I don't know--but maybe this thread should be under the "Spirituality and Religion" zone on this board. I would like to hear your stories about Football Fundamentalists, and instances of their fanaticism.
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I don't know--but maybe this thread should be under the "Spirituality and Religion" zone on this board. I would like to hear your stories about Football Fundamentalists, and instances of their fanaticism.
I've always considered professional and some college sports (i.e. football, basketball and hockey, but not swimming and track) in general, and football in particular, to be the equivalent of the "circus" in the old Roman "bread and circus" method of keeping the commoners fed and and distracted and happy and out of the way. Football especially seems to be a way of vicariously working out aggression.
I think it is somehow a primitive expression of "fighting the enemy". I wonder if any countries who have constant wars (civil and other) have absolutely no interest in games like football, since they are actually living out that aggression. It's just a "civilized" gladiator games.
Our family has never had much of an interest in it.........although both my children were in the marching band that played for their school games.....which was required of the band.
I think some people need to be part of a group more than others. Some of our relatives are talking constantly about football. Our immediate family has absolutely no interest.
Haha......Miss Cellane.........we were typing at the same time. We're thinking along the same lines.
The thing that bothers me about football is that men are paid millions of dollars to throw and catch a ball yet when the CEO of a company makes half that much people think it is a bad thing.
Football is very low on my list. Hockey is at the top. GO BLACKHAWKS!
Anyway, it's not Football, it's American football! Real football is referred to as soccer in the USA.
I am not into spectator sports at all, EXCEPT for football and golf, and specifically college football and more specifically Rutgers football. Conceptually, I hate the idea of it--it's dangerous, it's combative, it's competitive in a very brutish way. But because I know a little bit about the rules of the game from attending my EVERY high school football game, it's fun to follow, and it's fun to root for a favorite team (two of my sons graduated from Rutgers)--as Jane suggests, it probably appeals to some ancestral tribal thing in the amygdala of my brain.
AND, lets not forget that Rutgers/New Brunswick is the home of college football--first collegiate football game was played in New Brunswick vs. Princeton in 1879. Rutgers won (sorry, bae).
Finally, football is SO much more fun to watch than baseball. Baseball is SO boring.
ETA: In looking up the exact year of that first football game, I actually found this, from a Princeton publication. What I also found interesting in this article is that American football actually predates soccer. (Waiting for the pushback on that from you, Ishbel, but that's what it says)
Quote:
First Intercollegiate Football Game
Until 1800 outdoor exercise for Princeton students usually took the form of walking, horseback riding, canoeing down the Millstone River, and hunting small game in the hills and fields nearby. By 1857, cricket, baseball, and football arose as popular sports on campus.
The first American intercollegiate football game was held between Princeton and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. on November 6, 1869. The game played was a form of association football, forerunner of later-day soccer. The 25 players from each college played in their street clothes, and the several hundred spectators stood around on the side or sat on a wooden fence. The Rutgers Targum reported that Princeton's first goal was made "by a well directed kick, from a gentleman whose name we don't know, but who did the best kicking on the Princeton side." The Targum is equally silent about the identity of the first wrong-way player in American football history, a Rutgers man "who, in his ardor, forgot which way he was kicking," and scored for Princeton instead of Rutgers.
Rutgers ended up winning the game 6 to 4. A week later, however, Princeton won the return match on its grounds, 8 to 0.
(Adapted from A Princeton Companion.)
"That's all right, That's OK, You'll all work for us some day!"Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
You could say the same thing about anyone successful in show business. Most football players have relatively short careers due to injuries, aging out, and general attrition, and risk permanent brain damage and orthopedic consequences to play. And they entertain millions. That may be part of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simpler at Fifty
To quote an old co-worker of mine "I am neither an athlete nor an athletic supporter," so it's of no consequence to me anyway.
Catherine...
1853 trumps 1859 :)
Geez, Brits trump Yanks in football; we're all working for Princeton Tigers, I guess I shouldn't have brought it all up! :doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by IshbelRobertson
I grew up loving American Football. Then I happened to catch an All Blacks Rugby game and I am now a convert.
No more woosey American Football for me. Not that I see many Rugby games since I don't have cable. But I now
have zero interest in the nfl.
Secretly, whilst I do suport Hibs, one of the Edinbugh football tems, my passion is Rugby
Union!
