#boycottnfl
It's been Fall (officially) for a month, which means it is football season here in the US. If you've followed the President's Twitter feed in the past few weeks, you may be aware that our highest elected official has taken some issue with the NFL recently. More specifically, the President has voiced his displeasure with certain athletes who have chosen not to stand for the National Anthem, which proceeds each gridiron match, as a matter of protest for a variety of perceived injustices. He's also admonished the various coaches, general managers and owners who have allowed this, in the President's view, unpatriotic behavior. In one of his official tweets, the President suggested that fans stop going to NFL games until the players stop disrespecting the flag and the country, and in another "re-tweeted" something that included the hashtag "#boycottnfl". The feud seemed to hit a precipice two weeks ago, when Vice President Mike Pence walked out of a game, apparently as directed to by his boss, between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers, the team with which the National Anthem protest began during the 2016-17 season.
While the President and I have some pretty profound philosophical differences on a number of issues (okay, most every issue), this is actually one of his suggestions that I can support, albeit for very different reasons. In fact, I've been on my own personal boycott of most all football consumption, the NFL in particular, for the past three years. Admittedly, I've been considerably less public about my abstention and have significantly fewer Twitter followers* than @realDonaldTrump. I have alluded before via this blog about my disdain for the sport, and this overdue post seems like an appropriate time to divulge more on why I would be completely fine with football (in its current form) ceasing to exist.
Growing up, my Mom was adamant that I not participate in
organized football. “It’s too dangerous
and you will get hurt,” was her argument.
While her opinion toward the sport was not the sole reason I did not
play football growing up, as I certainly engaged in a number of other things she explicitly told me not to, it did likely play a factor in my decision. In retrospect (of course), I am extremely grateful that
she voiced her opinion as strongly as she did. Had I really wanted to play, undoubtedly she would have supported me with as much enthusiasm as she has done, and continues to do, with all of my other pursuits. Fortunately, for her sake, and mine, I was as much of a "pussy" (in stereotypical terms) in my adolescence as I am now^, and never got around to putting on the pads. Just those maxi-pads (since I was a pussy, get it?).
I know what you are thinking; "liberal, stay at home dad is a anti-football, big shocker." The reality is that I haven't always been such a football antagonist. Growing up I spent countless hours watching football and playing informal games (mostly one-on-one against myself) in my backyard. As a youngster, I was convinced that I would one day play football for the Fightin' Irish. When those dreams were dashed, I still found myself at a college with a storied football program of which I was a fervent, if not often intoxicated fan. For a number of years I managed a chronically under-performing fantasy football team, and to this day, one of my favorite games on the Super Nintendo gaming platform is Tecmo Super Bowl. While those memories all hold a certain level of fondness for me, they don't overshadow my belief that the sport of football perpetuates an unnecessary culture of violence that is just as dangerous off the field as it is on.
You can certainly be critical about any professional sport, and as someone who likes to pretend to be a sport sociologist, I've become considerably less fanatic of virtually every professional spectator sport. But in my view, football takes the cake. Whether it is your on-field issues of excessive injuries, especially concussions and brain injuries, or the locker room culture of misogyny and homophobia with not so subtle notes of racism sprinkled in that, in my view, promote a general degradation of human value. This is amplified by the fact that without a doubt, football is the most popular sport in America, and every time we (the Royal We) spend an exorbitant amount of time on Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, Monday nights, and now even Thursday nights cheering on such an environment, it becomes more ingrained in our ethos and accepted in our society.
The most obvious knock on football is the violent nature of the sport, and the increased risk for injury, especially a head or brain injury. Football proponents often like to cite a, somewhat foggy, statistic that you are more likely to sustain a concussion playing soccer than you are playing football. This may be true statistically, and it may not also be particularly relevant, as other studies have begun to look at the effects of other types of brain injury, like CTE, which may be just as bad as a concussion, if not worse. To me, though, the difference lies in how these injuries are sustained. Football by its very nature is violent. Injuries, especially ones involving the head and brain, are almost always the result of two players engaging in action that anywhere besides the football field (or boxing ring or ice rink) would likely be considered assault and battery.
For this reason, some scientists have started to examine possible correlations between potential brain damage and aggressive behavior among current and former NFL players, citing the league's disproportionately high arrest rate for domestic violence in comparison to other sports. It's a pretty well established fact, as psychologist Adrian Raine points out, that a damaged prefrontal cortex, a likely outcome of repeated blows to the head, can raise the odds of impulsive and aggressive behavior. By no means does this condone the off field behavior of players like Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson or Greg Hardy, but given the beating they take on the field, can we really be that surprised when they act in a violent manner during a tense moment? Of course we would hope that athletes could differentiate between what behavior is only acceptable on the field, but when they are paid millions of dollars to do physical damage to others, or to have it be done to them, I can see where some confusion might exist.
