Greg Jennings and Charles Tillman tell hilarious stories to remind fans it’s OK when athletes skip games for their children
A friendly reminder: The athletes on your favorite teams are also parents. That’s the conceit behind this video from Just Not Sports, which features retired NFL stars Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Greg “I Put The Team On My Back” Jennings talking about the times they skipped NFL games to see the births of their kids.
The producers played a game where they named dates to see if the guys could remember who they played. Whether or not they were correct is besides the point, because the dates that were most important to them were the ones when their kids were born. One would assume that people would be totally chill with athletes taking time off for their kids, that they’d be as happy as Tillman, when he gets excited while talking about the tea parties he’s going to have with his daughters.
Unfortunately, as both men point out, that’s not the case. “Now, if a guy misses a game, fans are irate,” says Jennings. “None of that ever crossed my mind, because my main concern was my wife, my child, my family.” It’s not limited to the NFL, either: MLB players have also gotten criticism for doing it. And it’s absurd to hear what fans complain about when it comes to players missing games because of their child’s birth: that it hurts the team’s performance, that it hurts their fantasy team. Those are selfish reasons.
Somehow we’ve forgotten that athletes are human beings who are responsible for other human beings, and worked hard with their partners to start a family, and bless all pregnant women on Earth who already have the tough, painful task of literally pushing a small human baby out of their bodies. Athletes can afford to miss one game. They can’t afford leave their partners by themselves to give birth, and they sure as hell can’t afford to miss an experience that happens once and only once. “This is the birth of your child,” says Tillman. “You only get to do this one time.”
So instead of throwing vitriol at players who skip games for their child’s birth, be proud of them for caring so much about their families.
