Football vs. Football
AUTHOR: Justin Sablich, Communications, SUNY Cortland, USA
The only unifying factor linking the two is the name, right? Well, maybe another one is that the term "football" represents the two biggest sports on the planet.
Football, better known as "soccer" in America, has been the world?s game for a long time. American football, or what we in the US like to call "football," hasn?t always been America?s favorite. But one can say with conviction that it is now the most beloved sport in the country.
It may be hard to swallow for some baseball fans that football is king in America. However, the evidence is strong. Twice as many Americans chose football over America?s former pastime as their top sport in a 2002 Harris Poll. And just recently, TV?s Nielson Ratings showed that over 2 million more viewers watched the winless Chicago Bears play the 1-2 Green Bay Packers on Monday night than a decisive Game 5 of baseball?s divisional playoffs.
Proving that soccer reigns supreme in the rest of the world is like saying people enjoy eating chocolate. It?s just common knowledge. But what isn?t as known is why fans in both sports lose their minds over a game. Why is football America?s game and soccer a world?s game worth dying for? And how are the two sports more alike than you think?
2 out of 1 ain?t bad
They used to be the same sport. Games that involved people kicking balls go all the way back to the beginnings of recorded time. These types of matches, as documented by Sir Thomas Elyot on 1531, were "nothynge but beastyle furie and extreme violence."(1) This early form of football was basically a bloody mass of people trying to get a ball past a goal line without using their arms. Football was played everywhere, with especially strong roots in Europe.
Ultimately, different types of football emerged from the rubble. A crucial step occurred in 1823 when a student from the Rugby School in England moved the ball while holding it in his arms.(1) This new game, cleverly known as "Rugby," caught on in America and would evolve during the late 19th century. Soon American football was born.
Meanwhile, modern day football (soccer) was taking shape in other parts of the world. Every region had its rules, but England would be home to the first widely accepted form of the game that came into play around the same time as American football was solidified.
Why the history lesson? It?s to give an idea on how the two sports came to be. Also, that Americans didn?t just name their sport after another one because it sounded cool. Football gave birth to new forms of the game. One form was created in America. Thus we have American football.
Other countries have their own football that isn?t "soccer." Australia and Canada have their own style of football, and Ireland is the home of Gaelic football, a combination of soccer and rugby. Football is a word that covers many different sports that all evolved from the same game.
The national pastime
The early days of American football represented democracy for many. The sport?s growth in popularity was fueled by incoming immigrants looking for inclusion. Everybody played college football: Jews, African Americans, Native Americans, Italians and Asians among others.
African and Native Americans were given a chance to take out aggressions against a society that refused to recognize them as equal. Working-class immigrants found a way to feel connected to their new home.(1)
George Halas was the son of Czech immigrants and helped found what would become the NFL. Jim Thorpe was a Native American and was a beloved football star. Also, the NFL became desegregated before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.(1)
I?m not saying the sport was without racism and discrimination. Teams were still segregated and minorities were still treated as inferior. But football gave them more of a level playing field than most other institutions. On any given day, a team of blacks could defeat a team of whites and feel just as worthy, if not better; not as easy to do off the field.
Fans would rally behind their teams based on race, religion, and regional pride. Teams from the developing west wanted to show the industrialized east that they were just as good. So when a college like Chicago beat up on a team from NY, the people of Chicago were proud to be Chicagoans.
These roots of football built a foundation for what the game represents today. The NFL excites as it pulls together traditional American values such as "the belief in the work ethic, self-sacrifice, and success."
It?s also just plain fun to watch. "[Football] is exciting every single play," says Joe Horrigan of the NFL Hall of Fame. "All 22 guys are on the field at the same time. It?s active. It?s colorful. It?s a sense of controlled violence."(2)
The NFL also knows better than any professional sports league in the country that people love to be entertained. When people go to a game, they get much more than just football. They see attractive cheerleaders, head-lining music acts, and fire works.
The world?s obsession
Soccer has long been the beloved sport for the majority of this world. But the sport is much more than just a popular game to watch and play. Some fans take their football very seriously.
"Soccer Hooliganism" has been covered by the media since the 1960?s.(3) Most people are familiar with the term. Simply put, it?s when soccer fans decide to beat up on one another. It seems hard to imagine what would possibly drive someone to attacking, and sometimes killing somebody else over a soccer game. Do these fans love their football that much? Well, they do love it. But that?s not why they draw blood.
It?s easy for the media to put the blame on alcohol consumption or unemployment as the reasons for violence at international soccer matches. But there?s much missing from this explanation.
According to research conducted by sociologists Eric Dunning and Robert Elias in Dunning?s book Sport Matters, emotions can explain a lot. Dunning says people go from a "high degree of security" in their normal lives to a "state of arousal" when spectators at a sporting event. In this case, soccer "de-routinizes" fans when they go to a match and a "quest for pleasurable excitement" sets in.
Of course, the "emotion" theory applies to all sports, including America?s version, but soccer has many other factors. In many countries, especially in Europe, the working class makes up a large part of the spectators. Dunning says that "low levels of formal education" are linked to a "greater degree of violence and aggressiveness."
Dunning also found that in countries where soccer is most popular, England in particular, there is a "pattern of male aggressiveness" in the working class. The pattern is stronger the lower the social class. Men in these areas are brought up with urgency to express their masculinity. Soccer hooliganism gives some a chance to show this off.
And then there is something that may tie it all together. Unlike American football, the "world?s game" involves a lot of country versus country action. When Germany plays Russia, a heightened sense of nationality kicks in. It?s like war. A German born reporter once announced after a West German victory over Russia: "The Germans will claim this as revenge for their defeat at Stalingrad!"(4)
Not So Different
It?s easy to over look the similarities between the two "footballs". The American sport is seen as violent and physical while soccer has finesse. There are end zones in football, goals in soccer. You get the picture. We know that they derived from the same game and they are intensely adored by their fans.
But there is more than the obvious. Soccer gets a bad reputation for its "hooliganism" but football is no stranger to spectator mayhem. Irate fans have thrown debris onto the field on many occasions.
As reported in the Cincinnati Post, fans "set more than 100 fires, torched nine cars, broke windows, and pelted fire fighters with rocks" after celebrating an Ohio State victory over Michigan.
There is also an undeniable theme of war in both sports. American football has always been given this popular comparison. It?s a physical struggle between to sides fighting until one is victorious. Soccer isn?t as physical, but has a history of war metaphors.
It involves country vs. country. According to Adam Brown in his book Fanatics!, European teams often use their past military conflicts as inspiration to beat that country?s team.
In his book, a journalist described a match between England and France as "a real battle in which on could ?smell the powder? and ?see the cannon fire?." These metaphors are in direct reference to the Napoleonic war of the early 1800?s.
Back in World War I, European countries would on some occasions roll a soccer ball into the opposing side?s trench to signify that a battle was about to begin. The opposing country?s ball would then become a symbol of victory for whatever side would win that battle.
Not all links between the two have to do with blood and death. Both sports offer their fans a simple outlet to forget about their normal life. You do not need an education to lose yourself in a game of football. Not that all fans of the two lack education. It?s just the reason the sports reach so many: anyone can enjoy them.
This can be said for other sports, but these two have deep roots in their respected locations. Soccer has always been the next best thing to show your country is better than another?s. But while countries battle it out on the field, the fact that virtually the whole world plays the game has a unifying effect.
Football unites America as well. Professional and college teams span the entire country every fall. Fans cheer for their city or state as soccer fans root for their country. They?re two different games, but share more than just the name.
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