Professor Warren Blumenfeld asks: “Is it simply coincidence that so many high school, collegiate, and professional football players have been charged with committing sexual assault?”
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While I admire the majestic Bald Eagle, and I regard the U.S. Constitution as a stunningly intelligent and inspired document, some people treat me as if I have committed patriotic heresy by challenging the long-established unofficial national game of football. Be this as it may, I simply will not watch the Super Bowl, and I cannot support or defend continuance of the sport. In fact, I advocate for its demise.
Why? Well, let me count just some of my reasons (not necessarily in rank order):
1. Promotion and Enhancement of Hierarchical Gender Roles: Under the Friday-night high school stadium lights, amid the teaming throngs of college and university fans each Saturday during the season, and projected onto TV screens and looking down from the stands on Sundays and on Monday nights, we watch rugged men come to battle. They sprint onto the field “sporting” not-so-protective uniforms like their ancient gladiator superheroes from times long past.
Not far from the sidelines, the often scantily-clad hyper-sexualized Barbie Doll cheerleaders whip up an already intoxicated crowd to a fevered pitch. And protruding from this spectacle, we observe the clear reinscription and (re)enforcement of hegemonic masculinity and subordinated femininity comprising the bifurcated social constructions we call “gender.”
But I ask, “What messages does the game of football really send?”
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2. Promotion of a Culture of Violence: What is the purpose of football? To invade and penetrate the opponent’s territory and thrust into their end zone. By what means does a team accomplish this? Yes, most certainly through skill and strategy (like in soccer, La Cross, basketball, and field hockey, for example). In football, though, a team mounts its invasion by brute force: by knocking over, tackling to the ground, off-balancing, and banging heads like rams upon icy slopes.
I understand full well that my use of the words “invade,” “penetrate,” “opponent’s territory,” “thrust,” “mount,” “banging,” and “end zone” carry clear rape imagery. But I ask, what messages does the game of football really send not merely to the players, but to young fans, and to society writ large?
I would ask, is it simply coincidence that so many high school, collegiate, and professional football players have been charged with committing sexual assault? Is it mere coincidence that allegations of locker room bullying have increasingly surfaced? Why have so few professional football players decided to “come out of the closet” during their active careers, but rather, have waited to publicly announce in retirement? What has held them back?
3. Promotion of Traumatic Brain Injury and Other Bodily Destruction: The current class-action lawsuit filed against the National Football League by a group of over 4000 former players who have charged the league with hiding information about the consequences of concussions highlights what the medical sports community has long known: that even one slight head concussion increases the chances of permanent brain injury, including dementia and Alzheimer’s. With repeated football-induced incidents of concussion, bone-crushing trauma, and breaks throughout a player’s career – whether in junior or senior high, university, or in the big leagues – risk ever increases for life-long damage. Autopsies on brains of former NFL players should set any lingering doubts of this fact to rest.
“Over the years and only partly tongue in cheek, I have argued that if society granted males permission to touch each other affectionately in friendship, we would no longer have a need for football.”
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We should all take heart that our President, Barack Obama, an avid sports fan and someone who watches football on TV, has this year publicly declared that if he had a son, he we not want him to play pro football.
To be clear, I see many benefits to sport generally. For players, it can, indeed, build character, enhance a sense of responsibility, and it can build a collective and cooperative spirit for players and observers alike.
Over the years and only partly tongue in cheek, I have argued that if society granted males permission to touch each other affectionately in friendship, to share the intimate and emotional aspects of themselves, and even to walk arm in arm or holding hands with one another as we sometime see women walking down the street – especially in some European countries — without people calling men’s sexuality into question, then we would no longer have a need for football: a game where men bang against, tackle, and pile on each other, and following a successful play, slap one another’s butts.
Alan, I agree that brawling in any sport is inappropriate and reprehensible. But, fair or not, I single out football because in football, brawling is the process on which this “sport’ is based. As I state in my article, “In football, though, a team mounts its invasion by brute force: by knocking over, tackling to the ground, off-balancing, and banging heads like rams upon icy slopes.” We don’t find this as the BASIC PROCESS — though it sometimes turns into this — in most other sports except possibly Rugby, boxing, and cage fighting, which I also can’t support.
