<Everyone needs to imagine the melodious voice of Bob Costas as they read this. Indeed, this is a script written for him to read at halftime during a Sunday night football game this season.>
Is America's love of football a flaw?
Football is a uniquely American experience. From the tailgates of the South, the football Cathedrals of the Midwest, to the television rooms of Americans across the nation. No where else in the world is the onset of autumn--it's chilly weather and portending of a long winter to come--celebrated by the clashing of bone and sinew, the thrusting of an oblong pigskin into the air, and hours upon hours of media coverage.
Baseball may be America's pastime, Football is America's reality; and like reality, it isn't without its flaws. And, like reality, it something that we cannot avoid and that we must address.
Concussions, suicides, helmet-to-helmet, and something called CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) are all part of the everyday vernacular of America's reality. This juxtaposed with the multi-billion dollar industry that football has become. Indeed, there is a lot at stake for both humanity and the bottom line.
The whispered undertones of the end of football, (again, another reality), is just not feasible. The word "flaw" therefore is perhaps an unsatisfactory description of America's relation to football. Perhaps a better word is "birthmark."
Americans are forced to juggle two competing realities. Unfortunately and fortunately, getting rid of one gets rid of the other. This is not a call for the end of football--that would mean to removal of an important part of American culture. Nor is it a call for the acceptance of the dangers of football without action to alleviate those dangers--that would be inhumane. Rather, this is a realization that these two realities walk in tandem and that our duty is to ensure to health of both.
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