Buzkashi, Headless Goats, and Rules and Regulations

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer
The theory of unintended consequences is alive and well in the game of football. I played the game in high school and college in the years 1946 to 1954. As a noseguard and linebacker on defense and a center and guard on offense I was usually right in the middle of the most intense physical action.

As a high school principal I have hired numerous football coaches and have supervised literally hundreds of games. I have seen many attempts to decrease the number of injuries through innovations in equipment and changes in the rules of the game.

The so-called “safer” helmet is the most important change made in the game since I played. Yes, we had hard helmets with sponge rubber inserts even in my day, but we did not have the inflatable inserts, the sponge-covered hard shell, face masks, and other designs. Because of these new designs the game started to change in the 1970s. 

In my day we were coached on how to avoid spine and head injuries. We practiced turning our heads the right way when tackling or making a block. As we didn’t wear face masks unless we had broken teeth or noses, we learned quickly to keep our eyes open so we could avoid injury.

Game officials blew their whistles quickly when the play was over. They didn’t allow “scrums” like today when flying, spearing bodies pile on a running back who is already stopped in his tracks. Leading with the helmet was penalized to avoid injury.
NASCAR Fans Also Like Football Games
Because of the “new” helmets the game has changed. Players don’t realize the brain is pretty loose in the skull. Wide receivers, many without knee pads, are speared when running across the middle. Punt returners are tackled at full speed with helmet to chest or head. A half-dozen 325-pound defensive linemen often submerge a running back before a whistle stops the play. This is when ankles, knees, and heads are broken.

There is also a “NASCAR” attitude from fans about causing injuries to other players. There are too many headhunters in contact sports. In the old days we took care of headhunters on the field or ice. All of a sudden the headhunter was bloody and we tried to look innocent. Lo and behold, the officials often decided to have a senior moment. There are a large number of NASCAR fans who pay to see crashes and who come to football games to see hard hits and injuries.

We have had a gradual rise in serious injuries, particularly concussions, spinal injuries, and bone breaks, over the last 15 years. It’s time to blow the whistle quicker. It’s time to change the rules, regulations, and attitudes about glorifying headhunters. It’s time to throw the yellow flags until the spearing, piling on, and unnecessary roughness stops.
Get the Lead Out of Your Gutpiles
A complex society often needs complex rules to protect members. Remember the hassle in 2008 about the distribution of venison killed by lead bullets to North Dakota food shelves? Bismarck Dr. William Cornatzer, who has hunted deer, elk, antelope, caribou, and musk-ox all over the world, had worried about lead in meat for years. In examining 100 one-pound packages of ground venison, he found that 60 packages contained hundreds of lead fragments.

As a result of his findings the North Dakota Department of Health told food pantries to throw out 2.5 tons of venison. Lead, a severe neurotoxin, has been banned in products for years, including paint, children’s toys, and gasoline. Lead makes kids dumb. Lead ingested by eagles and other raptors from dead game has come close to wiping out some species.

The donation of venison to Midwestern food shelves has become quite popular. Wisconsin hunters alone distributed 414,000 pounds of venison to nursing homes and food shelves in 2008.

Environmentalists and some hunters have combined to lead a campaign to ban lead bullets and pellets. Naturally the National Rifle Association is opposed to such a ban, saying that it is an attack on hunting rights. Another group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is opposed because of the added cost of non-lead ammunition.

Science about lead is clearly on the side of those seeking a ban, but the NRA and the NSSF have always been more interested in preserving guns, cop killer bullets, and lead ammo than in making safety and environmental regulations and preserving people.

Anthony Prieto, the founder of Project Gutpile, is an avid hunter of 25 years who always used to bury animal gutpiles killed by his lead bullets so other animals and birds would not eat toxic lead. He advocates the use of copper bullets and ammo because he has X-rayed meat from animals killed by lead bullets and found lead fragments throughout. Prieto and his hunting companions all use copper ammo now. They claim the copper bullets don’t fragment even when they travel 3,200 feet per second. The bullets have a 98 percent weight retention rate. Let’s hope real hunters can overcome the senseless, anti-science position of the NRA.
Want a Divorce? Just Send a Registered Letter
We in the United States have been battling over civil unions and gay marriages for about two decades now. My French compatriots, in their infinite wisdom, created civil unions 11 years ago as a solution to equal rights for gays. Their civil union law was designed to be very similar to marriage laws, preserving the tax, property, religious and the thousand other societal benefits of marriage laws. Civil union laws in France cover everyone. 

In that the Roman Catholic Church is held in such low regard in Catholic France, it is both enlightening and amusing that now there are two civil unions for every three marriages. The theory of unintended consequences strikes again. It was never thought that the overwhelming majority of civil unions would be between straight couples.  In 2009, 173,045 civil unions were signed—with over 95 percent of them between heterosexual couples!

