#27 Any Given Sunday

Brilliant episode. I followed the NFL for many years (though College Football was my number 1 sport). I grew increasingly uncomfortable with following the NFL for many of the reasons that you all discussed. I also followed that team in Washington DC with whose mascot I have grown exceedingly uncomfortable; this perhaps hastened my departure from following professional football. The tipping point may have come when at a clergy conference in the Diocese of Texas, keynote speaker Walter Brueggemann several times referred to the NFL as “the liturgy of the Empire.” This did offend some clergy quite a bit, though I found it hard to argue against his point. I pretty much stopped watching after that.

It wasn’t until I began my conversion to soccer (mostly EPL and MLS, following West Bromwich Albion and Houston Dynamo, respectively) that I really began to understand my discomfort with college football and the sport in general. In addition to all the issues you raised in your podcast, there were also significant socioeconomic factors that have troubled me deeply.

Rather than enhance and improve and benefit college football, the evolution of the bowl/playoff system has been primarily about lots and lots of people cashing in on free labor. I may be using rose-tinted glasses, but it used to be about the football. But somewhere along the way it became about the money. It used to be that the Peach Bowl was the Peach Bowl, except that it became the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl only to become lately the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. It used to be that just winning your conference and making a bowl was a pretty big deal. But then you had to make a BCS bowl otherwise, who cared. Nowadays, you gotta make the playoffs. Why? Because that’s where the money is.

On top of all of this, you have vulnerable young men–some of whom come from near poverty levels–who are thrust into situations where people with money can exert undue influence on them. And the NCAA is set up where these young men can suffer the direst of consequences if caught accepting anything that can be misconstrued as a gift. And these punishments can be devastating (The case of Maurice Clarett is a tragic example). It might be hyperbolic to say this, but to me, it’s not unlike laws prohibiting prostitution whereby prostitutes suffer far greater consequences than do johns or pimps. My point is that it seems like a lot of people are making money off of these amateur athletes, and this particular economy seems highly exploitative.

Thanks again. Love what you guys are doing–I find it very inspiring stuff. Keep up the great work.

Best,
Rob Leacock

PS – My 7 year old son expressed concern about Liz’s possible vomiting watching “The Walking Dead.” We both hope Liz is OK.

LikeLike