How has American football influenced American culture and mentality?

15 comments

1. I read a paper once that discussed how a nearly universal understanding of terms and tactics from football allowed ease of communication and understanding at all levels of troops in WWII.

   Basically the idea that troops had an innate understanding of how to use movement to gain space and ground. The importance of blocking (suppresive fire) and how to move behind it. Etc.

   I wish I could find it, but it was a published research paper like 20 years ago and every time I look for it I’ve failed.

   Other than that, its just a sport. People like it. Super Bowl parties are really fun. Friday night high school games are community events in many towns and everyone comes out to watch.

2. It’s just sort of our “big” sport. Whether or not you’re a huge fan, everyone knows what their local NFL/CFB team is. People go to superbowl parties to just socialize even if they don’t really like football. Pretty much every high school in America has a football team and it’s the sport most students go to watch. “Friday night football” is just part of the high school experience for a lot of people either because they went to the games as a spectator, were a football player, or were in marching band. I think what makes it different than other countries is that there’s no “world cup” equivalent for football since it’s really only popular here. You won’t ever have the entire country rooting for a single team since the only teams to play against are other American ones, even at the superbowl.

3. To the extent we have an aggressive disposition, that’s the product of other factors.

   I’d say biggest impact is geographical rivalries. Probably a good bit of chicago rubes that “hate” Green Bay and vice versa. I imagine that football contributes to that.

   Otherwise, i can only think of how it’s made it way into our sayings:

   – he fumbled the meeting
   – called an audible and went to X instead

4. “Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”

   ― George Will

5. We’ve got several commonly used phrases that originated from football, but aside from that it’s not really all that different from how any other country treats their top sport.

6. It’s made a lot of kids hate history because their history teacher is the football coach and he only cares about one of those jobs.

7. American football sayings have made their way into everyday conversations. “Huddle up”, “offsides”, “out of bounds” “blitz” “fumble” etc

8. American football is the game of taking other peoples land by force, so i’d say it’s influenced us pretty well😂

9. It informs a lot of our social interactions. If you live in a community where everyone’s super tuned in to either a college or pro team (Wisconsin, for example, but many other states and cities as well), it’s a moment once a week where everyone’s doing the same thing at the same time, so setting up a plan to watch at the bar with friends or to go visit a family member to watch the game become really easy and common.

   and bc of the frequent pauses, football is great for that bc it gives you plenty of time to argue about whether or not something was a catch, or whether the ball crossed the plane.

10. Well… Some People watch the superbowl just to see fun/funny commercials. I think that’s the pinnacle of modern American culture and commercialism.

11. If it wasn’t for college football, most Americans wouldn’t know of nearly as many colleges as they do now. In a way, a successful college football team (or basketball team) is the best marketing a college can have.

12. There are many books on this topic, and some of them are massive.

    * If you go back to the mid-1800s, you’ll find football originally was used as a symbol of the bastion of the “Christian man,” and was something all men should strive toward. This was borrowed from the game’s rugby and soccer origins in England. Football wasn’t so much a sport people liked playing, but it was used as a mandatory education tool for boys through a religiously oriented curriculum.

    * In the early 20th century, some southern football schools got heavily involved in political campaign ads…like candidates would sponsor or support a particular college football program and use them as a representation of their campaigns.

    * Then there’s the case of HBCU’s in the mid 20th century building a very strong football network; to a point where they were beating a lot of the major CFB programs and IVY Leagues…something the PWIs (predominantly white institutions) were not fond of. Michigan State University was the first major CFB program at a PWI to openly declare “desegregation,” with its football program and proactively recruited non-white football players around the country. MSU quickly became a national power in the 1950s, and desegregation in football started rolling across the country. Some will argue this played a heavy hand in the desegregation of US education in general, but I’m skeptical it played that much of a role. It was still a major, cultural impact though.

    * However, that desegregation had a negative impact…on HBCUs. Because Black students could play almost anywhere by the 1970s, HBCUs lost their major recruiting vacuum and fell back to their lower ranks and to the FCS division where most of them are today. Not coincidentally, the desegregation football movement masked most of desegregation in other arenas across America, with South-eastern PWIs being some of the very last programs to desegregate. I remember reading an article in grad school from a journalist citing other opinions who are still bitter about this today…seeing the desegregation of football as a deliberate tool to keep Black-owned or ran institutions out of competition.

    * Football has always been an extremely tactical and strategic team sport, even in its earliest days. You’ll find a lot of modern business strategies, models, etc, borrowing terms from American Football. “Playbook, touchdown, 1st and goal, when you get in the red-zone, etc.”

    * It’s so culturally significant that we can just say “football” and know we’re talking about American Football, despite all the other footballs that exist out there: Soccer, rugby union, rugby league, Aussie, Canadian, Gaelic, etc, etc. So significant that some Americans gasp at the concept of calling soccer “football.”

    * American Football, especially high school and college football is the U.S. replacement for soccer in Europe. The singing, songs, rowdy fans, intense to near violent loyalties, etc…you see that with college football and at times in the NFL, but rarely in other sports. Where different cities and towns go head to head through professional soccer clubs around the world, the U.S. funnels this inter-town competition through high school and college football.

13. It normalizes the idea that grinding your body into dust is a good way to succeed.

14. Has watching soccer caused an increase in people falling down and pretending to be hurt in Europe?

15. Keeping drywall repairmen in business for the past 60 years or so.

    “No no no no no no no SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!!!! You stupid assholes you fucked it up AGAIN!!!!!!”

    “Fraaaaaaank!!! The kids can hear you!!!!”

    “I don’t give a fuck!!!!!!!!” [punches giant hole in wall]

    “Oh Christ, Frank! That’s the third time this year!”