November 17, 2013

"Football is a game in which twenty-two big, strong, healthy guys run around like crazy for two hours, while fifty-thousand people, who really need the exercise, watch them."

- Quote by: Terry Bradshaw

Hello world,

May the peace and blessing of THE CREATOR OF ALL THAT EXIST be upon you as you read my post.

As I find "history" very fascinating, today's topic is about "football" (American) and the social perceptions of it within this country and our society.

As I watch the "National Football League" ("NFL") on television, every week, during the season along with millions of other citizens around the United States of America, a reoccurring adage keeps coming to the forefront of my mind, which is: "The more things change, the more things stay the same."

For those who are unfamiliar with America's version of "football": the games are violent, hard-hitting, athletic battles between two opposing teams and the "head coaches", played on a field. Watching the games on TV, I began to realize that football is, in many respects, the most "American" game of them all. At the inception of this "game", it used to be played originally by college scholars who, after a very hard day in the chemistry lab, felt the need of a little violent exercise to get their sluggish blood going while getting the smell of the Bunsen burners off their fingers. Then, one day, they hired a coach. Hence, football has never been the same since. And one thing I know is certain, we will never get football back from the coaches without a real struggle! :)

Which takes me back to the above-mentioned adage. Football is the modern-day version of the "gladiator's events" of Ancient Rome. I never really pondered the personal or situational attributions of this social psychological phenomena until now. Think about it, for football coaching, as was with the Caesar emperors of old, is an obsessive profession. All one has to do is observe the antics of the head coaches along the sidelines of the playing field. As I started to understand the foundation of football coaches' behavior, it became clear to me as well as, fascinating, as to how these coaches were engaging in a game of "chess", except with real men. It was then that I attributed the coaches' behavior to the fact that the only thing more exhilarating for a human being with "a desire to play God" is WAR. So, football, as with the "gladiator events" of the past, is man's attempt at "controlled warfare"; as in a game of chess. Just something to think about.

There's nothing more interesting than the human animal...

Peace,
Zakee