The Death Crawl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SD0dOvIilc

Did you watch it? If you didn't, it only takes about five minutes. I'll wait. What were you supposed to feel from this? How inspiring! See, you can do more than you think you can! You never know how far God will make you go until you're tested. So, although I get what this clip is supposed to teach/show, that isn't what I saw. I'm not familiar with this movie. I saw this clip in a Sunday School lesson for teens designed by someone in charge of designing Sunday School lessons for Christian teens. So this is being taught to Christian teens of all different Christian churches as an example of persevering (I think that's what they're trying to teach). Just before this scene there's scene showing the other boys doing this death crawl - something I had never seen before. They didn't have very far to go but it still looked pretty brutal to me. But okay. Men are going to figure out ways to torture men. It's all part of that testosterone thing they have going where they all have to prove their strength to each other and who is the most powerful of all. Ever been to a gym with these guys? They lift more than it's safe. Show of their muscles to each other, and make a competition out of those weights. And then they leave the equipment in the wrong position so that women like me have to struggle to get it in the proper place. (This is why women need their own gyms). So I guess, this particular character that we see there, Brock, isn't showing his all, so the coach decides to make an example of him. Fine. And to prove something to him. Fine. Fair enough. It's part of signing up for being on a sports team. The coaches get to scream at you and make you miserable, and humiliate you in front of the others. You know this going in, and it's the price you pay for being on the team and maybe getting to be a famous athlete. Personally, I'm not into that type of thing, but if other people are, then so be it. But then, what I saw was not someone playing fair, or trying to show a boy he could do more than he thought. What I saw was physical and mental abuse, betrayal of trust, deception, and abuse of power. Coach blindfolds Brock, puts a 160-pound boy on his back, and then screams at him almost the entire crawl with words like "don't let me down", "don't quit on me," "it's not too hard," "you promised me," "give me more, give me more"! You notice how the coach made it all about him and how this boy would disappoint him if he quit, and then lied and said "you promised me" when all the boy agreed to do was go to the 50 yard line if he could. When the boy finally collapses in exhaustion and tears, he thinks he's failed. Which is a pretty crappy thing to do to a kid - make him think he's failed when he hasn't. So what we saw was a Coach using the relationship he has with a young man to manipulate this boy into doing something that could cause him tremendous physical, mental, emotional, and psychological harm. The Coach made an agreement with Brock, and then BROKE THE AGREEMENT. He LIED to Brock, telling him it would be at the 50-yard line. He put Brock in a vulnerable position by taking away his sight and shaming him if he ever said "no" or "enough". He used his power over this boy, who wanted to please his coach and show the others that he could do it. He made Brock think that he hadn't reached the goal yet and DEMANDED that he do better by insinuating that if he didn't, he would let the Coach and the team down. Young men at this age, do not always think clearly. They haven't matured enough to do so. It's a brain thing. You're brain hasn't fully formed until you're about twenty-five, which is kind of scary when you consider how many important life long decisions you make before you're twenty-five. So when an adult that they TRUST tells them to do something, and they figure that the consequences are going to be dire - kicked off the team, losing face in front of the other boys, having his coach disappointed in him and turning away, losing the chance for his dream career - he'll do anything to prevent that from happening - even put himself in danger. This sort of thinking happens with adults, never mind a teenage boy with dreams of football stardom and the need to fit in with his buddies. And the physical strain this puts on the body. He could have popped a muscle, broken a bone, or even had a heart attack, putting that much pressure on his body doing something it wasn't designed to do. And the results, if not fatal to his body, could have put an end to his athletic career - just to please a coach who wants to win at all costs. So the sacrifice of this boy is nothing to this coach if it means he can teach something to the others and win some games. But even though he may have survived this physically intact, I would think that any thinking boy would be looking at his coach and saying, "You betrayed me. You lied to me. I can never trust you again." Which frankly, doesn't seem like a good relationship for an athlete and his coach. Don't coaches need that trust thing with their players? Sure, this is a movie. But I can see a real coach looking at this and thinking, "what a great idea! I'm going to try that. Sure! Someone may get hurt, but it's for the good of the team!" As for the Sunday School lesson, what is the lesson that this is supposed to teach? That like this coach, God can't be trusted?