likely has impacts on him personally and perhaps his family, and the city and the team’s fans as well.

Almost immediately after the incident, social media erupted with people (of course) sharing the video clip of the fight along with near-universal denunciation of the violence. Still, people will likely associate his name with this one ugly incident. That itself is instructive of how one moment of madness can blemish a promising young career.

However, it’s also important not to characterize Garrett as some kind of monster or an inherently bad person. In fact, the opposite is true; what we’ve come to learn about him over the past few years is that he is an exceptional young man with amazing athletic ability — smart, funny, and sociable with a humbleness and modesty rare in professional athletes.

In other words, he’s human. Just like the rest of us, with the same weaknesses and potential. In that sense, Garrett is not some rare exception, but really the rule. The only difference, or rather the big, visible difference, is that his moment of “temporary madness” happened on national TV in prime time where literally millions of people watched it. Since then, Garrett has acknowledged his mistake and apologized. He knows that it was the wrong thing to do, to lash out in the way that he did in that moment.

Odd as it may sound, we should thank Garrett for the moral lesson we can take away from this ugly incident. The lesson for all of us is to do what we can to check those feelings of anger and rage when we feel them coming on. Because to do so is to actively improve every aspect of our lives, from our intimate relationships and family to our friendships and work relations.

It’s a safe bet that probably every single one of us (myself definitely included) can recall an instance where anger overtook us and we either said or did something which we soon after regretted and wished we could take back. This is exactly the situation we should want to avoid.

So go ahead and take that walk around the block, or count to 10, or take a series of deep breaths. Better yet, do as the Stoics suggested and use your power of reason to examine your situation and what about it is provoking feelings of anger. Use cold, hard logic on yourself to bring those angry feelings under your control, and don’t let them take control of you. This takes practice, of course. But we’ve got a lifetime to practice, so let’s not delay. We’ve got a job to do; to become better human beings, better citizens of our great, big human polis.