The N-word.

The word that is not only a slur, but also has had a strong negative impact in the National Football League in the past year.

The NFL has proposed a rule that would enforce a 15-yard penalty for anyone who uses the word, bringing plenty of controversy among fans, who believe all hate speech should be wiped from the field of play.

The past year we have witnessed the Richie Incognito problem, Riley Cooper’s racist slur, and other mishaps of players shouting obscenities on the field for viewers at home to hear.

The NFL is a workplace, even during a game, all the fans and players crying out “freedom of speech” and “America,” need to understand that language like that has no business on the field of play.

The undereducated fans need to understand that the N-word is not simply a profane use of language, but a derogatory slur that has had a long negative history for African-Americans.

The league is not only doing this because they want to ban the slur from the field of play, but the fact that football games are one of the top rated broadcast games for fans to watch at home.

Now something most people are complaining about is understanding that the word can still be used behind closed doors and among teammates, so players who use the slang version of the N-word as a term of brotherhood and endearment can still use it.

Being honest, it is hard to compare other slurs to the N-word since about 69 percent of players are people of color with 66 percent of them being black, according to University of Central Florida’s Dr. Richard Lapchick’s 2013 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Football League.

This rule is all about the image of the NFL, with players mic’d up for America to hear, the NFL does not want to promote players using language that is viewed by most as a racist slur.

The hypocrisy that is the NFL will accept a slur like “Redskin,” a term no good person on Earth would ever call a Native American, but will ban black players,who truly believe the slang of the N-word is a term of endearment, from speaking it.

If a player shouts the word angrily at an opponent or yells it in a referee’s microphone (a penalty would be assessed for any slur or profane words to the referee anyway), penalties should be handed out just because it literally is “unsportsmanlike.”

Players like Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman have already expressed their dislike of putting a ban on the N-word.

As a white writer, a voice on the word truly means nothing other than believing it is a terrible word that is sadly still used by plenty of racist people today. What white people can do is simply listen to the opinions of people of color, and so far the feelings are mixed about the complex slang word, but the majority of people are in agreement that the N-word with negative intent has no business on the football field.