A Touchdown on Football Culture

I have constantly been surrounded by football. Even in my American Girl Doll days, my brother, dad and I would gather around the television and watch Penn State players barrel through the field. During halftime we tossed the football around out own yard. I never truly got into the game, but I have always been an observer of the culture that pulses through this town. We are a college town yes, but somehow that inherently makes us a football town. I had some distance from Penn State football in my high school days, but dance team reminded me just how much we are run by the sport that snakes through our very existence.

So when Maria wrote this post about how Joe Paterno is revered in our society and how football grappled a flawed human being in perfection, it got me thinking: Was this man honored because he was great, or because he administered something that had already gotten out of control?

Personally, I think it's both. But here I want to focus on the football culture that Penn Staters have been drawn into. Yes, Joe Paterno was an idol to many. He contributed greatly to this university. But he was partly an idol because he reflected on something we already knew and loved. I by no means am trying to claim this as public opinion, but I truly believe that this blind admiration of all things football have gotten out of hand. I say this both from observance and from experience.

In 9th grade, I auditioned for the State High dance team. Unaware of the connotations of "dance team," I went into the auditorium ready to piroutte and jazz-hand it up. I followed the routines, getting more into the beat with each song. I didn't notice that the other girls were caked with makeup and sparkles. I was a naive fifteen year old who believed something with the word "dance" in it would be about, well, dance. I got in--it still astounds me that they didn't kick me out of the audition when I showed up with a muffin top and no eyebrows. I was geeky and awkward. But I could dance. The first practice, we spent an hour talking about uniforms--complete with a tight-fitted top that would make it impossible to breathe in, much less leap. We practiced alongside marching band. Dance team was an addition to the mammoth that makes up Friday night football games, never its own separate entity.

I gave it a few chances, although I knew there was a distinct line between myself and the other girls. You know you're an unwelcome face when you present, to a group of girls that giggle mercilessly about hot guys, the idea that uniforms should be a little less sexual, that we should be a little less objectified. I went to the first football game with zero expectations, negative or positive. We spent fifteen minutes on the field, and three hours standing in the bleachers, cheering for the football players. Shiny pom poms were involved. We were mere presenters to the game--pretty faces to provide a frame for the football players. We got punished if we weren't wearing ribbons with the team's colors. In the yearbook, we were titled as "sports supporters." And in the course of four months, we learned about three full out dances, and three times as many pom pom cheers.

Dance team and the majorettes were the only sports (and yes, dance done properly is a sport) that didn't gain its own category. Why? Because we were lumped with football. And when a group has anything to do with football, guess who gets the limelight?

This could easily turn into a "Kira's fun times with dance team" blog (and believe me, there are stories), but let's just end this saga with saying I quit before basketball season rolled around. But I digress. I also wish not to demean the value of girls who want to be part of football culture. Dance team is great for those who want to be part of the mass excitement towards the game. But it is far from just to offer such a group as the only choreography related club in high school, and to advertise it as dance. It serves as an ornament to football.

But looking at football even from an entertainment standpoint, there are still flaws. Even coming from a friend who closely follows and respects the game, "football, no matter at what level, has turned more into a religion. It can make or break lives; people get killed over it, but you can also blind people from the truth about people or colleges." The game is valuable; it teaches sportsmanship, healthy competition, and fitness, but once people start getting free passes because they wear the jersey, that's when the line starts to blur. We see those who had human imperfections as God because of their associations. Let me be clear here: Football is a game. It requires skill, yes, but wouldn't it sound ridiculous if someone got off the hook for letting little kids be raped because he was a ping-pong guru?

Ping-pong requires skill, too. An atrocity as an atrocity, no matter which way you spin it.

And lastly, football culture is such that it invites partying and wild, Bacchanalian afternoons. Post game activities have become so out of control that it goes from a celebration to an excuse to drink, to let go of all inhibitions. Losing a football game evokes riots. So we lost. Life goes on. I don't see anyone turning cars over because the average frat GPA is less than 2.0.

Football could be a healthy way to incorporate fitness and friendly competition into a university. Instead, it has outshone a great university. It has ruined reputations and futures; football culture has been blown vastly out of proportion, and the only way to resolve this is to realize it's just a game. It's not a lifestyle.

Namaste.