Beyond the potential for a compromised prefontal cortex, anyone who has played football or watched a football coach engage with the players, knows that football players are taught to be aggressive. This is especially true in the NFL, where the difference between winning or losing, or even making a roster can be millions of dollars, but it can permeate to all levels of the game. Recall the New Orleans Saints "Bountygate" which came to light following the 2011 season? In 2012, the year Head Coach Sean Payton had to "sit-out" for his role in the scandal, he managed to stay busy by helping coach the Liberty Christian (emphasis mine) 6th Grade Team. Don't worry, he was back to the NFL after that, signing a new five year contract that made him the highest paid coach in NFL history.
The sport creates and perpetuates this culture of violence and aggression by the collective roar of approval the fans give any time someone gets "lit up" on the field. It encourages players to find success on the field by, as Pro Bowl Defensive Back Richard Sherman aptly put it, "going to a dark place...where there is a lot of animosity and frustration." How else can we expect grown men to get hyped up to play a game that is, “meant to kill each other” as Dutch speed-skating coach Jillert Anema candidly described it. I think it also perpetuates this culture when it fosters an environment of misogyny and homophobia by actively pushing out those, like Chris Kluwe, Jonathan Martin, and Michael Sam, who don't fit the desired mold of the "tough macho man", a stereotype that even found its way into this past week's episode of "This Is Us". Personally, I never fit that mold (as if that wasn't glaringly apparent), and I see little benefit in promoting that mold as the preferred one for impressionable young boys or anyone else.
Unfortunately, the culture created by football is one that our society seems willing to accept for the sport to be what it is. A culture we essentially celebrate, given the amount of public and private resources that are dedicated to it. Even my own state of Minnesota, which I've always viewed as relatively progressive, found a half billion dollars of public money to help build a new professional football stadium, while subsequently being unable to pony up half as much for a universal preschool program. And while viewership of NFL games might be declining (and certainly not because of my or probably the President's call to boycott), an estimated 203 million (about 62%) of the US population tuned in at some point to watch an NFL game during the 2016 season. The Super Bowl is still perennially the most watched event on TV each year, providing more than ample justification of the exorbitant fees charged for advertisement slots.
Combine that with the number of college football games, where Division I is essentially a minor league NFL (with comparable on and off field problems), high school football games, and youth leagues, and football has a very prominent place in our society, especially this time of year. Of course you also can't overlook the billion dollar industry of fantasy football and sports betting, and all of the time that is required to support that industry. If there is potential correlation between playing the sport of football and being more prone to aggressive behavior, I would hypothesize that the sheer act of consuming large amounts of football would make one more prone to aggressive behavior. If you have the financial resources and/or academic know-how to conduct such a study, let me know, I'd be happy to consult on it.
Of course there are a number of incredible things you can learn from the sport of football; teamwork, hard work, perseverance, dedication, time management, etc. The world is certainly filled with passionate football players and fans who are incredible and kind people. By leveling my objections about the sport, I don't mean to imply that playing the sport or being a fan makes you a horrible person prone to violence and uncontrollable aggression. Football certainly has a lot of great qualities, but you have to take the bad with the good. I believe that any of those benefits you can get from playing football can also be attained through other sports, or various other activities, that are considerably less violent and dangerous.
I would also argue that the reason football is so popular, especially here in the US, is because of the violent and aggressive nature of the game, which encourages those who play it to do so in a manner that can be seriously injurious to both themselves and others - potentially both on and off the field. It is, as author Gregg Easterbrook observes, "quintessentially American - too violent, too loud, too commercialized." The game could no doubt be made considerably safer, but who would watch it? Would people really tune in to watch professional flag football? Even the one most passionately, and often incoherently, calling for a boycott of the sport believes it is "going soft" due to excessive regulations+ to protect player safety.
