Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians attempted to clarify on Sunday a comment about moms and football concussions that incited a great deal of controversy over the weekend.
During a coaches' clinic in Tempe on Friday, Arians accused the nation's mothers of attacking football,
Yahoo Sports reported.
"This is our sport, it’s being attacked. We have to stop it at the grass roots. It’s the best game that’s ever been [expletive] invented. And we have to make sure that moms get the message, because that’s who’s afraid of our game right now. It’s not dads, it’s moms," he reportedly said.
"Our job is to make sure the game is safe, at all levels. The head really has no business being in the game. There’s a lot of different teachers, but when I was taught how to tackle, and how to block, it was on a two-man sled. You did it with your shoulder pads. That’s still the best way to do it."
The comment drew immediate widespread attention, and many criticized Arians for dismissing parents' concern for the physical wellbeing of their kids.
On Sunday, Arians released a statement to clarify his comment.
"Just to [be] clear about kids playing football, my point is that moms are often the ones making those decisions in a family. We have to make sure that they're getting the message about everything being done to make the game as safe as possible. They're the ones we have to influence. It's a great game and it's even greater when it's played, coached and taught the right way. Everybody involved with the sport has a responsibility to make that happen," Arians said,
according to the Arizona Cardinals website.
One mom wasn't buying it.
Kimberly Archie told The Washington Post that there is "no magic tackling that’s going to make football reasonably safe for young kids."
Her son, Paul Bright Jr., died in 2014 at age 24 because of reckless driving on a motorcycle. But Archie blamed her son’s erratic behavior on the after-effects of a decade of playing football. A posthumous brain examination revealed Bright had an early stage of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, often associated with concussions.
The NFL "sold my kid a dream and gave him a nightmare," Archie told the Post.
Twitter users had strong reactions to Arians' comments.
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