In defense of participation trophies

Did you see the story about the NFL star who returned his young sons’ “participation trophies?” Linebacker James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t just return the offending trophies to the youth sports league that awarded them to his children, ages six and eight. Harrison returned the offending trophies and then announced on his Instagram account the reason that he had returned the offending trophies:

I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best...cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better...not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u up and keep you happy.#harrisonfamilyvalues

Harrison's post was wildly popular and spread quickly through the world of social media. He struck a nerve with a great many Americans who share his opinion that participation trophies are the embodiment of all that is wrong with the over-privileged, over-indulged, narcissistic, weak, lazy-ass, disrespectful youth of today. You might as well give a kid a trust fund and an Ivy League education if you are so unconcerned with fostering an expectation of entitlement. I mean, can you even imagine? Awarding a kid a cheap plastic trophy? For doing nothing more than participating? You certainly won’t get anywhere in this world by participating.

Oh wait. That’s exactly how you will get somewhere in this world. And that’s the flaw in the logic of Harrison and the rest of you non-participation trophy fans. In Harrison’s own words, recognizing a kid for participating is the equivalent of recognizing a kid for doing nothing. Think about that for a moment. It's utter nonsense. Participating is the exact opposite of doing nothing. Every single one of life’s successes is built upon participation. Getting involved. Getting our hands dirty. Working up a sweat. We should be encouraging our kids to participate. In fact, the better argument is that we should award our kids even more participation trophies.

Harrison makes the secondary argument that participation trophies stunt the desire to excel, to strive for perfection. Because once you receive a participation trophy, what else is there to accomplish? Wanna toss the ball around, son? No thanks, Dad. Think I'm gonna go to my room and play with my participation trophy. That just does not happen. Think about the kids that you know. Most of them have their shit together much more than you did at their age. More than you do now, probably. And almost every one of them has a shelf somewhere in their room stacked with participation trophies (except the Harrison boys and my oldest daughter - we gave all her participation trophies to the Idaho Youth Ranch one time when we decided we needed to unclutter our home).  In fact, the No. 1 complaint us Old People have about Kids These Days is that they don’t participate enough in activities (or real life). We complain that they bury their noses in smart phones while texting friends or that they can't be pulled away from video games. Yet best not to reward them with a cheap trinket for completing a season of soccer unless maybe they win the World Cup.

Participation trophies may be a convenient target for you haters who fondly reminiscing about the glory days. Count me out. Encouraging kids to participate is much more important than any misguided effort to teach a lesson about doing better than your best, as Mr. Harrison expects from his children. In his defense, he has spent his life with football coaches who are always in your face about giving 110 percent. Apparently football is not constrained by mathematical truths. Fair enough, but I'm more concerned that my children will manage a good, honest effort at life and just maybe find something approaching happiness along the way. So more participation trophies, please. Let’s call this #StraightOuttaBoiseFamilyValues.