Head football coach Rex Ryan of the New York Jets was recently fined (again) a whopping $100,000 for swearing. Surprised? Yes, even in this day and age of supposed “everyone can say whatever they want whenever they want,” there still is a sense that some things are still out of bounds in the NFL—at least when it comes to talking to referees.
I’ve watched the video of this incident and although I’m not much of a lip reader, it’s more than clear that when Ryan was heading onto the field to meet Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, he uttered the f-bomb followed by “you.” And this was after a win!
I applaud the NFL for slapping this fine on Ryan. And I’d like to think that, in a small way, it sent a message to us that it’s important to guard our tongues.
I emphasize small way here because if Ryan were, say, Brad Pitt, instead of getting fined, he might have received a bonus. In our entertainment culture, there are no real repercussions for using foul language.
Take for instance the movie Fury, starring Pitt. This World War II flick contained over 100 f-words. Oh, I know David Ayer (the director/writer) would defend the language. I’m sure he’d say, This is war we’re talking about. People swear a lot in the heat of battle. We’re trying to make a realistic film. But is it really realistic?
I recently spoke with World War II veteran Bill Colwell. As a man who parachuted onto the beaches of Normandy and was the second guy to walk through the gates of Landsberg concentration camp when it was liberated by allied forces, Colwell saw a lot of the worst WWII dished out. I think his experience on the front lines represents the experience of thousands who faithfully fought for freedom.
When I asked him if World War II soldiers used profanity to the level that I saw in Fury, Colwell acknowledged that soldiers did swear—but did “very little” of that swearing on the battlefield. The language was worse, he said, during training. So I dug even deeper. “Excuse my French here,” I asked, “but when you say ‘very little’ profanity, what do you mean? Are you saying that when you did hear cussing that the words you heard were mostly h‑‑‑s and d‑‑ns, or were soldiers using the s-word and the f-word?” Colwell said that most of the swearing he did hear during the war was of the “mild” variety—far different from Fury’s representation.
Of course, Pitt isn’t unique in Hollywood for spitting out harsh profanities onscreen. If I had to guess based on the hundreds and hundreds films I’ve seen in the past few years, I’d say about 60% of the PG-13 flicks contained their one allowance of the f-bomb (sometimes, it would seem, specifically to get a PG-13 rating). And the R-rated ones? Well, don’t even get me started.
I’ve maintained for years that profanities just aren’t needed. I’ve never walked out of even one movie screening and overheard someone exclaim, “Well, that would have been a great movie if there had just been more cussing.”
After being asked about his swearing, Coach Ryan said, “Obviously, I’ve got to do a good job of controlling my emotions. Things happen. I’m sorry if I offended anybody.”
I’m glad to hear Ryan apologize. I hope Hollywood learns a thing or two from this incident. And I hope we do too.
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