Ours is a violent society attracted to the combat that plays out in the 'war game' of football, America's favorite sport, writes Randall Balmer. (via latimesopinion)
In 1971, when a player died during a game, the league expected business to continue as usual. The response Monday was far more humane.American football, a military game concerned with the conquest and the defense of territory, evolved from the English game of rugby in the years following the American Civil War. Walter Camp of Yale, generally considered the father of American football, disliked the chaos of the rugby scrum and sought to introduce more strategy into the game.
College officials responded by forming the Intercollegiate Athletic Assn. and eventually altering the rules. Among other changes, they eliminated the flying wedge and allowed the forward pass, which made the game marginally safer. Casualties rose again in 1909, however: two fatalities, and the Navy quarterback was paralyzed in a game against Villanova University.
By any measure, the United States is a violent society, an observation confirmed in the daily newspaper and the nightly news with horrific stories about mass shootings and homicide data. Consider the unspeakable violence of slavery in America’s past, rape statistics and hate crimes directed against ethnic and racial minorities. The emergence of the game of football coincided with the 19century push into the West beneath the banner of Manifest Destiny, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.
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