Rituals of American Football
Homoeroticism, and Donald Trump...
Tomorrow is New Year's Day, and football fans worldwide will gather to watch college football bowl games in homes, bars, and if they are lucky, in stadiums across the country. Here in Iowa most of us will be rooting for the Hawkeyes in the Cheez-it Citrus Bowl in Orlando as they take on the Tennessee Volunteers.
American football has a complex set of rules and rituals that reflect the structure of our society. Many of those rituals are described by Mark Axelrod in Popular Culture and the Rituals of American Football. Some of the rituals used not only reflect our society but also reflect the traditions of many rituals worldwide and throughout history.
For example, football has a season that mirrors the seasons of most spiritual and religious traditions. It begins during harvest time, and ends near the winter solstice, with bowl games in cities in warmer climes foreshadowing the coming of the new year and spring.
Teams have symbols, myths, and rituals. Some of the symbols are mascots or totems. Totems are natural objects, plants, or animals believed by societies to have spiritual significance and are adopted by them as an emblems. These symbols are used as markers of group identity, and here in Iowa, the dominant teams whose symbols are worn commonly are the Hawkeyes and the Cyclones. We also have the Drake Bulldogs and the UNI Panthers, among others. Wearing team gear in public allows people we encounter to know what “tribe” we are a member of, which may well guide the nature of our interactions with them. Our teams are a shared interest that crosscuts all of society--age, gender, economic class, and race--a common interest that is a kind of glue that binds society together. Most of these tribal relations relate to our geographic locations or some other kind of connection to the team.
Mythmaking abounds, and stadiums are sacred spaces. Consider, for example, the deep meaning inherent in the names Nile Kinnick Stadium and Jack Trice Stadium. Each year, heroes and villains are created, with heroes revered, with some becoming legends. Stories are told and retold in part by fans to relive memories, but also in a kind of intellectual competition to illustrate who is the “best” fan. Soon we will be seeing fans with enough resources and commitment to travel to the game wearing team gear reflecting their travel to the bowl games. The tickets to the game become important memorabilia.
The games themselves have their never-changing rituals. Fans might tailgate for hours before entering the stadium. Food and often alcoholic drinks are involved, accenting the activities which ultimately become rites of intensification where endorphins are engaged before and throughout the game as excitement mounts. Immediately before the game begins, teams take the field to warm up, followed by the handshakes among team captains at the center of the field, the referee’s coin flip, the choosing of the side of the field, and the singing of the national anthem. There are always four quarters, and a half-time performance, most often with bands. Music stimulates the senses and a kind of collective “high” is felt by the crowd.
Similar actions and emotions are mirrored at home or in bars perhaps thousands of miles away as we experience the event vicariously via television.
The anthropologist William Arens agrees with Axelrod that football draws interest from all corners of society despite our differences in race, class, and gender, partly because it reflects our society's structure.
The salient features of the game reflect some striking similarities to the society that created and nourished it. More than any other sport, football combines the qualities of group coordination through a complex division of labor with highly developed specialization.
Football is a reflection of America’s hierarchical, industrial economy and our military. Head coaches behave as if they are company CEO’s or high-ranking military officers. Assistant coaches are also ranking officers. Among the players, leaders are team captains. Quarterbacks are offensive leaders, and on the other side of the line defensive backs or linebackers might make calls and adjustments. At the lowest level are the linemen in the trenches. The game is a metaphor for war, where capturing territory via speed, skill, and violence is the goal. Even the terminology is militaristic----blitzes, bombs, flanks, and platoons. The game is won by “capturing” enemy territory. Players are “warriors” who make sacrifices for the team.
Football is almost exclusively a male endeavor as a result of sexual dimorphism, and while women excel at a great many other sports, few women have the strength, size, and speed to play the game at the college level. Women do, however, lead teams, coach, officiate, and serve in other capacities.
Regardless, the main presence of women on the field is as cheerleaders on the sidelines. They represent Mother Earth, fertility, and life itself. Evolutionarily speaking, the men on the field are performing for them.
While the female cheerleaders are excellent athletes, their common attire sexualizes them. When male cheerleaders are present the intimacy of their performance is further sexualized.
But the most sexualized place is on the field itself. Football is arguably our most homoerotic sport. The game, while violent, is awesomely beautiful as some of the best male athletes in the world in their prime years of life clash like Roman gladiators.
The equipment used in the game exaggerates maleness, with huge shoulders, narrow waists, and skintight pants that highlight male genitalia in what Arens describes as a “codpiece.” Jerseys highlight powerful biceps and forearms, and pants firm butts and muscular calves.
While violent during gameplay, before and after play, male interactions on the field are often intimate and break the norms of most public male behavior. While common on the football field, in general, men avoid hugging each other. There is also a lot of fanny patting going on, and when they touch helmets it’s almost as intimate as a kiss.
Also intimate is the hindquarters raised stances of the linemen in relationship to the other players in skill positions.
Skill positions in gridiron football are the offensive positions that ordinarily handle the ball and are most responsible for scoring points. Offensive players such as quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers are typically considered skill positions as are tight ends on occasion. Skill positions are contrasted with linemen and defensive players, which are generally considered to be positions heavily reliant on power and brute strength. Skill position players are often physically smaller than linemen, but they must also be faster and have other talents; such as the ability to throw accurately, handle or catch the ball under pressure, avoid tacklers, or read and exploit defensive weaknesses; which are less of a priority for linemen.
This reflects a dominance hierarchy common in other primates illustrated by submissive members of a band presenting their rumps or hindquarters to the dominant member of the group.
In perhaps the most intimate act in all of sport, the offensive center presents his rump to the quarterback who places his hands in the center’s nether regions so he can snap the ball.
What gave me the idea to write about homoeroticism and football?
Donald Trump.
Trump was in Coralville recently and gave a homoerotic shout-out to Iowa All-American punter Tory Taylor. Trump also tells us where he sees himself in the dominance hierarchy with respect to Taylor. Here is the video.
Here is a transcript:
“And we have this beautiful, big, strong physical specimen…I never knew they made punters that big…I didn't think punters…but he’s a big guy…all-American, number one in the country…Tory Taylor from the Iowa Hawkeyes…oh, he's gonna make a lot of money, I want to be his agent...can I be your agent please, I want to be his agent…”
Homoeroticism here is part of the fluidity of masculine sexual behavior that is celebrated as part of the game. No one is actually having sex on the field, and nothing I’m writing here is meant as criticism. Like Trump, I’m willing to share in the fun. Other male performative behaviors, e.g., drag shows, are the same kind of phenomena, yet these are demonized by many Republican leaders because they think drag queens have no power and are an easy target for their divisive agenda to advance their tribal politics.
Enjoy the game.
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Happy New Year everyone!
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Now I'm curious about your take on why the sideline reporters are always women. "Woman on the field" compared to "Man in the Booth." Some kind of hierarchy there, obviously. Maybe also not coincidental that women are typically the ones trying to get the coaches to talk, giving injury updates, providing human interest commentary?
My sport has always been baseball, but you're right that no other sport fosters the same level of intimacy between men.
Great column, Bob. I love when you weave anthropological insights and observations into your commentary. In the end, we are cultural animals, seeking community, connections and meaning. That our sports and politics mirror our values and origin stories is no coincidence.