The Negative Influence Of Football In Modern Society

In modern society, Americans are hungry for violence. This hunger is quenched through various outlets, such as action-packed movies or books. But in ancient times, this trend also existed, as watching violent events was a social gathering. In Rome during the era of empire, thousands of people commonly gathered into the Roman Colosseum to watch these events. One of the events, gladiator fights, occurred in the Colosseum where tons of bloodthirsty citizens cheered for the brutal killings of the fighters ("Gladiators, Chariots, and the Roman Games"). Violent forms of entertainment were all too common in the olden times. And while it may seem like a part of the distant past, this form of enterntainment has been changed into a new physically …show more content…
However, the complete absurdity of football’s popularity is an entirely different issue. The extent of football’s following by adults is comical considering it is a sport which gained viewers primarily due to its violent nature. Football may seem like a fairly normal obsession through society’s lense, but when you take a step back and view the issue from a different perspective, it seems like a very funny practice. At a football game, grown men fill the crowds, all wearing the jersey of and following the full life story of some random dude playing for the hometown team. This random dude has no association with the hometown or the fans, and also happens to be half the age of most adult fans, yet the adults idolize this player like a young child would idolize his parents. But the immature actions do not stop there. These grown men paint their faces, just like an activity at a child’s birthday party, to display their teams logo. During many games, grown men will line up in a row, each with a letter painted on their chest, to display their team’s name. Throughout the game, these grown men will scream and chant for the young players who share no association with the fans other than a name on a jersey. Afterwards, the grown men will fight in parking lots over which team is better, and sometimes even kill an innocent man just because he happened to be born in the wrong city, or supported the wrong quarterback. In a skit regarding American sports fans, Jerry Seinfeld satirically expressed this idea with perfect accuracy. Seinfeld explained that players move teams so often that it makes routing for a team very hard to justify. According to Seinfeld, “you are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city” (Seinfeld). The only