Why I Might Stop Watching Football

Anyone that knows me knows how much I love sports. I’ve always said baseball is my religion and football is my political ideology. Given the events that have taken place this year, I’ve never thought that to be more true.

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The sport of football has seen a very tumultuous year. We started off on a great note when a Raven’s player wanted to use the Super Bowl to promote gay rights. That, however, led to a 49ers player saying a lot of not so nice things about gay people. While many football players (and athletes in general) came out and said they disagreed with him, it still exposed this football culture that has been cultivating, and that, as fans, we largely have ignored. In hindsight, this story was really the match that started the forest fire as it were.

In November, we learned that the NFL had plans for a gay player to come out and remain active, a first for professional football, but it fell apart. There are many different reasons attributed to why, but none of them really matter. The fact is no NFL players came out, even after Jason Collins, an NBA player wrote an article for Sports Illustrated stating he was gay, and there was relatively little backlash.

Of course, in all fairness, we should consider the fact that he isn’t playing for any team this year. Him being past his prime and not playing well last season only further muddies whether he hasn’t been signed because of his sexual orientation or because of he just doesn’t play basketball at an elite level anymore. Still, most would say at least progress has been made in basketball, whereas we have yet to see any in football.

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Though it happened at the end of 2012, Jovan Belcher killing his girlfriend and himself in a murder-suicide no one could have seen coming was a big story. It seemed to be an isolated incident, until people started saying that he had a problem with concussions. Though the team came out and said he didn’t have a history of concussions, it still opened up talk about the impact the sport has on the lives of players after their finished with their careers. People immediately pointed to the suicides of past players, like Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, that have been blamed on concussions they suffered from football. All of this led to a documentary that was being made, titled “League of Denial“, that focused on the NFL’s mishandling of concussions. However, in August ESPN pulled out of the documentary, and many said Roger Goodell and the NFL played a large part in pressuring them to do so. Naturally, he and the league denied those claims. Regardless, this incident still highlighted a health problem running rampant in the NFL.

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Next we turn our attention to Steubenville, Ohio. In March, two high school football players were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party. The incident immediately grabbed the nations attention, thanks to it being tweeted and put on various other social media platforms by attendees of the party. Recently, four more people have been charged in the rape case, but this time those being charged are school employees. It has also been underreported that some of the charges being brought against these employees have to do with an entirely separate rape of a 14-year-old girl from April 2012. While it is clear people are being punished for what happened, it still brought to light some grotesque things and opened the discussion on the privileges football players and even coaches think they have just because they play, or are involved with, the sport of football.

We follow that discussion to the Vanderbilt rape case from earlier this year. I previously wrote an article about it, in which I discussed why everyone calling for the banishment of football due to this rape case was wrong. I stand by my point that football should not be done away with just because some people think it allows them certain privileges that they most definitely do not have.

However, if we look at this case within the narrative of football privilege we have seen this year, even specifically concerning solely rape, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the culture in football creates boys and men who think it is okay to do things like this, and who think they can get away with it, just because they play football. All of this is tied up in a larger discussion of why that is, and it comes back to football being a large-scale perpetuator of gender stereotypes, specifically “masculinity”. While this is an important discussion to have, for now, we will just focus on the fact that football does create this culture, and that both the Steubenville and the Vanderbilt case show that.

We can also see that in the Jameis Winston case. While he was not charged with anything due to lack of evidence, it is hard to believe that if a proper investigation had taken place the same result would have occurred. I would like to make one thing clear right now. No one ever said Jameis Winston did not rape that girl. It was simply determined they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it. In our legal system, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, even if we aren’t given the chance to prove them guilty.

Now, onto the problematic issues with this case. It took almost an entire year for the case to brought to the State Attorney, and that only happened after the press made the story public. I am not shocked that after eleven months it was hard to find enough evidence to charge anyone of rape.

For whatever reason, I am also not shocked that during investigations:

A Tallahassee detective told an accuser’s attorney that Tallahassee is a “big football town” and her client’s life could “be made miserable” if she pursued a sexual assault case against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.

It almost seems straight from the script of a movie, a little too unreal. All of this stems from that great “football privilege” we see all too often.

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Next we look to the infamous Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin scandal. I also wrote about this when it was happening, and all of the points I made still ring true. Bullying is a problem, but the way society views bullying is an even bigger problem. This is also a talk that comes back to the culture of “masculinity” perpetuated by football. When I read about the Incognito/Martin story, I can’t help but be reminded of this discussion that I have been a part of all too often this year.

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One final point I have to bring up is the attitude that fans have towards football. While we are so quick to condemn players, coaches, the NFL, the NCAA, and anyone else who may be involved in the sport, we hardly ever take a step back to look at ourselves and the way we both effect and are affected by the sport. When that gay NFL player was considering coming out, he said the one thing he was most scared of was not fellow player’s reactions, but the fans’ reactions.

