American Football: The Gladiator Games of the 21 st Century?

1. American Football: The Gladiator Games of the 21st Century?

2. Question One What is the difference between a legal and illegal tackle? Why is it difficult to tell the difference between them?

3. Question Two Explain what C.T.E. is. Include symptoms, a general understanding of tau and the reason for the condition—especially how it relates to football. Provide at least one example of a football player who has suffered from C.T.E. and what has happened to him because of it.

4. Question Three Explain the HITS system and how it used to monitor the impact of one player tackling another. Explain how g’s (define ‘g’ in this context first) in football tackles compare to injuries sustained in car accidents. Is this level of injury equal to football injuries? Why or why not?

5. Question Four In describing the culture of violence that is inherent in football, linebacker James Harrison explained that “although he is not trying to injure anybody, he does not mind hurting them — a fine distinction that illuminates the N.F.L.’s conundrum [dilemma]. Nobody welcomes injuries. But hurting an opponent can create a competitive advantage.” Can there be a difference between injuring someone and hurting them? If yes, how so? If no, what does this suggest about the nature of football? What do you think of Harrison’s statement?

6. Question Six What is voyeurism as it applies to football? In what ways is football like reality television? What do we, the viewers, want to see, and in what ways is the “circus” manipulated to give us what we want?

7. Question Seven Gladwell asks if the problem with football is “the style of [playing] or the [game] itself“? In other words, he’s asking if changing the rules/style of the game make it safer. What do you think? Will it help? If the game does become safer, do you think people will still want to watch? Why or why not?

8. Question Eight How does consumerism apply to football? In other words, in what way does “consuming a product/s” play a role in the game? In what way might this have an impact on making the game safer or keeping the rules the same?

9. Question Nine How does each group—fighters, leadership (i.e. political or corporate), and the audiences—interact with each other? Who really controls whom? Does the audience, the ‘fighter,’ or the political/corporate leadership have the most influence? What choices does each group have in their level of involvement? For example, one might say football players choose to play in the NFL because there’s money to be made. However, another person might say that football players do not choose, but are forced to play because by coaches and trainers (who are paid by corporate owners) who tell them they’re healthy when they’re not. And yet another person might say, both corporate teams and individual players do not choose, but are forced to perform for audiences that demand faster games and more physical play; after all, without viewers (or voyeurs?), they would all be out of a job. In each of the three examples (gladiator games, football, and The Hunger Games), who do you think has the most power, and why?