My favorite sport is basketball; namely, Ohio State and Cleveland CAVS. Last year, I got into Ohio State football. Football does bother me in that it is so violent. My middle son played 1 year of football in high school; I cringed every time I heard helmets crash together. Glad that lasted only 1 year!
High school football seems to be A Big Thing in my corner of the world. (Oddly, while you have to raise private funds to let our "award-winning" high school be able to offer fundamental language, music, math and science courses, the district is happy enough to make its resources available to send our football team all over the state, starting out with a very expensive boat ride...).
When there is a home game, we station an ambulance down at the game with a paramedic, some EMTs, and some firefighter/FR/rescue folks. To handle the inevitable injuries during the games. We've flown off several kids in the past couple years by helicopter to the regional trauma center...
I don't quite get it.
What you've described is a classic case of Institutional Football Fundamentalism. The game is a demolition derby for our youth-it is not healthy exercise. Not only that, but I think that football kids receive an unhealthy amount of attention. It is a bad use of resources. I think that once their glory days are over, it has a negative effect on many of them through their adult lives. One other thing I've noticed is the adults who are the most fanatical football fans also seem to be the least concerned about being physically fit.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
I am not proud of myself for being a fan (bread and circuses indeed) - but fan I am of the NFL. The injuries, the money, the politics.....it's all bad.
But the game itself is beauty, sheer beauty. The athleticism, the geometry, the gamesmanship: beautiful.
I am. I love the game of football and everything that goes along with it. If someone else doesn't like it, well, too bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackdog Lin
My home team is sitting atop the AFC North and I'm proud of them. Today I experienced highs and lows as I sat through an overtime game, against another division leader, which ended in a tie. Does that mean I'm a fanatic?
How important is it, to who? To me, not a bit, not the least. I actually get po'd from trying to shop and can't find help because they are watching the tv's or listening to "the game" on the radio. Then they have the gall to ask me what channel is "the game"on or grab your arm and scream excitedly, "did you see that?". You have your thing, I have mine, leave me the location alone.
Now to the players I have met, the crews I know that work the stadiums, vendors, owner, etc. very important. I don't really have a problem when the ones telling the story played it, but I do when others live vicarously through them and try to make you think it is all important. I even found humor when our Christmas tree was broken by some players, reliving a bad end to a good game.
Not my thing.
What I find interesting is that stores are open more and more on holidays--many stores are opening Thanksgiving afternoon this year and staying open all night.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff
But they close early on Superbowl Sunday so employees can get home to see the game.
So, open on the holiday that gathers families together, but closed for football. That tells you a lot right there.
Not my thing either, I find it interesting that our society's heroes are people playing games(sports of all kinds) and people pretending to be someone else(actors). We don't have real flesh and blood heroes.
Football is huge. Watching Brett Favre and my Green Bay Packers helped me through my divorce! :-)
OK I love Football- college, professional and local, even pee wee. I am a sport fanatic, football being at the top of the list. For me, it's when my family and friends gather. We make yummy meals or snacks and make fun of each other's teams. :) It also brings back the few good memories I had of high school and going to the games- the warm apple cider and clam chowder and making friends from another school, putting on your jeans and favorite jersey and OH RAH RAH RAH my way on the sidelines. :) Good times.
Well said, Too Much S!!! I might throw in this: I go into the shop Monday after biking a Hundred-Miler in the hills on Sunday, and Those People who sat and ate Pizza and watched "The Game" the day before are praising and glorifying and raving about some high-dollar sports thug who ran 20 yards, stuck out his arm, and deflected a thrown pass. HE IS THE WORLDS GREATESS ATHLETE!!!!! 'cordin to them. It's stoopidball. The Wall Street Journal, awhile back, published the results of a study which found that in a 3-hour long televised football game, there is approximately 11 minutes, cumulatively, of play---- 5-7 seconds at a time. The rest of it is players standing around & commercials. I am not impressed--in a positive way, that is.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff
Football pretty much doesn't exist in my life, so I'm neutral about it. It always seems to me like there is one football star or another that is in the news for domestic abuse, drugs, or DUI, which hardly seems like any sort of decent example for young people who often idolize them. But then again politicians who are our country leaders seem to have similar issues. Sort of seems like there is a void in the national hero department these days. I actually like to go out shopping or other errands during the big games as there is much less congestion.