Let’s define “brawling.” Dictionary.com (I only use this at the moment because I lack a paperback dictionary as I am currently in an airport) defines brawling (verb) as: 1. to quarrel angrily and noisily; wrangle 2. to make a bubbling or roaring noise, as water flowing over a rocky bed Neither of these fit with your argument. Of course, we could go with a commonly accepted, societal definition of brawling, which is relatively close to a throng of people (not necessarily men or women) who are fighting amongst themselves through physical and violent means, typically over some kind of disagreement.… Read more »
Alan, I won’t continue to engage in the word games you have started because brawling by any other name is still brawling. I stick to every word I wrote in my article, and will not redirect anything. You can accept it or not, for that is up to you. I am proud of what I wrote, and am happy that I started a discussion. Thanks for your thoughts.
As you should be. But fine.
Also, you saying “fair or not” doesn’t really help your argument much.
First off, I don’t think it’s fair for you to limit this to just football, as your first two reasons can be used to describe any other male-dominated sport. I don’t think it’s the sport itself but the culture behind the sport that breeds this kind of male. Have you ever seen a brawl break out in baseball? Or a fight break out between two hockey players? It’s hypermasculinity that is the problem here, not the sport. There’s a culture of “tough guys” that poisons our society in more ways than just one, and one of those ways is through… Read more »
I enjoyed watching the Puppy Bowl this morning on the Today Show on NBC. It was all gender inclusive, no injuries resulted — head or otherwise — and the sport did not lead to locker room or societal bullying. No one who observed the game got roaring drunk or comatose on chicken wings and pizza. Good fun was had by all. Go pups!
Don’t you appreciate the tolerance shown by these fans? What do they get upset over? A single article vs. the juggernaut of the football establishment? What insecurity! No respect for free speech?
Some of these guys care more about the “legacy” of Joe Paterno than they do for Sandusky’s rape victims. Do they have any sympathy for the rape victim in the Steubenville case, who continues to be persecuted to this very day? No, many of them don’t. Pathetic. Like I said, a moral cesspool. Not my idea of a “Good Man.”
Let’s slow down now. I can’t both enjoy sports and also acknowledge that there are inherent problems with said sports? Some of the men that play these sports are not the hypermasculine men that fit into your stereotype. Being an athlete, I find your statement offensive and ignorant, because I am completely uncomfortable with coaches raping, molesting, and harming children, adolescents, and adults.
I have total sympathy for the victims of both those cases, and I can have said sympathy while also being a sports fan.
I should expand that to coaches AND athletes.
Dude, go find something else to pick on! You cannot be serious! Go football ! Go 49ers!
He’s picking on football? Wow, I didn’t know football was so sensitive.
Oh, I forgot. Football is sacred. The secular religion of the United States. No critical comments are permitted. Not even with the intent of promoting much needed reform. The rape scandals must be covered up at all costs.
Your generalization of all football fans disturbs me.
Seriously? Was this article meant to be tougne-in-cheek? “comprising the bifurcated social constructions we call ‘gender'”, seriously?? I just about peed my pants laughing that you felt the need to put “gender” in quotations, as if it is some intangible theory yet to be proven to exist. “To invade and penetrate the opponent’s territory and thrust into their end zone.” Really?? Dude, you’ve got some serious deep seeded issues that cause you to sexualize everything you see. Get some therapy. How about we tackle, no pun intended, some real social issues. Like, lets see, that IPad you typed that article… Read more »
I bet Warren is a lot of fun at parties.
…and following a successful play, slap one another’s butts.
and as a brit, ive always wondered why they slllllap eachothers bottoms.
i dont mind, i think it’s cool. i just wondered.
anyone know why? and when it started?
Warren, you’re definitely to be commended for your courage. I really appreciate your article. I’m a gym rat, but I’m not a sports fan. I find it ironic that the worse enemies of school sports are not people such as you and I, but (in my opinion) are many of the fans themselves. I’m referring to those who are enablers, those who don’t believe that athletes and coaches should be held accountable for their conduct away from the game. For example, witness the moral cesspool on the part of many of the Penn State fans. (For example, one of Sandusky’s… Read more »