[mmmpop]

> Plenty of men with single mothers* learn to play sports just fine (see many NBA and NFL players).

True but I'd bet that many of these men came from urban areas where the community had services in place for younger people to find older mentors, and generally stay out of trouble.

I'm from eastern Kentucky originally and was lucky to have a fantastic stepfather, but I watched a lot of kids grow up with not much support past their single parent of either gender, and only a few of those I knew made it to 18 going anywhere near the correct trajectory. Outside of churches, there wasn't a lot of taxpayer-funded support for kids with single parents as it was probably a "moral" issue to the local politicians who still find the idea of a single parent family abhorrent and prefer to ignore it.