Football. I don't know how the game is played. Have never watched a game in my life. Don't feel I'm missing out on anything. So I'm going out on a limb here and say, not very important.
Don't people have books?
Sure we do. I read several hours a day, but I put it aside for 3 hours on Sundays.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gardenarian
I just read that the stock price for Domino's has gone up, primarily due to ever-increasing sales volume. So, the Pizza business would consider foo-ball VERY important. When I read a book though, which isn't but maybe two-three times a year, I don't want greasy fingerprints on it. That is just another good reason to abstain from pizza.
My feelings exactly. Same with TV, much music, Hollywood movies, big pharma... I have no stomach for the celebrity athlete or really any other kind of celebrity who's fame comes from, well, being famous. I don't care what they do one second after they step off the field/stage/operating room. I have a good friend who said he did not want to attend an event with me because he was uncomfortable with all the requisite "small talk". I agreed and said that I got really tired of standing around and talking about sports. You'd have thought I just kicked him where it counts! Turns out sports are the new sacrament, every thing else is now small talk. Who knew?Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Cellane
All that said, catherine's Scarlet Knights will be in town for the first time in a week and a half to take on my Huskers. The game is at 11:00. We will fire up the biscuits and gravy around 8:00 and Bloody Marys at about 8:02 all at our tailgate that is 1 block from the stadium. I will be in the seats that my Dad first bought tickets for in 1957. I won't listen to any of the 100 or so talk radio shows providing analysis during the week before the game, read the breakdown of the game in the paper on Sunday or be in a funk for a week if we lose*, but for those few hours I will be decked out in red, will be a true fan and it will be a lot of fun. The Emperor will be pleased.
BTW catherine, if you travel to support your team let me know. Husker fans have a reputation for taking great care of visitors. I'll show you why.
*Of course I will call for the coach's head if we lose, but that's different.
Cool, Gregg! No, I don't travel for games, unless it's against UConn, because I was raised in CT and my brother still lives there and is a huge HuskIES fan. It's our first season in Big 10, and we play Ohio State this weekend, and I'm not too optimistic (seems we're the 19.5 point underdog)… but since it's DHs birthday, I'm hoping the gods are good to him and Rutgers.
I'll be thinking of you during our game--and if I knew what you looked like, I'd search for you in the stands!
How important is it? Ask anyone from Texas.
I'm on the same page as Gardenarian. I've never watched a football game in my life. My lack of interest in sports is absolute.
Or apparently Sayreville NJ...Quote:
Originally Posted by KayLR
Die Sport ... ist das Opium des Volkes!Quote:
Originally Posted by Packy
I'll bet it's one of those books that has Football stats and player profiles, football schedules and things like that. Maybe even a book of quotes by Coach Lombardi. Better yet: a coupon book that is redeemable for delivery Pizza, just dripping with grease. I know I am right, so don't bother denying it. Thank Me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
That, is prolly true. Only, instead of sedation and satisfaction, the masses become aroused and demand MORE! That said, the original thought was that religion was the drug. My belief is that arena(fundamentalist) religion, stadium politics, stadium sports, and stadium music all have the same effect on "real people" that are hard-wired into group mania control systems. It's hypnotic, to a good many people. S'how the Nazi'sgained traction in the 30's. Just check out YouTube Videos of Germany, Ca. 1938.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby
Has anyone heard about the incidents at Sayreville High School, NJ?
Yes. For those who haven't, upperclassmen high school football players were bullying, hazing and assaulting the freshmen on the team in the locker room. The coaches claim to be unaware this was happening. The superintendent of schools cancelled the rest of the football season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tussiemussies
Many of the townspeople seem to be more concerned about cancelling the remainder of the season--Hey, they have a winning team!--then about the fact that students were being molested on school property and "no one" knew.
Yes, it's about 10 miles from me so of course it's prominent in the local news. Horrifying. I completely agree that the entire football season should be suspended. From what I understand, this is completely ruining some of the junior/senior players' scholarship opportunities, and if some are innocents caught in the crossfire, I'm sorry, but that's the way it goes. I also think the coaches need to be held accountable, if it's true that they were hardly ever in the locker room supervising. How could this go on under their watch? However, their involvement is under investigation.
ETA: seems that there are many reasons coaches may not be constantly able to supervise in locker rooms. Some prohibit coaches from sharing locker room/bathrooms. Some schools are designed such that the coach's office might be down the hall and out of view of the locker room.