There is a sports bar that I often drive past (en route to our girl's dance studio of all places) whose marquee last fall claimed it as "Football Heaven." Presumably this was because of the bar patrons' ability to watch any football game they would want on any or all of the establishment's very large televisions. As I repeatedly drove past this sign, I thought about what a "Football Heaven" might actually look like. I wondered if that is where guys like Junior Seau and Dave Duerson end up. Or maybe the 92 high school football players who died between 2005 and 2014. Maybe Odin Lloyd is there (probably not Aaron Hernandez). Maybe in football heaven everyone just plays two hand touch, or maybe there isn't any football at all. All I know is that, thanks in large part to my Mom's wisdom, I'll probably never find out. Before we had a son, I used to joke that I was glad we had only had girls, so I (presumably) wouldn't have to discourage them from playing football. And while I know that my son looks like a "future linebacker" (he actually has more of an O-line build at this point), I'm going to be just as adamant, if not more, that he not play that position, or any other position on the football field. Ever. Not even punter.
I know what you are thinking; "liberal, stay at home dad is a anti-football, big shocker." The reality is that I haven't always been such a football antagonist. Growing up I spent countless hours watching football and playing informal games (mostly one-on-one against myself) in my backyard. As a youngster, I was convinced that I would one day play football for the Fightin' Irish. When those dreams were dashed, I still found myself at a college with a storied football program of which I was a fervent, if not often intoxicated fan. For a number of years I managed a chronically under-performing fantasy football team, and to this day, one of my favorite games on the Super Nintendo gaming platform is Tecmo Super Bowl. While those memories all hold a certain level of fondness for me, they don't overshadow my belief that the sport of football perpetuates an unnecessary culture of violence that is just as dangerous off the field as it is on.
You can certainly be critical about any professional sport, and as someone who likes to pretend to be a sport sociologist, I've become considerably less fanatic of virtually every professional spectator sport. But in my view, football takes the cake. Whether it is your on-field issues of excessive injuries, especially concussions and brain injuries, or the locker room culture of misogyny and homophobia with not so subtle notes of racism sprinkled in that, in my view, promote a general degradation of human value. This is amplified by the fact that without a doubt, football is the most popular sport in America, and every time we (the Royal We) spend an exorbitant amount of time on Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, Monday nights, and now even Thursday nights cheering on such an environment, it becomes more ingrained in our ethos and accepted in our society.
The most obvious knock on football is the violent nature of the sport, and the increased risk for injury, especially a head or brain injury. Football proponents often like to cite a, somewhat foggy, statistic that you are more likely to sustain a concussion playing soccer than you are playing football. This may be true statistically, and it may not also be particularly relevant, as other studies have begun to look at the effects of other types of brain injury, like CTE, which may be just as bad as a concussion, if not worse. To me, though, the difference lies in how these injuries are sustained. Football by its very nature is violent. Injuries, especially ones involving the head and brain, are almost always the result of two players engaging in action that anywhere besides the football field (or boxing ring or ice rink) would likely be considered assault and battery.
For this reason, some scientists have started to examine possible correlations between potential brain damage and aggressive behavior among current and former NFL players, citing the league's disproportionately high arrest rate for domestic violence in comparison to other sports. It's a pretty well established fact, as psychologist Adrian Raine points out, that a damaged prefrontal cortex, a likely outcome of repeated blows to the head, can raise the odds of impulsive and aggressive behavior. By no means does this condone the off field behavior of players like Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson or Greg Hardy, but given the beating they take on the field, can we really be that surprised when they act in a violent manner during a tense moment? Of course we would hope that athletes could differentiate between what behavior is only acceptable on the field, but when they are paid millions of dollars to do physical damage to others, or to have it be done to them, I can see where some confusion might exist.
Beyond the potential for a compromised prefontal cortex, anyone who has played football or watched a football coach engage with the players, knows that football players are taught to be aggressive. This is especially true in the NFL, where the difference between winning or losing, or even making a roster can be millions of dollars, but it can permeate to all levels of the game. Recall the New Orleans Saints "Bountygate" which came to light following the 2011 season? In 2012, the year Head Coach Sean Payton had to "sit-out" for his role in the scandal, he managed to stay busy by helping coach the Liberty Christian (emphasis mine) 6th Grade Team. Don't worry, he was back to the NFL after that, signing a new five year contract that made him the highest paid coach in NFL history.
The sport creates and perpetuates this culture of violence and aggression by the collective roar of approval the fans give any time someone gets "lit up" on the field. It encourages players to find success on the field by, as Pro Bowl Defensive Back Richard Sherman aptly put it, "going to a dark place...where there is a lot of animosity and frustration." How else can we expect grown men to get hyped up to play a game that is, “meant to kill each other” as Dutch speed-skating coach Jillert Anema candidly described it. I think it also perpetuates this culture when it fosters an environment of misogyny and homophobia by actively pushing out those, like Chris Kluwe, Jonathan Martin, and Michael Sam, who don't fit the desired mold of the "tough macho man", a stereotype that even found its way into this past week's episode of "This Is Us". Personally, I never fit that mold (as if that wasn't glaringly apparent), and I see little benefit in promoting that mold as the preferred one for impressionable young boys or anyone else.
