I am full of rage. I am totally desensitized by violence. I couldn’t care less if I hopped into a car, ran over a few pedestrians and shot a few cops. After all, I play video games. I am super-aggressive; I beat children, old ladies and puppies. I am ready to commit my first homicide thanks to countless hours of playing “murder simulators.” I am, in the eyes of pundits, the norm. Even our beloved sports games are now being blamed for people like myself starting gangs and killing hordes of people.

Obviously nothing what I said above was true except two points; first being that I play video games and second being that some media talking-heads are suggesting that football video games have totally stripped away any emotions we might feel when we witness a catastrophic injury on the real-life gridiron.  In a recent article, The Virginian-Pilot’s Bob Molinaro puts forth the notion that Buffalo Bills’ tight end Kevin Everett’s recent serious spinal injury hasn’t been dominating the news and the talk around the dinner table is because we play football video games.

“This makes me wonder if the catastrophic injury to Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett will make any real impression on the desensitized adolescents and adults raised with the cartoon violence of ‘Madden '08’ or ‘NFL Blitz,’ or the absurd blood-and-guts scenarios associated with other Xbox games.”

First, there is no game called NFL Blitz any more.  And it's obvious nobody who's older than 2 months has been raised on Madden 2008.  All of that aside, what shocking allegations!  I can't tragic situation is marginalized and used as a tool to take pot shots at video games!  Crazy right!??!  Not really.  As recently as the terrible murders at Virginia Tech, video games have bared the brunt of media criticism in attempts to explain such senseless acts of violence.  That dirt bag played Counter Strike, so that must’ve been why he carried out the attacks.  Oh yeah, I play CS so I must be a loony-toon as well.  I could obviously go on and on with examples of games like Doom, Grand Theft Auto, Soldier of Fortune, and many others that have been tied to the proverbial stake and lit on fire in cases like Virginia Tech.  But now a sports game is getting blamed for the public (supposedly) not caring about a terrible injury on the field.

This is new territory but nothing that knocks your socks off.  I guess it was the natural evolution of things.  Eventually sports games were going to get blamed for something.  But if finger-pointers like Mr. Molinaro actually played these games they’d know that the violence level (Outside of what is seen on the field every Saturday and Sunday) is very mild compared to their real-life counterparts.  For example there are no "Player X is hurt with a broken neck and will never walk again" injuries in these games.  There are big hits, but for the most part the aim of the producers of these games is realism so they don't want cartoony big hits.  There aren’t even "Player Y is out 4 weeks for taking HGH" or "Player Z is out for the season for being convicted on federal dog fighting charges" news stories in our football games.  So I guess you could say these games actually paint a more-positive picture of the league.  Not once have I been playing Madden and been notified that I’ve lost a first round draft pick and fined $750,000 for spying on my buddy playing next to me as he tries to call his plays.

The bottom line is these games do nothing to desensitize us from real-life injuries.  You know what desensitizes us?  Constant coverage of death and violence in print and television media outlets.  When was the last time you picked up any newspaper or watched any newscast that didn’t have some sort of violent story either on the front page or headlined within 2 minutes of you changing the channel?  Everywhere you turn the media is shoving some kind of violent story down our throat, but out of the other side of it’s collective mouth we’re being told we’re too callous, too self-important and too disconnected.  Quite the throne these media people have placed themselves on, isn’t it?

So if we don’t start forming grief-counseling sessions over the injury of a player it’s because, obviously, we play football games and we don't care.  Of course this is a horrible misnomer.  I’ve seen countless posts at our forum and many other websites that did nothing but wish the best for Kevin Everett and prayers that he may walk again.  Maybe the media that Mr. Molinaro is a member of should do a better job at keeping these stories front-and-center instead of beating us to death with dog fighting, steroids, video cameras, cheating, gambling and O.J. Simpson until we can only react in one way – apathy. 

"Another Mike Vick story..."

*Click* 

Maybe all of the well wishes from us heathens have made some kind of positive impact for Kevin Everett.  As of this story being published, he now has shown increased strength in his legs and is moving his hands.  Kind of ironic that a bunch of people here at DSM (brought together by a football video game no less) can agree so wholeheartedly on the hopes for a quick and painless recovery of a player we may never have even heard of.  Most importantly there was not one person on our forums who brushed off the scene of Everett lying on the field last week in Buffalo as routine and nothing to be concerned about because we are veteran football video gamers.  Try getting 3 guys on one of ESPN’s many “Screaming Panel Shows” to agree that the sky is blue.  But Thank God they don’t play football games or else they’d really be jaded.

I think I speak for everybody here at DSM when I say get well soon Kevin Everett.  And to Mr. Bob Molinaro, you might have some credibility in this matter if I didn't see at least 6 links to news stories about murder and death on the front page of your newspaper's website.  Surely these stories aren't nearly as desensitizing as my Boston College dynasty in NCAA College Football '08.