A (NON)Fan(girl)’s Notes: Against Football

I don’t come from a particularly athletic family, but I am the bridge between two generations of passionate, engaged, involved spectators. My son started reading the sports pages soon after he became capable of reading anything, and twenty-odd years later, his sideline is writing about his alma mater’s athletic program. My father was never a sportswriter, but his sports reading was probably the model for his grandson’s.

Of course, neither just reads about sports–they’re viewers as well, with partisan interests. My son’s tastes are actually pretty wide-ranging, encompassing international favorites like soccer (and more recently, cricket) along with baseball, college basketball, and American college football.

My dad follows the major leagues and the pros. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of autumn Sunday afternoons, when he watched football on TV–and was not to be interrupted or disturbed for anything less than a dire emergency. Ideally, the rest of us wouldn’t do anything that blocked or drowned out the TV while the game was on–in fact, it was probably best to be in another part of the house, if not out of it entirely. Nothing could be planned on Sundays during the months when Dad’s Sundays belonged to the NFL; the family was put on the sidelines until the games were over.

As I said, I’m the bridge, and the sports-interest gene pretty much passed me by. I’m occasionally interested in baseball, but I harbor a long-standing and active dislike for football. I’m pretty sure that much of that dislike is fueled by festering resentment and other childhood emotional baggage.

That said, there are also plenty of things about the game itself for me to dislike.

"Book Thoughts" on The 3 R's Blog: "Against Football"

The game play is confusing to me, and the pacing is poor. (I’ve never quite understood why people find baseball boring to watch; I view football as five minutes of milling around for every 30 seconds that something actually happens. Baseball may have a similar ratio of action/inaction, but I think it flows better.) And while the aim isn’t that hard to grasp–move the ball down the field to score points–the brutality involved in carrying out that aim, which is systematically and actively built in, isn’t something I want to watch or support.

While I am happy that “My Son the Sportswriter” gets to write about the athletic fortunes of the SEC university he attended (on an academic scholarship, for the record), you do not want to get me started ranting about college football’s function as an unofficial NFL farm-team system and how it’s at odds with what universities were created to do.

I realize that my feelings on that particular topic are colored by my utter lack of athletic ability, my firmly-established place on the “nerds” end if the jocks-vs.-nerds spectrum and, admittedly, a degree of
academic/intellectual snobbery. I don’t intend it to be classist or racist and I apologize if it comes across that way; I recognize that sports, particularly football, really do provide an avenue of advancement for some. The root of my issues with college football, particularly its financial arrangements, is this:

My understanding is that colleges and universities were created to educate–anything else they offer should be secondary to that mission. Going to college “to play football” seems completely backwards to me. I suppose there’s an argument that college football actually might be career preparation for some–and yes, career preparation is another purpose of the university–but looking at the market for that particular career, I don’t find it a particularly convincing one.

AGAINST FOOTBALL, by Steve Almond, via Indiebound.org (affiliate link)
Given my relationship to the sport, maybe it does seem a little strange that I asked to review Steve Almond’s Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto. It’s fair to say that I relate more strongly to the book’s title than its subtitle, but it’s the subtitle that provoked my curiosity and got me thinking. Sure to be controversial, I think this is an important book. I hope it gets a lot of attention, and spurs a lot of discussion, during this football season.

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4 comments

  1. I have the same feelings about football as you do, and much for the same reasons. My dad loved to stretch out on the floor in our living room to watch, and he'd yell and bang the floor in excitement. Football time was sacred in our house–he even watched it during dinner time (he had the only view to the television from our dining room) despite the no TV rule during family meals. Football games also meant lots of alcohol would be consumed, and depending on the outcome of a game, I'd either encounter a mean drunk or a happy one. Either one wasn't much fun to be around.

    So, I totally get what you mean about resentment for the sport based on the past. But I also have other issues with it, many of you also point out here as well.

    I do think football and other sports give opportunities to some kids that may not have gotten into college otherwise, but I am a strong proponent of education and believe once at the University that should be the priority.

    This sounds like an interesting book. I admit I quickly dismiss books dealing with football. I may have to look for this one though.

    (For the record, I do enjoy watching baseball and soccer and sometimes basketball–more in person than on TV–but am not really a sports fan persay. I also like watching the Olympics, both winter and summer.)

  2. My dad wasn't much of a drinker, so I don't have that particular association with football viewing, but otherwise we do seem to have some common experience there, Wendy. I have to admit it's good to know I'm not the only one who grew up with that kind of football fan, and dislikes football because of it (among other things),

    I would definitely recommend the book, at least in part because it's not so much *about* football–or not about making it look good, at least.

  3. The education of college football players seems to be of vastly more importance to some universities than to others. I heard a while back, but can't remember the exact figure, but LSU's graduation rate, for example, is abysmal (something like 30%). That said, any major university is certainly recruiting the best players, not necessarily the best students. Then again, their football programs often fund their entire athlete department, allowing hundreds of students to participate in sports at the college level. It's definitely a complex issue!