Chapter 2 Second Quarter: Violence and American Football

Transcription

1 Chapter 2 Second Quarter: Violence and American Football Abstract This chapter looks at the role of violence in American football, and how understanding the religious dimensions of violence can help us in understanding how violence functions in American football. While explaining the relevance of all three functions of religious violence in studying American football, the chapter focuses on the social-psychological function (particularly as explained by Rene Girard). Oriard (1993), one of the most insightful scholars writing on the cultural history of American football, recognizes the integral role that violence plays in the sport: [Football is] the dramatic confrontation of artistry with violence, both equally necessary. The receiver s balletic moves and catch would not impress us nearly as much if the possibility of annihilation were not real; the violence of the collision would be gratuitous, pointless, if it did not threaten something valuable and important. The violence, in fact, partially creates the artistry: the simple act of catching a thrown ball becomes a marvelous achievement only in defiance of the brutal blow. Football becomes contact ballet (1 2). Violence is central to the beauty and power of the game. American football is ritual. The violent contact inherent to it is ritualized violence it is composed of prescribed and proscribed acts that serve a collective purpose and provide shared meaning. In this way it is religious in character. Social-Psychological Function of Violence in American Football Football certainly entails violent confrontations between players, but it is controlled violence nonetheless. The ritual of American football often is performed in the context of a festival, one characterized by the violation of norms that in turn affirms those norms for more profane times. In the United States, professional football (the National Football League, specifically) is incredibly popular, and the game days in various cities certainly have a festival atmosphere. In this work, the focus is on The Author(s) 2017 E. Bain-Selbo, Violence in Southern Sport and Culture, SpringerBriefs in Religion and Sport, DOI / _2 15

2 16 2 Second Quarter: Violence and American Football college football, played on hundreds of university campuses every Saturday (and often, now, on other days) in the autumn. On football game days, while many people drink alcoholic beverages (sometimes to great excess) on the grounds of the university, they would be escorted off campus or even arrested if they consumed alcohol in the same place but at other times. In this case, the exception (being allowed to drink publicly on campus) affirms the rule (no public consumption of alcohol on campus). The festival context sets the stage for the ritual violence for what is otherwise prohibited is allowed during the festival. Similarly, the violence of football is limited to the time of the game on a particular day. The controlled and restricted violence affirms the social norm that otherwise proscribes violent behavior. Theologian Novak (1994) argues that the controlled conflict of football ventilates our rage (84). The human animal suffers enormous daily violence, he adds, echoing Girard. Football is an attempt to harness violence, to formalize it, to confine it within certain canonical limits, and then to release it in order to wrest from it a measure of wit, beauty, and redemption (94). Violence generally is prohibited in American culture, no matter how angry one might be. However, in the context of the festival of American football, violence not only is allowed but it is encouraged (certainly on the field, but also vicariously among the fans and sometimes quite literally among the fans). The violence that occurs between the players is ritualized, in that it occurs at prescribed times in a closely controlled context for specific ends or goals. Thus, we can understand the violence of the American football ritual as a kind of sacrifice. Sacrifice is a necessary element in football and in both senses described earlier. Sacrifice refers not only to the surrogate-victim or loser of the contest, but all the players (as a consequence of their self-sacrifice). As Novak notes: Once an athlete accepts the uniform, he is in effect donning priestly vestments. It is the function of priests to offer sacrifices Often the sacrifice is literal: smashed knees, torn muscles, injury-abbreviated careers. Always the sacrifice is ritual: the athlete bears the burden of identification. He is no longer living his own life only (141). Whether it is broken bones or concussions or even death, American football players sacrifice themselves in the performance of the ritual. In another sense, the players are sacrificed by those who control the game (owners, university administrators, coaches, etc.). More broadly, as a cultural practice, an activity of the whole society, we also can say that these players are sacrificed by the society. Novak concludes football dramatizes the sacrifice, discipline, and inner rage of collective behavior (207) sacrifice, discipline, and rage that Durkheim and Girard would find to be fundamentally religious. From a Girardian perspective, football players are our surrogate victims. Novak (1994) argues that football is a revelatory liturgy It externalizes the warfare in our hearts and offers us a means of knowing ourselves and wresting some grace from our true natures (96). We might not always want to know of our violent and aggressive selves, but at least football can turn that violence and aggression into something that has some merit and beauty. It is, as Oriard says, contact ballet.

3 Social-Psychological Function of Violence in American Football 17 Since the earliest times, Michael Mandelbaum (2004) writes, from gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome to public hangings in early modern England to boxing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries not to mention Hollywood movies of the twenty-first staged events with violence at their core have commanded public attention (176 7). So, is the violence of sports like American football what gives them their vast appeal? And what is it precisely that the spectator gets from witnessing such a violent spectacle? The catharsis theory suggests that the violence we engage in or watch in sports relieves us of our excessive violent urges and thus allows us to function better psychologically and certainly socially. This theory would seem to be part of Girard s approach to religious violence and sounds like what Novak is saying in the passages cited above. However, psychologists have found little experimental data to support the catharsis theory. Daniel L. Wann and his collaborators (2001) note that there is virtually no empirical evidence validating the existence of catharsis in sport. The blowing off steam theory of sport spectating may be attractive, but it is quite inaccurate (198). Kerr (2005) likewise is suspicious of a catharsis theory of sports violence, insisting that there is little experimental evidence to support it (124). The arguments of Wann et al. and Kerr would seem to contradict Girard and the application of his theory to sport. Girard s work seems to rely upon some notion of a catharsis theory the sacrificial victim relieving us of the violence that we otherwise would commit against one another. Kerr (2005) argues for a more comprehensive psychological understanding of sports violence than simply a catharsis theory. He notes that contemporary life (at least in Europe and the United States) is not very exciting. The range of emotions, especially at the highest or most pleasant end, is fairly narrow. Consequently, people have to actively seek out thrills and vicarious risk-taking through, for example, watching sports (118). Anyone watching a crowd at a major sporting event can witness the intensity of the emotions that many fans experience. Fans attain high levels of arousal, and this intense experience is a pleasant excitement (98). This experience is particularly prevalent with violent sports like American football, rugby, boxing, mixed martial arts fighting, and ice hockey. Kerr concludes that watching violent sports produces increases in levels of arousal, and people deliberately watch to achieve elevated arousal (118). Here then we might have an explanation not only of the psychological appeal of violent sports, but of certain stereotypical religious rituals (e.g., sacrifices) as well. In other words, is it not reasonable to believe that our ancestors may have engaged in violent and ecstatic rituals in order to achieve heightened levels of psychological arousal (think here of Durkheim s collective effervescence and/or Turner s communitas) that countered the prevalent banality of their lives?

