What do American Sports, say about America?

c0de

c0de

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Specific Case Studies: American "Football" and Baseball.


I don't really consider American "Football" a sport at all, but a military exercise. This is not because of the violence of the game. I played rugby in High School, and that is a much more violent then "football". My objection to "football" being considered a sport is the clear-cut compartmentalization of the roles that the actual players are forced into. The strict division of labor in American Football, and baseball is unique to these two sports (as far as I know) and both of these sports are uniquely American. Think about the roles present on the football field and how they compare to the roles in an army, for example.

The Wide Receivers = Airborne Divisions (Dropping behind enemy lines)
The Running Backs = Armored Divisions (Breaking through Enemy lines)
Defensive/Offensive Lines = Infantry Divisions, (Holding the lines)
Special Teams = Special Forces (with specialized capabilities)
Quarterback = HQ/Artillery
Coach = GHQ

The same concept applies to Baseball, where the pitcher is only responsible for pitching, all the fielding positions are set and remain unchanging. Even the roles of the batting side are much more restricted, (then for example in Cricket.) The first few batsmen in Baseball are tasked with loading the bases, and then the rear-end is supposed to hit home runs.

Compare all of these with the sports of the rest of the world. In cricket, all the roles are temporary and (except for the wicket-keeper) and everyone gets to bat, and different people get to "pitch" (or bowl). The fielding positions are much more fluid, basically, everyone gets to do a lot more stuff. The same thing with Rugby/"Soccer"/Hockey etc. compared to American "football", where the defensive/offensive line doesn't even get to touch the damn ball the entire game!

I am not really aware of any other sports in the international arena which forces such a clear cut division of labor on sportsmen. So can anything be extrapolated from all of this? Well, for one thing, it seems like these two (quintessentially "American") sports are much less fluid and much more robotic then other international sports. The concept of the machine is much more present in American "football" then the real football (no, its not called "Soccer"!).

Case in point: YouTube - Insane Street Soccer
 
^ I was told by a corporate manager that football is the male initiation into American corporate life. If women want to succeed in that world, they have to understand sports' metaphors, concepts and tactics. Of course, playing golf is a must as well. :D
 
Jamarz said:
^ I was told by a corporate manager that football is the male initiation into American corporate life.
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Exactly, and what is "corporate" life? Getting used to being a cog in a machine, is what.

If women want to succeed in that world, they have to understand sports' metaphors, concepts and tactics. Of course, playing golf is a must as well.
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Its probably a misconception that women are forced to adopt male virtues to succeed in professional life. It seems the real aspect which has to be let go in order to succeed in corporate life is not your gender, but something else... because these mechanistic virtues which are adopted, they aren't exactly male virtues... I mean, I know that is what they are perceived as, but I am kinda offended by that.
 
Jamarz said:
^ I was told by a corporate manager that football is the male initiation into American corporate life. If women want to succeed in that world, they have to understand sports' metaphors, concepts and tactics. Of course, playing golf is a must as well. :D
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Golf, soccer, football, sumo wrestling.

My favorite sports.

Each, a thing of beauty.
 
Then we've got the kicker... like the fellow who says oh crap they tossed this grenade over here...kick it back.

Now talk about specialties...how about the pinch hitter, the right handed closer etc.

Or in football, the long snapper, yes the best position in the game. Wherever your kicker gets signed to you go to. The meatheads to your left and right will protect you. You have the least chance of injury and longest workspan on the field and in NFL retirement bennies your number of years of service creates a multiplier for retirement $$...so no big giant salary, nobody knows your name, but you get a big retirement and less broken bones to grown about as you age.

As far as I am concerned, sports period are a joke. The fans (fantatics) I know come in on Monday down in the dumps or high as a kite....why because of what some millionaire did over the weekend??

Why let insignificant outside events influence your happiness?
 
code
yeah well, we have dominated the sport for so long we had to let those whinging teams have a go, just to keep them interested you understand. lol
 
The only sports I like are the ones I play. I just can't get into watching any kind of sport either live or televised. They bore me to distraction.
 
I loved playing baseball when I was growing up..however I hated softball. I was the only girl in the neighborhood that the boys "allowed" to play with them..back in the dark ages..the worst insult of the day was to tease another boy that he threw "like a girl." For better or worse that was the way it was in the 60's.

PS..I also loved to bowl..any bowlers out there?
 
shawn said:
The only sports I like are the ones I play. I just can't get into watching any kind of sport either live or televised. They bore me to distraction.
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Do you only attend plays you act in?
 
Namaste code,

ah.. nothing like a little American bashing to bring one up, eh?

forgotten about your football hooligans have you?

nevertheless let's take a look at your analogy:

c0de said:
I don't really consider American "Football" a sport at all, but a military exercise.
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lots of people don't consider golf a sport either. yet, despite your consideration of American football and others of golf, they are both sports. now, if we choose to define the term "sports" as being exclusive of American football then it's pretty much a non-starter all around.

