I teach a course on the intersection of sports and religion in North America, and I ask students whether there is something about American society that draws us to the violence of football. Why, for instance, despite the NFL’s best efforts, has American football not caught on elsewhere in the world, whereas by most metrics it is America’s most popular game?
Sure, violence erupts from time to time in other sports — the consequence of a beanball pitch or an inadvertent collision in the heat of competition. Hockey certainly has its share of violence, but unlike that sport, violence is scripted into the game of football itself, as we were reminded seeing Damar Hamlin collapse during Monday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Violence has always been part of the game. Nearly every account of a 19th century football game I’ve read includes the words “brutal” or “brutality.”
