Blog Post #5 Why I Hate Football

 

Why I Hate Football

    

 

   I grew up in a semi-obsessed football family. We were Dallas Cowboys fans through and through, with the matching t-shirts to prove it. In fact, in middle school, I even begged my parents to let me play for the school team.

    However, all of my love and appreciation for football disappeared after devastation struck my high school my freshman year. One of the up and coming stars on the team, a sophomore named Aaron Singleton, tragically died from an injury he got on the field. He had gotten a concussion during practice the day before the game, and in true football "be a man" fashion, was encouraged to play concussed at the game. 

    After this event, I realized the truly horrific reality that can be produced by football culture. Since then, I have sworn to myself that my future children will never play the sport. Although it may be a hasty generalization based on one horrific event, the fact that a "friendly game of football" could produce such tragedy is a risk that I am unwilling to allow someone I love to take. 

    Football promotes violence and toxic masculinity to young boys. American youth are taught through football culture that risking their lives for a game is heroic and appropriate. Football, at its core, breeds patriarchal ideas to impressionable children who turn into morally corrupted adults. 

    Through all of my somewhat newly found hatred of the sport, I am still unconsciously nostalgic when I encounter football. It is so innately intertwined into our culture, especially growing up in Texas, that the sound of the NFL theme or the voices of the announcers automatically give me a warm feeling of nostalgia. This since of nostalgia further proves the impact that American football has on our culture and the foundational formation of our experiences.