Football In America Essay Research Paper In free essay sample

Football In America Essay, Research Paper In a society where competition and difficult work are the regulation, the game of football and in peculiar, high school football, with its odds and ends of mores, norms and rites have symbolically come to stand for the American life. Like many of the conventions in American society, high school football has over the old ages ingrained in its participants teamwork, trueness, and the value of difficult work. In add-on, the establishment of high school football non merely pertains to the game, but has influenced many participants in the affairs of gender, albeit with a certain grade of struggle. Finally, high school footballs # 8217 ; rites and rites of transitions have enforced the properties that have been deemed worthy, and have further inculcated beliefs in its sharers. In this paper, I will reason that high school football is non merely simply a game, but a little yet really existent autotype of the American society as a whole. We will write a custom essay sample on Football In America Essay Research Paper In or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In high schools all across America, football has been the prevailing athletics for coevalss. From the early yearss of football starting in the 1920 # 8217 ; s to the present twenty-four hours, football jocks have started their callings on high school Fieldss. Coachs on every football squad from the smallest towns to the Nationwide Division One title-holder squads have to a big grade stressed a certain criterion of behavior and behaviour. Among these properties that are taught, teamwork is no uncertainty the most of import. Vince Lombardi, considered by many to hold been the finest football manager in history said, # 8220 ; Football is a game of many lessons in teamwork # 8230 ; The lone true satisfaction a participant receives is the satisfaction that comes from being portion of a successful squad, irrespective of what his ain personal terminals are. # 8221 ; ( Flynn, 15 ) . Countless managers in high school have agreed with Lombardi, and have taught teamwork as a agency of accom plishing triumphs. Raul Palafox, a Central California League foremost squad receiving system and first squad safety attributed much of his success to his squad. He said, # 8220 ; It # 8217 ; s the squad that wins the games. They # 8217 ; re the 1s that enabled me to make every bit good as I did, and I gave everything I had for them in return. I # 8217 ; m nil on the field without my team. # 8221 ; Palafox like many other participants have attributed their personal success to their squad, and it can be said that this is a consequence of the lessons participants have undergone by their managers. Loyalty is besides another trait that managers have extremely stressed. Many times in my ain personal football calling my manager instructed us in this trait. An illustration of this was the fact that we were non to speak to anyone but fellow participants before a game. This would demo that our concentration and attending were merely on the undertaking at manus, and the people that would enable our triumph. Such trueness has been shown in other contexts as good. Norton Kim, another extremely decorated first squad participant said, # 8220 ; There # 8217 ; s a batch of times where I # 8217 ; ve gotten into battles because ( people ) were messing with my friends # 8230 ; They # 8217 ; rhenium ( football teammates ) like my brothers. # 8221 ; On and off the field, many high school football participants have shown in action and deed how much the trueness taught to them through the game has affected their lives. Finally, the moral principle of working difficult can safely be said to hold been taught to merely approximately every football squad in the state. David Nelson, a football manager at the high school degree said about football, # 8220 ; # 8230 ; it requires wash uping difficult work, to the point of drudgery. # 8221 ; ( Nelson, 43 ) . In support of this, particular preparation cantonments notoriously called # 8220 ; Hell Week # 8221 ; , have been formed around the state for high schools. During these # 8220 ; Hell Week # 8221 ; developing period, participants have to condition much harder than usually, as this weeds out participants unwilling to work hard, in add-on to conveying the willing participants into form. Exercises such as three stat mi tallies, in 30 lb football tablets in 100 grade conditions are non unusual at all. Contrary to popular belief, this point of working hard does non merely travel towards the games played. As noted by Nelson, # 8220 ; Over 40 per centum of all major hurts and more than 75 per centum of all hurts happen during practice. # 8221 ; ( Nelson, 32 ) . Players are non merely bucked up, but are demanded to give their uttermost non merely in game state of affairss, but continuously. These traits mentioned above non merely play an built-in function in the kingdom of football but besides in general to life in American