1/9.. TROUBLING FOOTBALL

January 9, 2016

There is a strange attraction to football.  Having recently seen the Will Smith film CONCUSSION  and having been educated regarding the dangers of the constant head banging that NFL players encounter over their careers, I am now watching (shamefully) a football game on NBCTV called the "U.S. ARMY ALL AMERICAN BOWL."  It features all star high school football players in stylish uniforms and helmets. The "East" plays the "West" and these kids look like sticks compared to college players and NFL pros.  The stands are filled with young soldiers in fatigues all waving flags.  It's pure and simple recruiting for the Army.  These kids on the field and in the stands probably don't feel like dupes.  The kids in fatigues are in the service: drones:  Ready to die for their country, but with the inexperience of youth know for a fact that they are invulnerable and simply cannot die.  Cannon fodder. 

Yesterday I listened to a radio interview with a current NFL player, "Johnny Anonymous," who has written a tell all exposé  called NFL Confidential.  His voice was heavily disguised and an 'interpreter' translated his vehement love / hate relationship to the game he plays to make a living.  The anger and pain, even in the light weight voice over of the interpreter was chilling. 

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/07/462289741/nfl-confidential-anonymous-player-on-why-he-loathes-the-league

Of course, High School football will always prevail.  College football contributes millions to the income of universities across the nation.  NFL will prevail.  It's about money.  Johnny Anonymous says that college players are only in school to make it to the NFL and are not really students at all. 
I see football as modern 'blood sport' in the "Arena," not unlike the gladiator games of ancient Rome.  We are a blood thirsty society. We watch these games, as well as police car chases and hockey games and motor sport for the heavy hitting and the crashes.  It is in us. Three NFL teams have put in bids to come to Los Angeles. It will be huge. It's an enormous business deal and big bucks for a lot of folks: pandering to the blood lust that seems to be bred into our western human condition. 

That brings us back to this high school 'all star' game with these young players now touted for the colleges they have chosen to attend, being shown the same way that the big guys are shown: featured in video portraits in their hot cammo looking uniforms with US ARMY prominently displayed. Recruiting in big bold letters.  

Where have all the flowers gone? 

January 9, 2016

michaelsheehan