No more "fun" perspective on football

The movie "Invincible" showed a football culture that seems dated today.

 

Much of what is on this site might be seen as having archival value someday. There would be little sense of that now. The winds of change have to blow for a while. Where they're taking us, I don't know. We can only speculate.

For one thing, we can speculate that the sport of football will go into decline. The nature or timetable of this we cannot fully know. There are definite signs the public's consciousness of this is changing already.

Normally by this time of year I have written two or three "fun" posts about the Minnesota Vikings. It's the usual stuff, focusing on the personalities, ups and downs and drama of a pro football team. The players are like pawns on a chessboard. I have made the "pinball" analogy before, suggesting we watch football like it's a game of pinball where the pane of glass ensures that all the wild bouncing around of the ball is separate from us.

We should be ashamed we never realized or really internalized how we were watching human beings doing damage to each other. I find I can no longer write those "fun" posts. Same with U of M Gophers football.

It has been easy to put down Gophers football for a long time. We looked at the on-field performance and shook our heads. We threw darts at the athletic director. At present, the on-field performance of the Gophers is the least of my considerations. The old mindset is gone - the mindset of feeling thrills and discouragement, of bestowing praise and brickbats. It's concerning to consume all this as entertainment.

The past year has been interesting because of the virtual flood of information about football's dangers for its participants.

Here's a question: What if we realized that a girls sport inflicted the kind of health risks that football does for boys? Wouldn't there be a call to end it now? There probably are some calls to end football now. At present they're too isolated.

Football grew into a virtual empire of entertainment. It wasn't always this way. There was a time - really - when football had a rather brutal image and it was on the margins, not threatening baseball. Then TV technology improved. Joe Paterno may not have been a genius, maybe he just rode the gravy train as improved TV technology made football more entertaining to watch.

We all seemed to discover football as this Nirvana of a sport back in the mid 1960s. Remember the "Heidi game?" I remember where I was when that happened: in Glenwood. That was about the time football was beginning its ascendancy. It was the era of Joe Namath who got beat up physically quite bad. Did we ever stop to think what happens to a beat up body years later when aging has exacted a further toll?

We hear stories now. There was one about former Viking Bill Brown in the Star Tribune last week. But these stories go on and on. The media have decided it's a hot topic. There are plenty of depressing stories out there.

I cannot sit down and write those "fun" posts about football anymore, where I talk about who's "up" and who's "down" etc. Donovan McNabb got brickbats last year.

We figured those guys get paid enough to take the heat. Same with coaches and the athletic director in big-time college athletics. I am of no mood to write any more football posts of the type I wrote as recently as a year ago. If my sensibilities now prove to be the norm, all that old sports journalism is going to look "archival."

I had this sense, strongly, the other night when seeing that movie about Vince Papale on TV. A friend talked me into seeing that movie back when it was at the Morris Theater. It's one of the last movies I saw there.

I consider the Morris Theater to be outdated. I wish the co-op well but the idea of a large theater is outdated. It's too hard to get the sound projected adequately. It's too hard to follow the dialogue. I have long felt the sound system itself was never the issue.
Size of screen is not a factor in how much you'll enjoy a movie. You can watch a movie on a computer screen.

I can't remember the name of the Vince Papale movie as I write the first draft for this.

Update: It's "Invincible."

Seeing parts of it on TV, I was struck by how dated it seemed, showcasing the "macho" football culture that we all looked up to then. Vince's friends seemed so in awe when he "made the team." They were ready to deify him.

Coach Dick Vermeil was known to apply a spartan workout regimen. We were supposed to be impressed by that. Intense practices where guys practically dropped from exhaustion and pain were supposed to be a model for how we approach life. My, we didn't want to be like the "losing" teams that didn't seem to want to work as hard.

As I watched the workout scenes, soaking in the pain, barbarity and conflicts - the acid test for supposed "manhood" - I felt alarmed. I felt alarmed that our culture seemed so regressive.

This was no model for hard work, success or advancement. This was stupid. It was destructive.

What was the problem? I'm reminded of the typical "bad guy" characters in those "Dirty Harry" movies (Clint Eastwood). Watching them today, I think to myself "these guys could use social media."

You see, this is how our culture has advanced. It might not have dawned on us fully yet. Our sudden skepticism about football might be demonstrating our progress. Ergo, we have totally conquered boredom in our society. So complete has been this process, we now have the problem of "distracted driving."

Boys needn't gravitate to football to realize fulfillment and fill their time anymore. There are vastly healthier ways to do this. Today you don't define masculinity with football. You define it with mastering technology. Let's not even use the word "masculinity." Boys and girls, men and women realize self-esteem.

Men in their 50s - my age - who played football are beginning to worry if they'll pay the piper. I have read that the answer is likely "yes" although there's debate over the degree. The degree may be slight and it's likely not everyone's affected - some positions are more dangerous than others in football - but there's a definite basis for concern.

So I'll ask: Why should anyone take this risk? Why should any parents subject their sons to this? Aren't there vastly better ways for a young person to spend his time and develop?

High school students used to get bored a lot. They ended up in mischief because of this. Football and other sports were deemed a good way to channel your energies in a supervised way. Supervised yes, but civilized? Not at all.

People in football are having a hard time setting an example with their behavior. Look at the Mankato State coach last week. And Jerry Sandusky. When we read football can lead to moody and aggressive traits when older, how can we not be reminded of O.J. Simpson? Simpson was a runningback who was attacked by defensive players for years and years. Heaven only knows the kind of head trauma he experienced.

Former Viking Fred McNeill is finished because of his brain issues.

I will never gain allow myself to be entertained by this sport. It's nothing to take lightly.

Why did Vince Papale make the team? Why did coach Vermeil give him the nod? Was it pure merit? It's sad but we must be cynical: Vermeil used Papale on special teams because he was expendable. There was too much risk in special teams for the marquee players to be used much. So Vermeil found this guy with reasonable skills and sky-high desire who would go out there and butt heads with abandon.

Papale was likely well aware of this himself. But to him, being a Philadelphia Eagle was Nirvana. Bill Brown saw himself at the apex as a Minnesota Viking. Today they're human beings who wouldn't be recognized on the street. They can only pray the rest of their lives can be reasonably comfortable.

How many of them would be willing to do it over again? Head injuries/trauma and concussions are the stuff of daily news fare now.

A footnote: I will be paying some attention to Morris Area Chokio Alberta football this fall. Who am I to question the wisdom of MACA in offering this? I'm sort of doing it "under protest," though.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com