Big boys do cry

The NFL is awash with questions of what it is to be masculine — and generally the answers are reassuringly woke. The debate flourished after Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr appeared to cry after getting injured in the London loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The incident sparked reports that the rest of the Raiders’ crew had lost confidence in the quarterback after they heard him whimper in pain and then spill tears. But a funny thing happened on the way to what could have been a circus . . . people stepped up to defend Carr, and the idea of men crying in general. Carr had a huge supporter in Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was asked for his reaction on a fellow QB spilling tears. “Just because you cry doesn’t mean you’re any less manly,” Big Ben said. “He might have been (physically) hurting, who knows? I know I have cried in the locker room before from both joy and pain. You lose a football game, you hurt. If you’re not showing emotion — if he gets up from something like that (getting sacked and fumbling late in a blowout loss) and he’s laughing, then he’s going to get chastised for not showing enough emotion. I don’t know exactly the story . . . but for me I don’t think it makes us any less of a man to show emotion.” Roethlisberger was one of many with the same view which is great role-modelling.