I root for the Green Bay Packers...and not casually. As I speak, there's a Green Bay Packers mug nearby, on weekends I wear a Packers cap and use Packers shopping bags. Most disturbingly, in the long, long off-season, I subscribe to services which provide me with daily obsessive updates on anything going on in Packers land. And, I read them even though nothing really is going on.
I tell you this so will understand how odd it was for me when last year, Packers tight-end Jermichael Finley went down with his second serious injury in the head and neck area. Finley was fabulously talented but as he lay there on the field I heard myself saying out loud, "get up, go home, hug your kids, and never play this game again."
America has a love-hate relationship with football. In part, that might be due to football's inability to figure out what it wants to be.
On the golden side of the coin, football can be a transforming sport, instilling a sense of responsibility to something greater than self, a strong work ethic, and the ability to persevere the most grueling of physical and emotional challenge. And, that doesn't even touch on the sheer beauty of the game. That's the side that's made of Gold.
On the tinny and dented side of the coin, Ray Rice is suspended for two games after rendering his girlfriend unconscious, Chris Cochran, UConn's starting quarterback must leave the game to preserve his health, and former Miami Dolphin guard Richie Incognito, can bully teammate Jonathan Martin without consequence.
The American public can't figure out what it wants either. Is it wrong to consume as entertainment a game that can cause brain damage, treat women poorly, exploit student athletes and exhibit racist and homophobic attitudes?
Football is deeply and irrevocably ingrained in our culture. Deciding how we think about it is not as easy as it looks.
Today, how our attitudes toward football are changing.
Guests:
- Steve Almond is a reporter and the author of several award-winning books including "Candyfreak" and most recently, "Against Football: A Reluctant Manifesto."
- Mark Edmundson is a professor of English at University of Virginia and the author of several books including “Why Teach?” and “Why Football Matters: My Education in the Game.”
- Will Leitch is a senior writer for Sports on Earth and hosts the daily podcast "The Will Leitch Experience." He’s a contributing editor for New York Magazine and the author of four books including, "Are We Winning: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball"
