Thursday, January 12, 2012

The End of Football

Football is an obscene sport, which is what makes it interesting. Like boxing, like NASCAR, like MMA, football is appealing because it's lethal. Within each of us dwells an assassin: football is that assassin's porn.

So, yes, I'll watch the NFL playoffs this weekend, as I have since adolescence. I'll delight in the violence; also, its violence will make me sad. I guess I enjoy watching football because I enjoy feeling myself at war with myself.

But this superb article explains why football must change or die.

It's one thing for grown men to collaborate in their own destruction. It's quite another for towns across America to cheer on the destruction of their adolescent boys.

Maybe one day—when America is healthier (and me with it)—we'll return to baseball and the elegance of sublimated warfare. Until then: fathers, don't let your babies grow up to be football players.

1 comment:

  1. If I am not mistaken, you were one of those Fathers on the side line yourself.

    Pretty sure that if your own son was not so small, he would still be playing.

    Hypocrisy lives on in Mr. Treanors’ posts.

    ReplyDelete