By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
Former NFL lineman Joe Ehrmann has been thrust into the limelight since filming a video for the league that was given to the media last week.
Ehrmann, who is now a minister and a motivational speaker, will soon receive a wider audience. A 40-minute version of that video will be sent to every college and high school football coach in the country.
"(The video is) basically training coaches how to speak to their players about issues of male violence toward women," said Ehrmann, who spoke Tuesday morning on NFL Network's "NFL AM."
The NFL said Ehrmann and his video also will be part of the league's program to players about the importance of personal conduct. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last week every league employee will be required to go through the program with the help of NFL Player Engagement.
"I've been running workshops in the NFL with coaches and players for a number of years now," he said. "I do a lot of work with domestic violence, male violence toward women as a crime of power and control.
"Women can't end it. All women can do is reduce the risk. It's not going to end until we raise up a generation of men who have the moral courage to call out other men, hold men accountable for the way they treat or talk about girls and women."
Ehrmann said the core subject is masculinity.
"It's really about how we're raising boys into manhood," he said, "and boys at a very early age are told to be man. That's almost always in the context of ... 'stop with the tears, stop with the emotions.' You have boys at a very early age starting to separate their hearts from their head.
"I think the challenge is that we need to make sure every man has his heart nurtured. (That they) learn how to speak and find their own masculinity based on their capacity to love and be loved. It's a societal issue. I think the NFL has been given the mantle of leadership. I think something very positive is going to come out of this."
