“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.”

Well, the National Football League disagrees.

As of late Feb., the NFL’s Competition Committee has been talking about penalizing players for the use of the “N-word”.  As we all know the word itself is very controversial as it was initially used to insult and banter slaves.

Richard Sherman, cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks, thinks that the ban is unfair.

“Its almost racist, to me,” Sherman said. “It’s weird that they’re targeting one specific word.  Why wouldn’t all curse words be banned then?”

Sherman, who knows what its like to be in “game mode,” is a perfect example of acting differently during a game than in everyday life.  When the Seahawks beat the 49ers at the NFC Championship Game back in January, Sherman was criticized for the way that he celebrated after the game, in which he gloated and made a choking gesture in the direction of the losing opponents.  People called him ignorant, amongst other things, even though there was nothing wrong with the way he acted.

Outside of football, Sherman graduated from Stanford with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and went back to school to pursue his Masters.  A person with an education background doesn’t deserve harsh criticism; and neither do the rest of the athletes in the NFL.

It’s almost like there is some sort of negative connotation toward the people who choose to use the “N-Word.”  People probably assume that these athletes are ignorant, just like they assumed that Sherman was.

Fans, especially the young admirers of professional athletes, don’t need to know what their heroes are saying on the field.  It is more likely than not that the younger American generations have had previous exposure to offensive language because it has become something that society is immersed in.

“I think that they are trying to enslave us,” senior Pace basketball player Ahmad Williams-George said.  “They are trying to police a word that we changed.  The word is going to be changed to ‘friend’ in the dictionary one of these days.”

Chances of the definition being changed to “friend” might be far fetched, but this definitely is not the first time that an offensive word has been stripped of its negativity.  The “B-Word,” that was originally a synonym for “female dog,” now is used as a derogatory term towards women.  Some females may argue that this word has been altered to mean a powerful woman. Not all words are what they seem and the focal point should not be on their misuse.

Above all, athletes can claim that, in the heat of the moment, a player has no control over their speech or actions.  There is only one goal in the mind of an athlete during game time and that is to pull a win.  No one plays sports just to have fun on the field and lose every game.  If that were the case, then anyone could be a professional athlete. Rather, professional athletes are paid for the skills that pertain to the athletic industry, and language is something that should fall by the wayside.