“BIRTHRIGHT AND BLESSING”
Genesis 27:18-45
The Rev. Ms. Laurie A. McNeill
Montclair, New Jersey
July 17, 2005
College football coaches insist that they need 100 scholarship players on their teams, even
though there are only 11 men on the field at one time. Isn’t it amazing that so many players are needed!
If there are 11 players on offense and 11 players on defense – that’s only 22 people. Throw in a place
kicker, a punter, and a few other specialists and the total reaches 30. If a college were to field enough
football players for 2 teams, that would require, say, 60 men. But coaches like to have almost a
hundred players on the roster – more than enough to field 4 teams.
Now, if one aspires to play football in college, those large numbers are appealing. There are
more opportunities for a guy to make a squad with 100 players than a team with 30. If one happens to
be a wrestler, however, one’s talent and dreams may end on the grid iron and never reach the mat.
As colleges and universities have begun to award athletic scholarships to women and to field
intercollegiate athletic teams that did not exist until the 1980's, they have had to deal with limited funds.
Some schools have cut men’s sports, such as wrestling and swimming, to finance women’s programs.
Those who follow college sports know that Title IX, one of the federal educational amendments
from 1972, has made possible opportunities for women that were non-existent as recently as two
decades ago.
Because college football is such a crowd-pleaser and a high-dollar sport, football coaches have
refused to cut their rosters. But there are consequences to such choices. For every athletic scholarship
awarded to a man, there is to be a scholarship of equal value awarded to a woman. A school is able to
fund women’s teams in basketball, soccer, field hockey, softball, golf and tennis, just to counter one
men’s football team. Colleges must then cut other men’s programs, such as wrestling and swimming, to
create a balance between the number of male and female athletes.
Instead of blaming Steve Spurrier or Joe Paterno for the imbalance, the men who have had their
programs eliminated have been critical of the women. Because the women have entered the sports
arena, some reason, there is less room for the men.
There is a protest that one’s birthright has been stolen.
The women have taken away that which has belonged to the men! The women have taken that
to which the men are entitled – or so goes the claim.
Without a doubt, Title IX has made a profound difference in the lives of women. In 1972, only
9% of medical degrees were awarded to women; in 1994, the number rose to 38%. In 1972, only 7%
of law degrees were awarded to women; in 1994, the number reached 43%. In 1977, the number of
doctoral degrees awarded to women was 25%; in 1994, that figure had climbed to 44%.
Opportunities that were within the exclusive or predominant domain of men now are available,
in greater measure, for women. The gain for the one results in loss for the other. That which men had
received as a given for having been born male has been legislated away from them.
Like Jacob who snatched from Esau the benefits of his birth, women have seized from men
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