Dealing with Hazing

Some people like Peyton Manning have some real problems with hazing. Here are his thoughts. In summary, he thinks that rookies should be treated the same way because they are expected to come in right away and produce. Therefore, you should treat them the same way as anyone else. I guess he has one Super Bowl under his belt and almost had another one last year. And he did get a lot out of not one but two rookie receivers. Treating people with dignity and respect is biblical, so I guess I can't argue with treating them the same as everyone else. 

Nevertheless, I don't see anything ideologically or necessarily un-biblical about it. After all, most rookies come in demanding more money than the veterans make or else they hold out. They've been at the top of the food chain for so long and everyone has assisted in their ego blotation. It might help partake some much needed humility to their lives.

But I'm now turning away to the difference in ways some rookies handle it.

Dez Bryant of the Cowboys refused to carry the pads of the receiver he was brought in to eventually replace. Tim Tebow, now of the Broncos, on the other hand, gladly went with it. In fact he got something a little more lasting than carrying pads: a medieval friars hair cut. Check it out here. It's more than pretty bad. 

When interviewed, he said he thought it was fun and helped foster a sense of team. He wants to earn the respect of his teammates. Well, he got it. When other veterans Champ Baily and Brian Dawkins were interviewed about Tebow, they said the main thing that stuck out to them was "his humility." How rookie football players deal with hazing obviously speaks quite loudly. 

If how we respond to persecution is part of our witness to unbelievers (one of the themes of I Peter), it would make sense that the same is true of harmless hazing (I'm not talking crazy fraternity stuff). So from heckling to hazing to persecution, its a good, but sobering reminder that we're always witnessing to someone.