Football: The Invisible Sport of Man

Football, what is there is to say about it? Is it just a masculine sport or something else entirely that makes men seem acceptable in the eye of society's depiction of them. Many people love the sport with it's games being fast pace, crash course, and intensity to make viewers and crowds around the world scream with whatever emotion they express from themselves. Yet, what the crowd does not realize about the sport is the invisible narrative they create about it. Football chooses to hide the narratives in order to to please sponsors and the general audience without hurting it's franchise.

So what are some of these invisible narratives on football? Most of these portray the stereotypes and ideologies of men and the roles that they play. One ideology states that man is inherently violent thus the archetype of man is a warrior, soldier, or a gladiator. In terms of football, offensive players are given the role of assaulting the opposing team (or the "enemy") at any means possible of stopping them from completing their tasks of victory. So whenever you see an offensive player viciously tackle the quarterback, the offensive would go for the kill to prevent the enemy from scoring a touchdown. Of course, not every man is born inherently violent unless they happen to be murderous psychopaths, in which it would be an entirely different story.

         
Not only only does football's invisible narratives include ideologies, but football also has its stereotypes, especially towards the players.  A very common stereotype for all men is their machismo and that men never show weakness even through pain or other factors like fear and cowardice. However, it was a different case for a former college football player John McMurtry. In McMurtry's article Kill 'Em! Crush 'Em! Eat 'Em Raw!, he recalls having many minor and severe injuries whenever playing football, and if injured on the field he was told to ignore the pain and suck it up so that he did not seem weak when returning to the field and continuing the game. Therefore the stereotype of men is that are tough and they feel no pain. False! No man is tough by not feeling any pain. If a football player runs three yards and then suddenly tackled in the leg with the bone sticking out of his flesh, while he screams in agony; the player can act tough but not while suffering extreme damage to his leg. Nobody is tough if they feel no pain, but maybe a paper cut, however this blogger disagrees.

     How does the rhetoric of this sport display these narratives? Easy, just listening to fighting songs with the hype and the build up, thus making listeners (male) feel in control with an adrenaline rush of what are said in the lyrics of a song and how they are sung.   If you listen to the college football song from the University of  Michigan's “The Victors”, most of the lyrics use words as "conquering", "heroes", and valiant, thus making the players have the mentality of being those things. When you think about it, this song is like a theme for soldiers going into war being seen as the heroes or any other adjectives within their status. Most men may have that mentality, but as soon as they get on the battlefield their motivation disappears and their experience will only lead them to regret. So take this as a consideration, fight songs do not encourage men to be something that they are not even though society views them as the invisible narratives they create, fight songs are just songs to be heard and enjoyed just as all other music.

For all other men out there playing football, they should read this blog for it might give them thoughts about how they think about people and maybe even your actions either during a game or outside of football and more towards other people in their societies.




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