I never understood what the big deal was about famous people’s opinions.
There’s been a lot of chatter today about comments made by former NFL quarterback turned sports talk radio host, Boomer Esiason, about his thoughts on paternity leave taken by a NY Mets baseball player, Dan Murphy.
The gist of the situation is that MLB players are entitled to three days of paternity leave or three games worth maybe, and this player, Murphy, took all three of his to see his wife give birth and be there for her while she was at the hospital. Murphy is 29 years old and this was his first child, so I’m guessing he was pretty pumped to become a dad.
Unimpressed with Murphy missing any time on the field, Esiason, who has played exactly zero MLB games, criticized Murphy for missing even a single game. Esiason went so far as to say that he’d have had his wife schedule a C-section before the season started so as to not miss any time.
Wait, what did you say, Don?
I said that he, Esiason, said on the air, that he would have made his wife schedule a C-section before the season started! You got that?
What a fucking idiotic thing to say.
Boomer Esiason seems to be an okay guy, so I won’t judge him entirely for saying something stupid on the air. Lord knows if I was judged for everything I’ve ever said, I’d have been crucified a long time ago.
Boomer has a family himself, including a son with Cystic Fibrosis. Boomer’s foundation has raised a whole lot of money and done a whole lot of good for other families who are going through life caring for a loved one with CF, so let’s not dismiss the good this man has done just because he said something stupid.
Boomer’s own website quotes him as saying the following:
One of the first lessons I learned in youth football was that winning requires all of the individual athletes on a team to come together, to cooperate and to support each other. It’s a lesson I think also applies to cystic fibrosis.
You know where else that applies, Boomer?
To your most important teammates, your family.
To Murphy’s family.
Winning at parenting requires the individuals on the family team to come together, to cooperate and to support each other. Murphy supported his wife by being there for her and THEIR baby.
It was their first baby, Boomer.
Do you remember your first baby being born?
I know I remember when my first one was born.
I was a wreck. Even as we were leaving the hospital three days later, I remember looking at my wife in the new SUV I’d traded my pickup truck in to buy and asking her, “now what the fuck do we do?”
The baby was in the backseat and we were supposed to take her home and figure out how the fuck to raise her. All of a sudden, we were responsible for another person!
Murphy’s wife will have plenty of time alone with her baby while her husband is on the road playing ball.
Yes, he makes almost $6 million dollars a year and can hire a nurse or nanny, but that’s not the same as having dad there.
That he gave the three days that he could to her and his new baby should be applauded, not ridiculed.
While Murphy is a major league ballplayer, at the end of the day, he’s just a dude, like me. He’s a dude with more money than me, yes, but he’s a new dad just like millions of other men have been before him. He has the same concerns and issues that we all do as new dads.
Boomer Esiason is also just a dude like me. Yes, he’s also a dude with more money than me, but still just a dude. He talks out his ass for a living now. His words don’t mean squat more than if some homeless man on the street had said the same thing. They shouldn’t anyway. He’s no expert on anything parenting related, so take what he said for what it is, an opinion based on nothing more than his own limited experiences. His conjecture about the C-section his wife would have agreed to is nothing more than bullshit machismo for the sake of the NY area numbnuts who listen to sports radio.
He knows as much about what’s best for new parents as Oprah Winfrey does about what’s best for newlyweds. Oprah is always giving advice about marriage and, you know what? SHE’S NEVER FUCKING BEEN MARRIED!!!
You shouldn’t get to talk about shit like that unless you’ve experienced it for at least five minutes.
She hasn’t, but people are still enamored with her opinions because she’s rich and famous.
Rich, famous people are just people, people. Don’t give them more credit than they deserve.
They aren’t the big deal that so many people seem to think they are, people other than me, of course.
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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. Today’s sentence, I never understood what the big deal was about… is brought to you by the lovely Katia, of I am The Milk Show her some love on her site.
Your hosts: Janine: Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic
Kate: Can I get another bottle of whine?
Stephanie: Mommy, for Real
Kristi: Finding Ninee
