Day Seven, Part Two: And Charles Barkley Says Something Outright Dangerous

Sure, it's stupid to say this, Sir Charles.

But, either way, you have probably stepped in a very dangerous space.

CBS, in it's continuing coverage of the downfall of the Football Hero Abuser (speaking generally, though Peterson was the specific target here), had Charles Barkley on this morning.

And he stepped in it hard, as Barkley is known to do.

From Yahoo!'s Ball Don't Lie blog, speaking to Jim Rome (I'm assuming this is NOT The NFL Today, but a CBS Sports Network preview show):

Barkley: "I'm from the South. I understand Boomer's (Esiason) rage and anger ... but he's a white guy and I'm a black guy. I don't know where he's from (editor's note: Esiason grew up in Long Island), I'm from the South. Whipping -- we do that all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances."

Rome: "It doesn't matter where you're from: Right is right and wrong is wrong."

Barkley: "I don't believe that because, listen, we spank kids in the South. I think the question about whether Adrian Peterson went overboard -- Listen, Jim, we all grow up in different environments. Every black parent in my neighborhood in the South would be in trouble or in jail under those circumstances."

Rome: "My thing is: I don't want to tell anybody how to raise their kids and I really don't want anybody telling me how to raise my kids. But let's make a distinction between 'child rearing' and 'child abuse.' That was child abuse. There's no fine line here."

Barkley: "I think there's a fine line. Jim, I've had many welts on my legs. I've gotten beat with switches -- and I don't even like the term. When the media talks about it, 'beating a child'--

Rome: "But that's what that was, Charles."

Barkley: "We called it 'spanking' or 'whipping' our kids."

Rome: "If I see open wounds or bruises on a body that is a beating."

Barkley: "Sure. I think those pictures are disturbing. And I think Adrian said 'I went overboard.' But as far as being from the South, we all spanked our kids -- I got spanked, me an my two brothers"--

Rome: "But then, Chuck, not now, right? 1964 is one thing, 2014 is another. Maybe we need to rethink this thing."

Barkley: "And I totally agree with that. But I think we have to really be careful trying to teach other parents how to discipline their kids. That's a very fine line."

 This is a very dangerous space, Charles.

If you're wrong, it's insensitive enough you should be fired from your jobs.

If you're right, you may have just explained why football, abuse, and the complete denial of reality go hand in hand.

Jim Rome is right, and it appears as if Charles Barkley is OK with institutional beating of children.

One now has to wonder, with the predominance of successful football programs in the South, whether dehumanizing abuse is a contributing factor (on at least a correlative level, if not a causative level) to success on the field.

It would be no wonder, if this is true, why football players and abuse of everything around them are married so cleanly.