Sunday, November 23, 2008
Those smiling Cal dancers in my last post probably don't hate football, but why should they? College football gives them a supportive environment and a big audience to appreciate what they have to offer. We don't really know what their attitude is toward the game, per se, or toward the players. Do they find the game glamorous and the players personally attractive? I don't know. But if so, that’s an attitude that not every woman shares.
There are three levels of really serious football in the U.S. First there’s high school. Tens or hundreds of thousands of boys play for their high school teams. If a team wins enough games in the regular season they have a chance to reach the acme of high school sports: the state championship. A few of these players will be good enough to go on to play for college teams; there are roughly 500 college teams, though only 119 are in NCAA Division 1-A, which is where the best players are and what most of the fuss is about. The acme of college football is presently the so-called BCS National Championship. And finally, there is professional football. One of the notable functions of college football is to serve as a testing and evaluation league for those very few players good enough to go on to the pros.
For people who don't like football, which includes lots of women but plenty of men as well, the story probably starts in high school. Some are put off by the pure physicality of football. If you feel unathletic, you may not like any sports. If you don't like crashing into people, you won't like football. And if you're a high school student who doesn't like football, if you think it's just pointless violence engaged in mostly by people who have no ability or desire to accomplish anything important, then you're going to be mystified and resentful about the relatively high status of football players--in the school, in the community, and maybe even in your own family. And once you're in that frame of mind, you're likely to notice other things, like the fact that football contains an aspect of what seems to be viciousness. For many people, crashing into someone as hard as you can, "hitting" them in football parlance, just seems stupid and certainly doesn't seem worthy of the respect, approval and adoration that football players often receive. It may also seem that the success or failure of the high school football team is the chief thing that matters in the community, the only thing that will be remembered down the years. This is especially true in small towns, towns with fewer other distractions. Can't there be something, a non-fan might ask, anything at all, that is more important than running around carrying a ball and knocking into people?
I can't answer that question. But I will say two things. First, blocking and tackling in football are not usually vicious; in fact, they're fun. You may get knocked down, but on the very next play you get another chance to maybe make the other guy the knockee. Although vicious players exist, there are rules--both written and unwritten--that help keep them in check. Blocking and tackling and running and passing and catching and kicking are so fun that even though there is a fanaticism at all three levels of football that sometimes seems to be trying to destroy the pleasure of it, the game always remains a game, a game that many people will play in the back yard just for the fun of it. Second, humans in all cultures have always loved games, often rather rough ones. I would suggest that the reasons people love football are probably pretty complex and go deep into what it means to be human. Reject or dismiss them at your peril.
Football, of course, has rules. They're a little complicated, but really almost anyone can understand them. And if not, the referee will settle the matter. Life, on the other hand, can be quite a bit more complicated. Life is just similar enough to football to make it seem that the same traits that bring success in the game should bring success in life. But life is also just different enough from football that the football view of the world can sometimes lead, in the game of life, to failure and heartbreak. Life, in fact, is darker; maybe that’s another reason people like the game.
Two more questions before we leave this potentially endless topic. One, do some women love to play football? Yes, absolutely they do. Two, is mens’ college football hopelessly corrupt because of the big money involved? No, not really. But in a way it is bizarre and unnatural that the athletes at the major college level do not get paid for their work. Players who love the game must surely enjoy having an opportunity to play at a competitive level in a highly supportive environment. And a chance for a shot at the pros is itself worth a lot. But athletes are talented, hardworking people whose abilities are the chief attraction of a spectacle that generates huge amounts of cash. Normally, our society rewards such people with money, but this is not permitted for student athletes. Instead they receive an undergraduate degree at essentially no cost. That’s nothing to sneeze at these days, but it pales in comparison to the total volume of money flowing around the game. Head coaches at major universities, for example, make millions of dollars a year in salary and bonuses. It should not surprise anyone that when natural forms of incentive are prohibited, creative forms will appear.
Next week: Sex in America
