CobyRupert
Super Member
.....no one is holding a gun to the players' heads, forcing them to play.
Steve
We don't force them, but we are responsible for creating the demand.
So, taking the argumentum ad absurdum, if the market offers poor (but athletically talented) people 10 million dollar contracts to fight to the death, you're good with that? "meh, no one's holding a gun to their heads."
Essentially you (I /we) do that when we watch the NFL, it's just delayed a few years.
We know people will take that chance when the reward is so great.
I guess it just come down to our individual (and collective) conscious and sense of morality.
If you look at how boxing has waned, and ultimate fighting has surged, getting back to gladiator games is the direction. (Not to mention our appetite for perpetual war)
I think a better argument (for you) is to say: Well, what about a coal worker who is paid to get black lung, (or some other laborer whose job shortens their life...."), and that would be a good point for which I have no counter, other than to say: "It just feels different" (again, back to our individual sense of morality).