French authorities are wondering whether they have forced a change in social attitudes. They started with the idea that the civil union law should not discriminate, so the “law” was made available to everyone. The Roman Catholic Church, struggling to get out of the Dark Ages, has, more or mostly less, accepted civil unions.

In 2009 only 250,000 French couples married. This compares to over 400,000 marriages in 1970—with a much smaller population. Other European countries also have civil unions but they are not as popular as in France. In the Netherlands, as an example, there is only one civil union for every eight marriages.

French sociologists believe that because of the “heavy and invasive” attitude of the Catholic Church most French couples prefer the civil union route. France does have a history of militant secularism going back to the French Revolution. That militancy prompted the theme: “No one is going to tell me what I have to do.”

Besides, in a civil union you can get an instant divorce by sending a registered letter to your partner. It eliminates churches, lawyers, judges, and irate partners from the scene.
Shouldn’t We Have More Rules and Regulations Regarding Health?
It is quite evident that European countries, with their “socialist” idea that all citizens of a country should have access to a universal health program, care more about people than profits in their handling of rules and regulations.

We are currently having a big battle among government, environmentalists, medical authorities, and chemical companies about the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) which makes plastic bottles and things shatterproof. Preliminary studies indicate that BPA affects the physical and mental development in children, may lower the body’s immune system, and perhaps increases cancer risk. The European Commission, representing the European countries, has essentially banned the chemical’s use in Europe.

American politicians refused to ban BPA in a food-safety bill approved last week because the American Chemical Council, representing the big bucks of the chemical industry, said 800 studies indicated that low doses “are not a risk to human health.”

Well, wait a minute. Over 90 percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their urine. BPA is even present in the umbilical cords of our babies. The Food and Drug Administration has expressed “concern” that BPA may “alter the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in children, both before and after birth.”

Seven states in this country have already banned BPA products from store shelves. None is a Republican state.

States have also warned pregnant and nursing women to eat fresh or frozen products instead of canned because cans often have plastic linings that contain BPA.

“The Best Congress Money Can Buy” has decided again that profits outrank people on the free market scales.  So BPA affects development, lowers immunity, increases cancer risk, and is also linked to heart disease, diabetes, and low sperm counts. Big deal. The chemical boys want to go to the bank.
Do Afghans Need More Rules and Regulations in the Game of Buzkashi?
Some rules rules and regulations may have to be tempered to create a balance between profit and protecting the health and vitality of people. Games must be regulated so that competing parties have an equal go at a win or a loss. Casinos win and build billion-dollar hotels because the bettor has already decided that he is going to gain exciting entertainment for his losing dollars. He might get lucky once in a Vegas moon. If he thinks he is going to beat the casino over the long haul, he’d better stick to Monopoly or marbles and look for a counselor.

The Afghan national game of Buzkashi dates back to the rule of Genghis Khan and has not changed in over 500 years. A team of 12 men on horseback tries to carry a headless, bloody goat carcass the entire length of a field of undetermined size around a goal and back through the other team, using whips, fists, and head butts in the process. An American seeing the game for the first time said he thought the tactics stopped just short of murder—but he wasn’t sure.

The game starts with one player leaning far over his horse to grab the newly decapitated goat by a leg and dashing down the field toward the goal, surrounded by his team. All hell breaks out with the 24 men trying to protect or grab the headless goat. Sometimes horses drop dead from fatigue. This is not a mile and 3/4 race. Some spectators are trampled because rarely do the participants stay within the poorly marked boundaries of the Buzkashi field. In the old Marine Corps we had a discriminating expression, “like a Chinese fire drill.” This game is much worse. Some refer to it as an “expression of violent anarchy.”
Why Not Introduce Buskashi to America?  It Could Really Help Our Unemployment Problem
As more Americans in Afghanistan view this sport, I would not be surprised to see American promoters try the game in the United States. The Afghans have already suggested that it become an Olympic sport. 

Just think. We have a surplus of wild horses in the Western states. We could have prison inmates train them in the skills of Buzkashi, allowing the first five to finish the training to be freed from their sentences if they are on the winning side. They could also be invited to the barbecue of the goat after the game, sort of a postgame horsetailgating party.

This game could employ a lot of people. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, agents representing skilled goat grabbers, concessions people selling everything from beer to goat on a stick, to decorated horse apples from favorite Buzkashi horses.

And as the Buzkashi game spreads across this country as NASCAR did, fair and impartial rules and regulations could be developed for the size of the field and goal, the size and weight of the horses, the type of drug tests for both horses and goat grabbers, the quality and breeding of the goat, and other necessary and prudent rules for control of the fans. We could even establish a player and horse draft system. And just think of the number of goats needed.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)