This is not because of the violence of the game. I played rugby in High School, and that is a much more violent then "football". My objection to "football" being considered a sport is the clear-cut compartmentalization of the roles that the actual players are forced into.
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heh... forced. i think that you may not clearly understand the idea of a free country. nobody requires professional American football players to play the game, they choose to do so. the roles that they have within a team.. and that's the important bit.. a team.. are roles which they are physically best suited for. if your argument is that a beings physical stature determines their position on a football field then i think you and i have a very different understanding of what it takes to make a team successful.

The Wide Receivers = Airborne Divisions (Dropping behind enemy lines)
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dropping behind enemy lines is the defenses job, not the offense... but then if one is an offensive player perhaps that is their mentality as well. generally speaking a wide receiver is a person that has "good hands" which means they can catch a football when thrown too them and can carry a 3-d map in their head of where they are and where their quarterback thinks they are as they run the plays.

The Running Backs = Armored Divisions (Breaking through Enemy lines)
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work truks/mules. running backs carry the bulk of the load for their team. in is certainly true that the running back plays a larger role in collegiate athletics than in the professional ranks but one cannot underestimate the game changing ability of the top professionals.

Defensive/Offensive Lines = Infantry Divisions, (Holding the lines)
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this is mostly all wrong. the Defensive line is trying to disrupt the play not hold the line, the offensive line me are either dropping back to protect the quarterback on a passing play or pushing forward to create running lanes and advance the running back down the field. football is a sport which requires all 54 team members to perform the job and perform it well.

Special Teams = Special Forces (with specialized capabilities)
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special teams are comprised of those players that are not quite talented enough to play as a starter on the defense or offense. there are some players that excel at special teams and also play well in a defense or offense but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Quarterback = HQ/Artillery
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within your military analogy, which i know some folks are fond of, the quarterback is the field general, leading and directing the team down the field.

Coach = GHQ
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there are a great many coaches within professional football so i'll presume you are simply speaking of the head coach. by and large his job is to interact with the public and to set the tone for the team, be it defensively minded or offense, passing or running and so forth.

The same concept applies to Baseball, where the pitcher is only responsible for pitching, all the fielding positions are set and remain unchanging. Even the roles of the batting side are much more restricted, (then for example in Cricket.) The first few batsmen in Baseball are tasked with loading the bases, and then the rear-end is supposed to hit home runs.
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you've grown up in the steroid era of baseball, for most of its history it wasn't like that and it won't be going forward. baseball is also a team sport though each member of the team has a greater personal responsiblity than in some other sports where a team-mate can pick up for you.

Compare all of these with the sports of the rest of the world. In cricket, all the roles are temporary and (except for the wicket-keeper) and everyone gets to bat, and different people get to "pitch" (or bowl). The fielding positions are much more fluid, basically, everyone gets to do a lot more stuff. The same thing with Rugby/"Soccer"/Hockey etc. compared to American "football", where the defensive/offensive line doesn't even get to touch the damn ball the entire game!
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right.. let's talk about soccer, your football. goal tender. fullback. midfield. striker. when Torres runs back into the midfield he gets a stern look from his manager cause he's paid to be a stiker, not a midfielder. the goal tender stays in the goal area, not engaged in the offense. the fullbacks, with rare exceptions and set plays, don't cross midfield. teams have roles for their players to play and nobody forces them into those roles.

I am not really aware of any other sports in the international arena which forces such a clear cut division of labor on sportsmen. So can anything be extrapolated from all of this?
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nothing more than one chooses to and you've really confused the idea of "forced to play professional sports" quite a great deal.

Well, for one thing, it seems like these two (quintessentially "American") sports are much less fluid and much more robotic then other international sports. The concept of the machine is much more present in American "football" then the real football (no, its not called "Soccer"!).
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that is certainly your impression and it is probably due to your cultural bias that this is so. i don't perceive it in this manner but then i'm a fairly interested sports consumer and i tend to appreciate aspects of most forms of atheletic competition.

i will say, however, that competitive darts doesn't do a whole lot for me even though i like to play on a personal level.

all of that said, both baseball and football are deriviatives of English games, criket and rugby the American contribution to those games changed them enough that they are quite different sorts of sports than their progenitors. there are two truely original sports that have arisen in North America, one you've heard of and one you've probably not. the first is called Basketball, the second is called La Crosse. both of these are also team sports that have teammates play specific positions with specific tasks within the team concept yet demonstrate the fluidity that you are talking about.

i can only wonder why you focus on what you do. perhaps you simply aren't into team sports, espeically when those team sports are from the United States?

metta,

~v
 
I agree with c0de that there is something unique about these two all American sports in the way they rigidly formalise position like a battlefield. And he is right that it is far more structured than in the games played by the rest of the world. You can see it as an evolution though. American football and Baseball most obviously evolved from older European games. But is the evolution healthy? Is it symptomatic of a rigid order in society at large? I dont know. I never been to the US. But I do know many Americans I meet are less like people and more like machines.
 
Alex P said:
Is it healthy? Mate, they drink beer in the stands!! That is unreal.... Imagine people drinking beer in the stands of a football game.. lol be a freaking blood bath! lol (and I do mean FOOTball not that american ****e.)
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They do at rugby grounds here too. Do Americans realise that Alex's contempt for the American game is pretty universal over here?
 
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