Football as WAR

[Onkel Neal]

World style football (soccer) is a great sport, this is not meant to put it down. I watch World Cup and admire the skill and energy.

American football, NFL football; to those not familiar with it, I found a neat article comparing it to war:

In my view, all team sports are a simulation of warfare on one level or another. Some are just more explicit about it. All societies have the desire to compete (just as many individuals do) to be the best, to conquer the enemy. Team sports provide a way for us to pursue this without actually killing people or destroying stuff. We can scratch our itch for conquest and dominance every week, watching as our army invades an opposing city, or their army invades ours. When it’s over we can go back to work without worrying if our employer has been enslaved and our office reduced to rubble. It’s a good deal.

In all the dozens of professional team sports in the world, I can’t think of any that bears such a striking resemblance to actual warfare as American Football. In particular, it looks a lot (to me) like classic medieval war.

In no other sport is the taking and holding of territory an actual part of the game. While many sports (Basketball, Hockey, Soccer*, Baseball, et al.) are more or less continuous action, football has a very different flow. Consider that each war (football game) is divided into many distinct battles (plays) where your army (team) attempts to sieze terrritory (gain yardage) so that they may reach the opposing city (the end zone) and conquer it (score a touchdown). If you can’t breach the city (they stop the drive) then you lay siege (kick a field goal).

Instead of a bunch of people running all over the field, you have the soldiers line up and face each other on a skirmish line. Once the battle begins, it is the goal of both sides to break the enemy’s lines.

Downs have the effect of simulating attrittion. Like Napoleon (or Hitler) marching through Russia, if the enemy manages to dig in and stops your advance, then you’re screwed. You can’t sustain the attack forever. There is only one road to victory, and it leads through the gates of your opponent’s city.

The players wear armor and helmets, and mix it up with direct, deliberate physical contact. Sure, basketball has its share of elbows and pushing. Hockey has checking. Baseball has rude gestures that damage the self-esteem. But in football it is expected and inevitable that your players will use violence to advance your goals and frustrate the goals of the enemy.
Many other sports have key players and important positions, but I can’t think of one where a single althelete directly controls the rest of the team the way a quarterback does. The coach may decide overall strategy, but the per-play decisions are made by the man on the field. Injuring the quarterback (field general) is important not just for taking out a talented member of the team, but has the effect of crippling the leadership and damaging the morale of the enemy.

American football is about physically seizing your opponent’s land, driving him back, while protecting your own turf — all while waiting for the sudden explosion of a 70-yard bomb. Some things he omitted: when the defenders blitz the quaterback, they may sack him for a loss.

American football features a wide variety of player types, they are not all the same body types. Fast receivers, stout, sturdy running backs; the field general, the quarterback; big behemoths on the line; rugged, violent hunter/killer linebackers.

The game has offense, and defense. The gazelle-like wide receiver may be sneaking deep into enemy territory, with the aim of snaring a long pass and racing past the cornerbacks and linebackers for a touchdown, but watch out! The power safety has his eye on removing the WR's helmet, with his head in it.

The game consists of power running, rapid sweeps, blocking, tackling, and the lethal, graceful forward pass. Unlike all other ball sports, the pigskin is unique, a projectile, a leather missile, perfectly made for throwing, carrying in one arm, kicking goals, and making fumbles hilariously unpredictable.

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Unlike all other ball sports, the pigskin is unique

Indeed a contemporary limelight.

[TarJak]

I think this concept is universal to most of the "contact" football games. A similar article on rugby being likened to war:

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/ne...d=2005931.html

I agree with everything that you say, but its certainly not exclusive to American Football which is actually a branch of the rugby family which in turn is actually a branch of soccer although Rugby had already split from soccer when Americal football was devised.

Both games have significant stress on the gaining of territory and tactical manuvouring to gain that territory and place the ball over a line defended by the opposition.

The New Zealand All Blacks actually do a traditional Maori war dance before each international game they play.

And the rolling maul is one of the games most warlike experiences particularly if you've been in the middle of one that collapses into a ruck.

For those interested in the history of where their game comes from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football

[Kapitan_Phillips]

It is as Vince Lombardi once said: "If winning isnt everything, why do they keep score?"

[P_Funk]

Hockey:

Dump and Chase - Hard forechecking where you rush the defenders and get the puck past them before they reorient themselves. Kinda like Panzers ploughing through to the rear of the enemy and getting in behind.

Hitting and Checking - You bash the guy so he can't play the puck. Same as suppressing fire to prevent any coherent deliberate acts on the part of the other team.

Give and Go - Pincer attack anyone? Or should we save that for those lovely sandwich hits?

Though I'd say that if we wanted to compare hockey to war (and that means if I wanted to since I seem to be the only one :p) then I'd venture to say that Hockey is more like Geurilla warfare. Hard hitting, fast movement. Its not about vast plans and ritualized rules that force you into a narrow corridor of behavior. Instead you get fast play with improvization in almost every moment. Small things lead to attrition. Hit and run.

Its easier to compare that to the Vietcong than Patton's 3rd.

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by P_Funk

Though I'd say that if we wanted to compare hockey to war (and that means if I wanted to since I seem to be the only one :p) then I'd venture to say that Hockey is more like Geurilla warfare. Hard hitting, fast movement. Its not about vast plans and ritualized rules that force you into a narrow corridor of behavior. Instead you get fast play with improvization in almost every moment. Small things lead to attrition. Hit and run.

Its easier to compare that to the Vietcong than Patton's 3rd.

Especially true for our team that has a limited amount of firepower. They have to choose wisely their battles.

[kiwi_2005]

Physical sport is mans way of replacing war. We love to fight its in our blood. Peace is only temporary.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by TarJak

opposition.

The New Zealand All Blacks actually do a traditional Maori war dance before each international game they play.

I saw a traditional dance once at a softball game played here on PEI, the New Zealand Team was playing a local squad in preparation for a tournament they were in. It was an impressive sight.


RDP

[August]

George Carlins comparison of football and baseball:

"Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.
Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.
In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you'd know the reason for this custom.
Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.


I enjoy comparing baseball and football:


Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.
Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.
In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.
Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?
In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.
In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.
Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.
Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.
Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.
And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as 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 shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!"

[Skybird]

Does it serve the spirit of sports - to intentionally and needlessly compare it to war? If so, we should no longer look down on the Romans for having gladiators in the arena.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Does it serve the spirit of sports - to intentionally and needlessly compare it to war? If so, we should no longer look down on the Romans for having gladiators in the arena.

Well except for the whole disembowling thing...

[nikimcbee]

By God Neal, you are right!

The importance of good armor:

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

PICTURE HONESTLY STOLEN FROM THE BUMP THREAD

[Marcantilan]

Well, is widely known Tennis started in the First World War, when a german soldier threw a grenade at a british one.

Then the british threw it back...then the german...

Voleyball originated the same way, only with taller soldiers involved.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Marcantilan

Well, is widely known Tennis started in the First World War, when a german soldier threw a grenade at a british one.

Then the british threw it back...then the german...

Voleyball originated the same way, only with taller soldiers involved.

Hence the German games of "Brennball" and "Völkerball".