Unfortunately, the culture created by football is one that our society seems willing to accept for the sport to be what it is. A culture we essentially celebrate, given the amount of public and private resources that are dedicated to it. Even my own state of Minnesota, which I've always viewed as relatively progressive, found a half billion dollars of public money to help build a new professional football stadium, while subsequently being unable to pony up half as much for a universal preschool program. And while viewership of NFL games might be declining (and certainly not because of my or probably the President's call to boycott), an estimated 203 million (about 62%) of the US population tuned in at some point to watch an NFL game during the 2016 season. The Super Bowl is still perennially the most watched event on TV each year, providing more than ample justification of the exorbitant fees charged for advertisement slots.
Combine that with the number of college football games, where Division I is essentially a minor league NFL (with comparable on and off field problems), high school football games, and youth leagues, and football has a very prominent place in our society, especially this time of year. Of course you also can't overlook the billion dollar industry of fantasy football and sports betting, and all of the time that is required to support that industry. If there is potential correlation between playing the sport of football and being more prone to aggressive behavior, I would hypothesize that the sheer act of consuming large amounts of football would make one more prone to aggressive behavior. If you have the financial resources and/or academic know-how to conduct such a study, let me know, I'd be happy to consult on it.
Of course there are a number of incredible things you can learn from the sport of football; teamwork, hard work, perseverance, dedication, time management, etc. The world is certainly filled with passionate football players and fans who are incredible and kind people. By leveling my objections about the sport, I don't mean to imply that playing the sport or being a fan makes you a horrible person prone to violence and uncontrollable aggression. Football certainly has a lot of great qualities, but you have to take the bad with the good. I believe that any of those benefits you can get from playing football can also be attained through other sports, or various other activities, that are considerably less violent and dangerous.
I would also argue that the reason football is so popular, especially here in the US, is because of the violent and aggressive nature of the game, which encourages those who play it to do so in a manner that can be seriously injurious to both themselves and others - potentially both on and off the field. It is, as author Gregg Easterbrook observes, "quintessentially American - too violent, too loud, too commercialized." The game could no doubt be made considerably safer, but who would watch it? Would people really tune in to watch professional flag football? Even the one most passionately, and often incoherently, calling for a boycott of the sport believes it is "going soft" due to excessive regulations+ to protect player safety.
There is a sports bar that I often drive past (en route to our girl's dance studio of all places) whose marquee last fall claimed it as "Football Heaven." Presumably this was because of the bar patrons' ability to watch any football game they would want on any or all of the establishment's very large televisions. As I repeatedly drove past this sign, I thought about what a "Football Heaven" might actually look like. I wondered if that is where guys like Junior Seau and Dave Duerson end up. Or maybe the 92 high school football players who died between 2005 and 2014. Maybe Odin Lloyd is there (probably not Aaron Hernandez). Maybe in football heaven everyone just plays two hand touch, or maybe there isn't any football at all. All I know is that, thanks in large part to my Mom's wisdom, I'll probably never find out. Before we had a son, I used to joke that I was glad we had only had girls, so I (presumably) wouldn't have to discourage them from playing football. And while I know that my son looks like a "future linebacker" (he actually has more of an O-line build at this point), I'm going to be just as adamant, if not more, that he not play that position, or any other position on the football field. Ever. Not even punter.
 |
| Think again dude. |
*Seeing as I lack a Twitter handle, my exact number of Twitter followers is zero.
^I actually like to say "pacifist".
+Pretty certain he actually said "rules", but given how often he talks about "excessive regulation", the term seemed to fit
Whether you are a football protagonist or antagonist like me, I'd highly recommend the following reads on the sport. They have provided me with some valuable insight into the role football plays in our society. I think they objectively examine the both the good and the bad of the sport.
"Against Football" - Steve Almond
"The King of Sports" and "The Game's Not Over" - Gregg Easterbrook
^I actually like to say "pacifist".
+Pretty certain he actually said "rules", but given how often he talks about "excessive regulation", the term seemed to fit
Whether you are a football protagonist or antagonist like me, I'd highly recommend the following reads on the sport. They have provided me with some valuable insight into the role football plays in our society. I think they objectively examine the both the good and the bad of the sport.
"Against Football" - Steve Almond
"The King of Sports" and "The Game's Not Over" - Gregg Easterbrook
No comments:
Post a Comment