american football

the Web Editors 10-02-2015

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Matthew Skinner 1-26-2015

Photo via Eugene Onischenko / Shutterstock.com

Americans enjoy football because, to a degree, football reflects the values of strength, courage, strategy, self-discipline, teamwork, and celebrity that American culture holds dear. It’s also refreshing to watch someone else get crushed by a 260-pound linebacker after you’ve had a lousy week at work.

The problem develops when we let football (or other sports, or a military, or corporations, or other forces) define strength in terms of dominance.

I’m not trying to dump on football. I’m noting that it’s a game largely devoted to imposing one’s will on another. That competitive value can be fine on a field, but when it seeps into our society, neighborhoods, and families we should be wary.

Because when dominance is the name of the game, there will be victims.

The Super Bowl might prompt us to consider the hazards of an ethos in which rewards go to those who say “We take what we want” and follow through on it.

The Editors 2-10-2014

Indigenous American leaders speak out against the Washington NFL team’s mascot.

Joshua Witchger 11-09-2011

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Julie Clawson 2-08-2011

I admit, I only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Yes, it's crass and consumerist, but seeing how marketers decide to spend millions of dollars in an attempt to manipulate me each year holds some sort of strange appeal (twisted as it may be).

Amanda Jackson 12-09-2010
As an Australian with great love for my adopted home in London, I have been following with interest the bid by England to host the 2018 Worl