society. The properties of teamwork, trueness and difficult work are desirable in the work force of today. They are so desirable in fact, that many self-help gurus have made 1000000s learning many how to derive these traits and others they deem necessary for success. In learning their participants about the importance of these aforesaid qualities, high school football managers have non merely developed quality participants, but have besides instigated many of the qualities necessary for success in ulterior life. Quite perchance the most controversial capable affair that has been brought to attending approximately high school football is the manner participants have had their beliefs influenced about gender, viz. sexual penchant. Many participants and even managers have come under fire from persons that were below the belt discriminated against due to their sexual penchant. In one instance in Boise, Iowa, a high school senior, Timothy Watkins was repeatedly verbally abused and discriminated against by his manager for being homosexual, when the fact of the affair was that he was so non gay. In my ain personal experiences my former football squads # 8217 ; positions of homophiles were the antithesis of what football participants should be. Football participants were supposed to be tough and manfully. Homosexuals on the other manus, were typecast as weak and unskilled, and word pictures of them holding lisps and # 8220 ; broken # 8221 ; wrist motions were prevailing among many of the particip ants. In fact, the unequivocal participant would non merely be one that would execute good on the field, but would besides be popular with the ladies. Abuses such as # 8220 ; faggot # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; Homo # 8221 ; were passed on to those who many of the participants felt were non playing to the # 8220 ; standard # 8221 ; that somehow straight persons played at. This can be seen as highly sardonic in the fact that many anthropologists have seen football as, # 8220 ; # 8230 ; a signifier of symbolic homosexual behaviour, ( similar ) to the induction rites of Aboriginal Australia # 8230 ; # 8221 ; ( Rosman, Rubel 78 ) . Dundes, a athleticss anthropologist besides stated that football was, # 8220 ; # 8230 ; combat between groups of males trying to asseverate their maleness by perforating the endzones of their rivals. # 8221 ; ( Rosman, Rubel 78 ) . The penetrating of endzones can symbolically seen as a really homoerotic symbol, and yet the same persons who have accepted these symbols as actual manifestations in their life, have been the 1s discriminated against. While morally incorrect in know aparting against homosexuals, these influences can be paralleled to the favoritism many homosexuals feel in mundane life. If a participant on the football squad I participated in was homosexual, so there would be a great trade of tenseness amongst the remainder of the squad, peculiarly during shower and altering times. In the same sense, many instances of homophiles being shunned or avoided in the work force have been tantamount to the mode in which a homophile on a football squad would be received. Doubtless, there would be some signifier of credence for homosexuals in both contexts, but for the bulk of their colleagues or participants, there would be a sense of edginess and sometimes outward ill will. One person that I interviewed, Randy Wiecek, a varsity football participant for three old ages, was an outstanding line backer at a extremely graded high school in Southern California. He was besides a homosexual. In his battles with his squads homophobic inclinations he decided to maintain his sexual penchant a secret from everyone on the squad. He said about the state of affairs, â€Å"It was truly di fficult. Guys would do cheery gags all the clip, and I’d have to express joy along with them. I hated a batch of them so much, but I loved football more than I hated them.† While more tolerance has been shown towards different sexual penchants than in the yesteryear, Wiecek’s narrative of favoritism and spite prove to be the regulation towards homosexuals in football. This is complementary towards the intervention that homophiles have endured in other facets of life, and proves further how high school football has infiltrated into the heads of its participants. Finally, rites among a high school football squad have influenced participants to believe and move in certain ways. Some rites have no uncertainty been good to both participants and managers, but others have non been so baronial. One ritual prevalent in most high school football rites is that of the pre-game supplication. While a dignified ritual it is someway dry that many of these football participants, some of the rowdiest, strident, and hedonic persons in the school, would all fall in together in a supplication with earnestness. In the same sense, many managers known for their ability to cuss fluently and to move upon any violent inclination, would fall in the supplication with equal piousness as their participants. While