American Sports Culture: Football

There are a number of popular national sports in the USA: baseball, basketball, and hockey, but what dominates American culture is American football. (“Football,” the game in which the ball is kicked with the foot, to the rest of the world is known in American as “soccer.”)  American football prominently exists in multiple levels of American society, from youth “Pop Warner” leagues to high school to college to the professional NFL (National Football League). There are some other less successful attempts to play the sport on a professional-level, modifying the rules and regulations. The Arena Football League (AFL), adapted to play indoors, is probably the most familiar of these off-shoots. 

The game originated as a combination of rugby and soccer. Comparison to Roman gladiatorial sports has been made due to the physical violence of this spectator sport.  The arena in which the game is played is generally known by the Latin word “stadium.”  Gridiron, an alternate name for the sport, comes from the rectangular field marked in yardlines, on which the game is played. It is typically played in late summer to early winter, roughly August to January.

In the American high school system, weekly football games are the focus of the first part of the school year, with the “Friday Night Lights” phenomenon taking over many a small town during Fall. The Homecoming game and dance and pageantry provides an autumnal highlight in high school culture.

Collegiate football ranks third in overall popularity in the United States, behind baseball and pro football. On the college-level the game is organized through the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The NFL championship game, the Super Bowl, is among the biggest events in club sports worldwide. It is played between the champions of the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), and its winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Because of its intense physicality, football is not as conducive to female participation, although some all-women leagues exist. The high number of concussions or head injuries resulting from the play of the game (both in young adults and those who played the game professionally throughout their lifetime) is currently cause for investigation of the rules and equipment in an attempt to make the game safer.

As a spectator sport, the fanbase for football is huge.  “Tailgating” is the parking-lot meal/party before a stadium game. Many “couch-potatoes” earned that nickname for spending their weekends as TV-watching sports enthusiasts.  Video-gaming, fantasy football and touch-football make it a more accessible and participatory sport in everyday life.

From Wikipedia: “Football also plays a significant role in American culture. The Super Bowl is considered a de facto national holiday, and in parts of the country like Texas, the sport has been compared to a religion. Football is also linked to other holidays; New Year's Day is traditionally the date for several college football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl. However, if New Year's Day is on a Sunday, the bowl games are moved to another date to not conflict with the typical NFL Sunday schedule. Thanksgiving football is an American tradition, hosting many high school, college, and professional games. Steve Deace of USA Today wrote that Americans are passionate about football ‘because it embodies everything we love about American exceptionalism. Merit is rewarded, not punished. Masculinity is celebrated, not feminized. People of various beliefs and backgrounds — a melting pot, if you will — must unify for a common goal for the team to be successful’. Implicit rules such as playing through pain and sacrificing for the better of the team are promoted in football culture.”