Football: A Violent Spectacle

Storyline: America is the ancient Roman Empire and those multi-million dollar stadiums equate to our version of the Coliseum. At least we aren’t still feeding people to lions. Or do we?

Courtesy: profootballtalk.nbc.com

“Dehumanizing sounds so extreme, but when you’re fighting for a football at the bottom of the pile, it is kind of dehumanizing. It’s like a spectacle of violence, for entertainment, and you’re the actors in it. You’re complicit in that: You put on the uniform. And it’s a trivial thing at its core. It’s make-believe, really. That’s the truth about it.” – Chris Borland, ex-San Francisco 49ers linebacker.

The quote above is from an article–the August 31^st issue of ESPN Magazine, written by Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada–about the early retirement of rookie linebacker Chris Borland. It’s an extremely interesting read and I recommend it to all sports fans. And for any thoughtful football fan it should provoke conflicted feelings.

To clarify, I am an avid fan of the game of football. I played the game when I was younger and would have sacrificed just about anything to have the kind of talent it takes to play past high school. But I wasn’t dealt that hand in the card game of life, so I settled in as a permanent fan of the game. My younger self could never have imagined the questions surrounding the game of football today.

Is the violence of football worth the reward?

Should we as fans endorse and contribute to a game that physically destroys its participants?

Should the basic nature of the game be changed?

I can already hear the moans and cries from all across “The United States of Football.”

“Shut yer lap, you liberal pansy!”

“Leave the game to the tough guys, you pussy!”

“So continues the wussification of ‘Merica.”

I get it. I really do get it.

Yes, I tend to lean towards the liberal point of view on most things in life but, when it comes to football, I’m of the full-fledged conservative mindset. Nothing riles me up like a minor push to the quarterback drawing a 15-yard penalty. And don’t even get me started on the term, “defenseless receiver.” The rule changes for player safety make me curse the loudest … as I’m watching my team get jobbed because of a crap call. I remember when football used to be football! That’s a common phrase shouted in my Man Cave every Sunday.

Courtesy: footballnation.com

While I despise the changes for safety in my heart, I really do understand the need for safety in my head. The recent discoveries linking CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) and brain trauma to playing football makes it a necessary to find out the truth. The NFL tried it’s best to suppress the truth, but now it’s out there and we–as a society–have to deal with it.

It’s not like the game of football is completely devoid of benefit. It’s a great way for young men to learn what it means to be part of a team–to sacrifice  individual needs for the group. Football teaches men how to discipline themselves and work towards a common goal. Leadership, brotherhood, and acceptance of other cultures are often first experienced in a football locker room.

And football has literally saved young men’s lives. Without the game, many individuals would never escape the traumatic environment of youth.

Courtesy: wishafriend.com

But do those benefits outweigh the possibility of danger? High school boys have died, and have had their lives permanently damaged, on the football field. And entitlement and corruption are often the life lessons that football teaches at the collegiate level. The police blotter, often littered with NFL names, has to give pause to even the most ardent fan. Is a career based in violence hard to contain to the football field? It often seems that way.

The Borland quote at the article beginning is 100% true. Football is a spectacle of violence and it’s simply done for entertainment. We, the fans of the game, pay countless amounts of money to watch men brutalize each other over a trivial game that, in the end, is make believe and means absolutely nothing in the larger scheme of things.

I believe that as fact. But I also believe we still need football. Yes, it’s a violent game that, in the end, means nothing. However, the imaginary stakes of winning a game fills a hole in our first-class world, where people seem to need an outlet at the most base and brutal level.

Have you witnessed how violent the world is around us? Human beings ooze violence and the world has been sinking in it. I don’t pretend to think that the human race is some advanced species, above enjoying a violent spectacle. If we can somehow contain our base impulses then the choice is easy.

America is the ancient Roman Empire and those multi-million dollar stadiums equate to our version of the Coliseum. At least we aren’t still feeding people to lions. Or do we?

America is a brutal place. In our first-world country, where technology has helped reduce the need for constant work and leisure time has increased, escapism is needed. If we didn’t have a little violence in our escapism where would the public look? Maybe some people are above that, but the majority is obviously not.

Does that make football worth it to the participants? I believe that’s a choice every player needs to make. At the same time we need to ensure that every player has health information at their fingertips–to make an educated decision about whether to play and for how long.

Courtesy: newsfixnow.com

As for making the game safer, I’m not sure we can be accomplish it in any meaningful way without–at the same time–altering the basic structure of the game. Chris Borland agrees with that, too.

From the ESPN Magazine article – “For now, that’s as close as Borland will come to saying football should be banned. But he thinks the NFL’s current mantra — making football safer — is silly and pointless. Once you admit that, he believes, it’s merely a matter of how much risk you’re willing to take by playing.”

To truly protect the future and their product, the NFL has to be willing to admit that fact and take appropriate actions. Sure, brutal headshots should be removed from the game, but the NFL has overregulated and made the game almost impossible from a defensive point of view. Flags tend to fly whenever a hit “looks” too hard. I abhor these actions because they’re window dressing that do nothing to make the game safer. They only make it more frustrating to play and watch.

Removing the big hits from the secondary and letting quarterbacks wear permanent red shirts may show the public that the NFL is trying to make the game safer, but in reality those moves will mean little. Most studies (see Ann McKee, Boston University researcher) conclude it’s not the big hits and diagnosed concussions that lead to brain trauma, but the many “sub-concussive” hits that happen on every play. The “trench warfare” that goes on between the offensive and defensive lines and the fundamental action of tackling and running the ball seem to be the primary causes. How can those things be changed (for safety) without destroying the game of football? Well, they can’t.

The game can be made safer, to a degree, but that’s really all that will happen. The NFL needs to admit that fact and proceed with the following actions.

Courtesy: gizmodo.com.au

First, the NFL should put resources into studying the effects of playing the game–on both the body and mind. Second, the NFL needs to distribute study results to players. Third, the NFL needs to have players, who choose to play, sign a waiver stating they will never sue the league for health reasons. And, fourth, the NFL should pay for players’ health benefits during and after their careers … for life. Do the right thing, NFL!

The game of football is beautiful, violent, graceful, dehumanizing, inspirational, conflicting, and…totally American. It may not be the best thing for us, but life without risk doesn’t equate to true living. Chris Borland saw the dark side of football, first hand, and he finally said, “No thank you.” I totally respect his decision.

Chris is probably a better man than most of us, who can’t live without a little bit of that dark side … or violence.