The Secret of American Foreign Affairs (For all football fans and players)

CNSNews.com ^ | April 29, 2003 | Stanley K. Ridgley, Ph.D.

[Moosejaw]

Not sure if I'm 100% in agreement, but I think there's something here.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

I saw this, this morning... My first reaction was a comment I think George Will (huge baseball fan) made long ago denigrating football (I must paraphrase from a foggy memory): "Football combines the worst from American capitalism: aggression and violence interspersed by committee meetings."

But I actually agree with much of this guy's argument.

[TomGuy]

The one flaw in this theory that I see is: They play ice hockey in Canada.

Go figure!

[Just another Joe]

Most of it sounds right to me.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

To quote a great American, Art Donovan:

AIN'T FOOTBALL GREAT?

[UCFRoadWarrior]

The one flaw in this theory that I see is: They play ice hockey in Canada.

Go figure!

---

Tom......hockey (The NHL) has the Lady Bing Award for "Most Gentlemanly Player" Does any guy want to have on his mantle-place an award named after a "Lady" for being "most gentlemanly"

And, Coalition-supporting Canuck Don Cherry (the hockey commentator) is famous for his calling Euro hockey players "sissies", "wimps", etc....

[DeuceTraveler]

Just sounds like a big football fan to me. I would love sports as much as this man if the pros weren't dominated by rapists, drug users, prima donnas, wife beaters, thugs, and other undesirables.

[canuck_conservative]

"At its supreme level, the mutual human violence done in football is greater than that of any other sport in the world. "

Yes - but Hockey is also rather physically demanding, and, if anything, faster-paced than football.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Good article. I agree somewhat, but I believe hunting and shooting at an early age also contributes.

[blue_nova]

obviously this author has not seen the Bengals play;)

[Defiant]

See prior discussion here

[Dead Dog]

Freekin' A! Great read. Walking Dead and I have debated this very point over many a beer. This sounds like an 8 Fish night!

Soccer is good for two reasons, Girls can play too, and it keeps boys in shape for football.

[vollmond]

obviously this author has not seen the Bengals play;)

The Bengals are better used to demonstrate the role of "mimicry" in Nature. Similiar to how the inoffensive scarlet king snake mimics the coloration and patterns of the far more deadly coral snake, the Bengals disguise themselves as a professional football team. They are very similiar in appearance to the more dangerous football team known as the "Cleveland Browns", but don't be fooled.

If confronted by a member of either team, look for the tell-tale marks on the player's helmet. The Cincinnati Bengal will have "tiger-like" stripes covering both sides, whereas the Cleveland Brown has a single white stripe, bordered on each side by black stripes that run from the forehead to the back of the helmet.

You are also more likely to encounter a Cleveland Brown in the "end zone" than you are to find a Cincinnati Bengal. Cincinnati Bengals are usually found deep in their own territory, and spend a greater than average amount of time "defending".

[Tallguy]

Instant Replay is killing American Football by turning it into a UN-style debating society. "Embedding" the TV camera, with its indecisive angles, continues to be a mistake. Play the game and take the good calls with the bad.

[pachanga]

LOL! THis reminds of one of my football coaches in high school: during practice when he would yell SOCCER!! we had to respond: IS A COMMUNIST PLOT, COACH!! I loved that guy.

[usapatriot28]

I would love sports as much as this man if the pros weren't dominated by rapists, drug users, prima donnas, wife beaters, thugs, and other undesirables.

How blanketly unfair and sterotypical. Pro leagues are hardly dominated by those types of people. Although press coverage of pro leagues are dominated by them. There are far more decent people in football that spend substantial time and money helping out the community, than there are "rapists, drug users , prima donnas, wife beaters, thugs, and other undesirables." It's a shame that the 5% of bad ones get 90% of the press.

[Ancesthntr]

This article reminds me of a "news" report on some comedy show some time during the Cold War in which was shown a bunch of particularly fanatical football fans, heads shaven, faces painted, yelling like their lives depended on it, and bare-chested in 5 degree temps (with lots of snow and wind). After about 30 seconds of this, a graphic came on at the bottom which said: "And this is only a stupid GAME - the Russkies had better watch out if Americans ever fight a WAR with them!" The screen then faded away to several 3-second shots of a squadron of B-52s dropping a big load somewhere, battleship broadsides with 16-inch guns, a Marine amphibious assault on some Pacific island, and a big artillery barrage by the Army - and then the words: "Brought to you by the United States Armed Forces - we don't f@#$ing play games."

[mrsmith]

And furthermore...
George Carlin compares football and baseball

"...In football, the object is for the quarterback, sometimes called the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack which may consist of power plays designed to punch holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball, the object is to get home . . . safe. "

[gcruse]

Military = NFL.

So, what does that make golf? Here's a white-collar sport where the goal is impossible; no one will ever drive the little ball hundreds of yards off a tee into a hole eighteen times in a row. The winner is the person doing the least worst, nothing you can do effects anyone else, and nothing they do effects you. The Pope?

[FirstFlaBn]

College football began in 1869. I have long asserted that it mimics 19th Century infantry tactics: the two armies line up shoulder to shoulder; the offense tries to either punch a hole in the center or outflank the enemy on its way to the opponents' goal (capital). Field goals represent tactical victories reaching into the enemies' territory without reaching his capital, but are rewarded for disrupting his plans. Works pretty well until the introduction of the forward pass.

I compared our 3rd Inf Div tactics to an option play - our offense beat their defense to the corner, then turned it upfield.