4 18 2 Second Quarter: Violence and American Football Is the psychological arousal of violent sports good or bad for us? Does participating in or watching violent sports spur people to act violently in other contexts? This argument is similar to ones made about violence on television or in the movies that such violence encourages others (especially children) to act violently. Kerr notes that the research is split on the issue of the connection between violence in various forms of popular culture and among those who participate in or view them. He concludes that the popular wisdom which suggests media violence and media sports violence has harmful effects on people, especially where those viewers are young children, may not be correct (130). In short, the research data simply are not conclusive in any way. Kerr argues that the pleasant excitement of violent sports can be an important part of our overall psychological health. He argues that there are situations where certain types of aggressive and violent acts are central to people s enjoyment of activities. These activities range from athletic contests to viewing violent sports as a spectator, or watching violent sports movies. Being a part of these activities does no psychological harm to the vast majority of those who participate and may actually benefit their psychological health (148). The arousal or pleasant excitement is the necessary counterweight to the banality of the modern world, and thus central to a balanced psychological life. Certainly there are non-violent activities that can give rise to such arousal or pleasant excitement, but perhaps the fact that violence is so strictly prohibited makes violent sports like American football particularly attractive. The argument that participating in or watching violence produces a psychological good may go a long way to explaining why violence has been such an integral part of our games and sports and religions through the centuries perhaps redeeming (in some way) Girard s theory as well. Maybe ritualized violence does not directly compensate for the violence we want to commit against one another but are prohibited from doing so. However, by positively affecting our mental health, perhaps ritualized violence makes us less prone to violent outbursts. Either way, we see here how violence in American football may serve an important social-psychological function for the fans. Here then is the table used earlier, slightly altered to focus specifically on football: Girardian Concept Mimetic desire Mimetic model Object Mimetic rivalry Example in football Winning the game or championship Competitors, championship teams (e.g., the New England Patriots in professional football or the University of Oklahoma in college football) Wins, trophies, medals, accolades Individual and/or team rivalries (e.g., in professional football, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears; in college football, the (continued)

5 Social-Psychological Function of Violence in American Football 19 (continued) Girardian Concept Rituals of sacrifice Scapegoat or surrogate-victim Festival Example in football University of Michigan Wolverines and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame) Games Losers of competitions, individual players (particularly those suffering injuries) Tailgating before or even during games; particularly important games such as the Super Bowl, big rivalry games, the college football national championship game The violence of football is not only intrinsic to the game; it is central to the sport as a broad cultural practice that includes players, coaches, and fans. The cultural practice is one with a rich tradition that normalizes the mimetic desire, objects, rivalry, surrogate-victim, and the violence inherent in all mimetic relationships and sacrificial rituals. But what about the cosmological and ethical functions of violence? Cosmological and Ethical Functions of American Football In terms of the cosmological function, clearly sports like football exploit the human predilection for us versus them thinking. Our team is better than yours. As Schwartz (1997) might say, the game is a means of creating community identities, violently rendering one group from another. To don the colors of a particular team, to enter the stadium and root for that team, is to declare oneself a part of one tribe versus another. Participating in the ritual of football on a repeated basis then solidifies that identity as a member of a particular tribe. One begins to see that identity as central to what it is to be who one is. For those who embrace that identity at a young age and stick with it for many years, one begins to see oneself as born a fan of a particular team an indication of how powerful that sense of identity can become. Through the most critical part of the ritual of football the game only one team can earn the honor and adulation that comes with victory. Only one team can have bragging rights after the game. In other words, there is a scarcity of the mimetic object (in this case, victory). Only one team can claim it, and the game becomes a violent contest for that object. The violence of the game is both necessary for the victory of one team over another and symbolic of the mimetic desire of the fans for everything that accompanies that victory scarce resources like honor, superiority, bragging rights, etc. In short, American football reflects a cosmic war perspective in which no compromise is possible and it is winner take all. The violence of football undoubtedly serves an ethical function. Victory for your team is the victory of good over evil. It also is the achievement or restoration of order and justice in our world. Any true fan will tell you that a loss leaves one with

6 20 2 Second Quarter: Violence and American Football the feeling that there is something not quite right in the world. Something is out of order and must be rectified. Order and justice must be restored. For some fans, this lack of order and justice can last for an entire year such as the case with heated college football rivalries. When Auburn loses to Alabama, Auburn fans must wait 12 months before having the opportunity to rectify the situation and restore order. Violence in American football functions in ways just like it functions in religion cosmologically, ethically, and social-psychologically. Next, we will see that this phenomenon of religious violence in American football has a unique history and meaning in the American South.

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