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Influence of football on society
Sociological perspective on school sports
An essay on influence of sports in school
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Football is a very popular sport not only in American high schools and colleges, but also in the entire country of the United States. Is playing high school football worth the risk and harm inflicted to high school football players? This is the main question raised by the author, Raymond Schroth, in the article “Abolish High School Football.” In this article, Schroth talked about the disadvantages and harms of playing high school football to the players. Schroth argued that high school football should be abolished because it had contributed more harmful effects than benefits to football players.
In “Do Sports Build Character or Damage it?” Mark Edmundson explains the pros and cons of children who grow up playing football. Firstly, he believes the perseverance it takes to show up for hard practices is useful later in life. Especially when they get frustrated with something and don’t notice the little bits of progress they are making.
In the book Friday Night Lights, author H.G. Bissinger documents Odessa, Texas’s 1988 Permian High School football season. By depicting a class of students who would rather rally at football games than get an education, Bissinger presents his belief that the school is disregarding education in order to produce a winning football team. I agree.
The Break-Ins And Some Of The Early Cover-Up Attempts May of 1972, the first break in at DNC’s (Democratic National Committee) Watergate headquarters occurs, as members of President Nixon’s C.R.E.E.P.(Committee to Re-Elect the President) break in stealing copies of top-secret documents and wire-tapping their phones and neither caught nor detected by guards or any other personal on duty. However, the burglars later realized that the bugs they placed in the phones were faulty so they sent a group of 5 men back that same year, on the seventeenth of June, to fix or replace them. But just as smoothly as the first break-in was the second break-in was just as much of a failure. The group was quickly spotted by one of the guards on duty that night
To most players on the Permian High School football team academics are put off because of football. But Brian Chavez is not most players, he cares about school a lot. Brian has a grip on reality he realizes that he cannot play football forever, there has to be a backup plan. “As he headed into his senior year he also realized that he wanted something more. No matter how glorious and exciting the season was, he also knew it would come to an end” (Bissinger 156).
On any given Friday night, an entire town is under the lights playing, cheering, or supporting their team. In 1988, the Permian Panthers were the most successful high school football team in Texas state history (Cherney & Lindemann). H.G. Bissinger told the true story of this team and their town in his book Friday Night Lights. His book was developed into the movie and television series with the same name. All three accounts illustrate the kind of relationship the town has with its team.
The film Friday Night Lights (2004) is based on the real-life story of the 1988 Permian Panthers football team in Odessa, Texas. The film is a more fictionalized account of the book it’s based on, written by author H.G. Bissinger and downplays the more intense issues that plagued Odessa when Bissinger followed the team during the 1988 season (Briley 1). The film follows Coach Gary Gaines (portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton) as he coaches the Panthers in the football obsessed town. The film portrays the societal pressures put on young athletes, especially in a town where one sport seems to be the dominating past-time. No matter where these athletes go, they can’t escape the pressures to succeed in the sport and go undefeated.
Football players' inner selves were taken advantage of throughout their football careers. Many football players did not have hope for their future because of the people who talked down on them. For example, “And some in town, all white, gleefully suggested that Boobie Miles, without the ability to carry a football in his hand, might as well get a broom and start preparing for his other destiny in life-learning how to sweep the corners of storerooms.” People believed that since Boobie had an injury, he meant nothing to the world. This led Boobie Miles to believe that if he couldn’t help the team, then he meant nothing.
Playing football alone is very courageous. For instance, consider Martin Luther King. King was constantly in fear of being attacked and hurt for speaking for black's rights. In the sport of football, everyone is hurt. In fact, the point of the game is to get hurt.
Spending money on items such as new cars, expensive homes, clothes and shoes. Studies have shown that one of the main reasons why they spend like crazy is because a football player's life
American colleges spend huge budgets on their football teams and this holds a disproportionate place in the lives of its students. Salzberg uses the emotion of fear regarding the risk to America of losing its reputation if they don’t eliminate football in our Universities. It tells of his personal experiences in the area to make his readers believe in his credibility. These appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos along with his sarcastic tone create an effective argument for convincing readers that football affects our educational system and status in the world negatively compared to other nations. Salzberg makes appeals to pathos in the beginning of his article.
I also have a deep love for football as many of the kids in this story did. The kids in this story talked about how when they were young they would go to the games on Friday nights, and dream about what the future for them would be like. They could not wait to play for the Permian school district, and be the town heroes. This aspect of the story for me was so relatable. I too would go to Scott City Beaver games when I was young, and dream about what my future would hold as a football player.
The era of Football in America is slowly coming to a close. Football has been known as America’s sport next to baseball for many years now. The general physicality of every play isn’t(B3) matched by any other sport on the planet, and that is why football causes more injuries than any other sport on the professional, and youth levels. Parents are pulling their kids from their teams, even in the middle of the season because of the information that has been released over the past decade illuminating a big problem for the game.
The sun illuminates countless all-American names, with the occasional Coke or Papa John’s sponsor signs. The play clock ticks down to zero, and the stadium is finally filled to maximum capacity. Kickoff commences, players scramble across the field, and suddenly the only problems in the world hinge on if the Nike plastered football is past the downs marker. There are the elite suites high above the stadium cloaked in shade, but the majority are cramped and blisteringly hot. We are all united as one, cheering our team to victory, and thriving on the culture that is modern day sports.
In Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger appeals to his audience’s sense of emotions in order to persuade his readers that the obsession with high school football negatively affects everyone’s future in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger relies on emotional appeals by employing devices and techniques to present individuals’ personal stories and experiences. His searing portrayal of Odessa, and its Permian High School football team, exposes the side of sports that severely impacts the people living in this society. Bissinger shows the long term consequences of this delusion on the people who are directly and indirectly associated with Permian football. This demonstrate how detrimental the burdens are for the children, which touches the reader’s heart.