hypocritical in many positions, this behaviour in bend can be seen as congruent to many of the church-goers in America. While go toing church, these same members would from Sunday afternoon to Saturday dark indulge themselves in all manners of secular pleasance. Another ritual, this clip one with great significance and self-respect is the keeping of custodies amongst participants walking out onto the football field. This ritual held by about every high school squad has shown the integrity that the squad possesses. In this gesture, teammates, even 1s with hostility towards each other, are to keep custodies in mark of support for each other and for their group. Another great rite that has been used in many high school squads is the quoting of great football managers, in peculiar Vince Lombardi. Our caput manager before every game would declaim the quotation mark that made Lombardi celebrated. He quoted Lombardi stating, # 8220 ; The quality of a adult male # 8217 ; s life is in direct proportion to his committedness to excellence, irrespective of his chosen field or endeavor. # 8221 ; ( Flynn, 124 ) . Immediately following this, we would hotfoot out onto the field spliting with pride and nisus for the excellence that Lombardi dreamt about . Aside from the slightly good rites listed supra, there have been some rites that have been really condemnable in the athletics of high school football. Recently, a manager in Schurr High School in Monterrey Park was fired for holding shown adult movies to his squad earlier games as a kind of encouragement to his squad. The bulk of his participants were bush leagues, and parents non to advert jurisprudence enforcement functionaries were outraged. This in bend can be seen in many of today # 8217 ; s persons in the concern sphere, where allegations of sexual torment and improper behavior have been frequent. Another rite that has been widespread in many of the states high school football squads is the exclusion of females in the athletics. My alma mater, La Canada high school was featured in the LA Times when late for the first clip since its # 8217 ; origin, the football squad enabled a female to play football. While this has been more common during the last few old ages, all femal e football participants prior to Sarah Rathburn, were placekickers. Rathburn is alone in that she plays on the defensive line. When asked about the new female participant at his school, Norton Kim said, # 8220 ; I don # 8217 ; t mind that much, but there are a few things that bother me about it. I # 8217 ; m non being male chauvinist or anything, but she # 8217 ; s non a really good participant and she insists on playing defence, where you need the most strength and velocity. ( Head Coach ) Wheeler puts her in games above other participants with more senior status and accomplishments, merely so he can acquire promotion from her. It would be merely as bad if it were a cat that did the same thing. # 8221 ; In response to the allegation that Kim made, I asked Sarah Rathburn what she felt about her football experience. She said, # 8220 ; I think I # 8217 ; m merely every bit good as anyone on the squad. The ground why I play is non to acquire attending, but because I truly love t he game. I # 8217 ; ve been watching football since I was three, likely longer than any of the cats on this squad. I play because I try hard, non because ( Coach ) Wheeler gives me particular intervention because I # 8217 ; m a girl. # 8221 ; This rite of sex and gender struggles is besides shown in similar contexts to the many gender struggles in the workplace. Furthermore, as adult females in football were once merely kickers, and females like Rathburn have pioneered their entry into different places, so excessively have adult females once confined to secretaries and nurses, now aspire to places such as CEO and M.D. These rites, and many more in football have actively influenced its # 8217 ; members, and has besides measured up to many of the popular beliefs of today, and has proven that football rites have mirrored the existent universe. High school football, with all its mores, norms rites and influences has in kernel emulated existent life, with its ain criterions and regulations of behavior. Through the instruction of difficult work, trueness and teamwork, those who have taught these traits have non merely produced better football participants, but have taken things necessary from the concern universe and have transplanted it into their participants. Besides, football has influenced its members on the topic of gender, which like in American society today is fraught with favoritism, confusion and contention. Finally, high school football with its rites, good and bad have paralleled rather nicely with rites that many American grownups employ in their every twenty-four hours lives. In these rites, it is seen merely how good high school football is a smaller version of life itself. On the playing field of life, high school football will ever be an index of world # 8217 ; s values, beliefs and rites