After the Iron Bowl, a woman was shot and killed, because, as one witness reports, she wasn’t a big enough Alabama fan, and wasn’t disappointed enough when they lost.

That is crazy. That is the single most insane thing I’ve heard since I learned about H.H. Holmes.

Fans never cease to amaze me. They can be the most supportive people for their team, but they can also be the most destructive. More than in any other sport, fans of football tend to take their fandom to the extreme, getting mad when other fans aren’t as dedicated as they are, rioting when their teams don’t do well, and even sending death threats when a player does something they don’t agree with. While we see examples of this in any sport, it is much more exaggerated in football, and that ties back into the idea of football being the most aggressive and “masculine” sport in our society.

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I have been a football fan since the day I was born. It’s in my blood and it’s a large part of the way I identify myself. However, as I have made very clear, football is going through a rough time. Society is changing, and parts of the sport are attempting to change, but it is so rooted in antiquated notions and practices, that it seems almost impossible for it to keep up with society. Unless the very way we go about looking at football changes, the sport and all of the bad things that come with it are never going to change.

For that reason, my interest in the sport has been quickly dwindling. As I stated before, I always say baseball is my religion and football is my political ideology. I say this, because much like religion, baseball is something that just is in my life. Just like how people go to church every Sunday and celebrate Christmas and Easter, starting in March I watch baseball every day I can, and I celebrate Opening Day and the World Series.

Much like politics, football is something I just get and something I fell in love with from the second I discovered it. However, also like politics, football is something that I have grown to dislike the more bureaucratic it becomes, and the more isolated from reality it remains. While I’m not ready to completely give it up yet, each week I find myself asking the same question: is it even worth it anymore?

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Update:  It has been announced that the rights to “League of Denial” have been purchased and it may be turned into a feature film.

Playing Football Does Not Make You A Rapist

Recently, I found out about a rather scary news story. Five football players were arrested this summer for the rape of an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University. Then I found out something even scarier: I knew one of the football players.

In my research of this story, I had many questions, but more-so, I was in shock. I knew a rapist. I spent time with a rapist. I took classes with a rapist. I was facebook friends with a rapist. Oh, I’m sorry, “alleged” rapist. Sadly enough, I’m sure Brandon Vandenburg is not the only alleged rapist I’ll ever be able to say these things about, but that doesn’t make it any less scary or shocking.

Despite all my confusion, there was one thing that stood out to me on many of the articles I read: the comment section. Now I’m not one for reading internet comments, for very obvious reasons, but sometimes I scroll too far after I finish an article and get sucked in. This time, I did just that and was a little bit put off by some of the things I read. That’s not to say I’m not usually put off by the comments I read, because I am, but these didn’t seem like people just trolling YouTube videos. These people had serious problems with the sport of football and claimed it should be gotten rid of because obviously it was the reason these boys allegedly raped this girl.

I have a very big problem with that claim. I am a vocal advocate of getting rid of the rape culture this country is undoubtedly immersed in. I am also a big football fan. Thus, I found myself at a crossroads when reading these comments.

It does seem like we always hear about some athlete committing some act of sexual misconduct or some athletic department getting into some kind of trouble that involves inappropriate sexual actions (see: Penn State, Oklahoma State, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger etc.). It also seems like we hear a lot more about athletes in general than the average joe. The logical conclusion would then be that we hear about more athletic sex scandals, because we hear more about athletic programs and athletes in general, not necessarily because they do more heinous things.

Rape is an extremely touchy subject, and for good reason. It’s not something to make light of or make excuses for. That being said, football is not the reason this girl was allegedly raped. Football did not turn those boys into monsters. A perpetuation of rape culture and the need for hegemonic masculinity in a patriarchal society did. The notion that men need to be dominant over women and the fact that that notion is spoon-fed to both boys and girl almost from infancy is what made those boys think this was an okay thing to do.

If we wanted to discuss why it took so long for these boys to face charges, or why they all didn’t immediately get arrested, then we could talk about the effect being an athlete, specifically a football player, has on not only the public’s perception of a person, but that person’s perception of themselves. If we wanted to discuss why this news story has not received much more national media attention than the miniscule amount it has, then we could talk about how football and being an athlete comes with certain privileges and preferential treatment not afforded to the average citizen. However these are not the most prominent issues I saw raised among the general public who were made aware that this incident had allegedly transpired. I saw an outcry for football to be banished, because five boys, who just happened to be football players, allegedly made an egregious mistake.

Football, and every sport for that matter, is a great part of our culture, each contributing to society in its own way and in turn being affected by that same society. Sports are a rich part of our history and culture and calling for the complete extermination of one of them is crossing a line that I wasn’t even aware existed. If we really want to solve the problem that is rape culture in our society, getting rid of sports is not the way to do it. Getting away from our inherently patriarchal society and changing the way people instinctively think about gender roles is a step towards solving the problem. It may be the most difficult step, but if a solution is to be reached, it is the only realistic step.