1976 Signatures! (see below)

Quarterback Peyton Manning, in a display of leadership, quietly explained why the Colts don't denigrate their rookies by outlandish, foolish stunts such as giving players a Friar Tuck haircut, taping them to goalposts, or subjecting them to ridicule for entertainment's sake.

Manning said this: "One thing around here, I know you’ve seen all highlights on the rookie hazing and the haircuts and all of that, we just don’t do that around here. We don’t really treat those guys like rookies. We expect those guys to play for us this year and to play well. I think we are probably not very patient. We don’t cut them a whole lot of slack. If they are on the team, we expect them to know the offense and be in there. That’s why we treat them all like veterans."

Moreover, the nation has been sickened by high school hazing incidents in camps and buses and locker rooms that have seen young athletes ridiculed, pummeled and even injured through the insertion of foreign objects into bodily parts, a practice unpunished all too often and rightly called rape when it is punished.

We have also seen college athletes embarrassed on Youtube and social network sites after they've been photographed or videotaped while dead drunk to satisfy some sort of puerile need for team bonding that actually can cause cliques, endanger team chemistry, and put the lives of drinkers and the reputations of their hazers at risk.

It isn't that we're holier than thou or against harmless pranks that are a part of sport. What we oppose unilaterally are sport initiations done for the purpose of cheap entertainment or for misguided bonding.

By putting my signature below, I signify that I oppose hazing in amateur and professional sports and respectfully ask coaches, players, league officials and sports reporters to call for an end to the practice of hazing. I support the NCAA, NFHS, HazingPrevention.org and Stophazing.org in their attempts to restore confidence in amateur and pro sport by pushing for a national ban on hazing.

Sincerely,