“They need a farm to work at,” my mom never fails to comment when she sees young men bouncing with energy, “to channel their energy into productive work.”

Society, however, has other plans for most young men, and this does not include driving a tractor or shoveling shit on a farm. Instead, these boys are channeled into sports. And with the time of the Game upon us once again, it seems fitting to analyze the absurdity and necessity of football as an outlet for boys and for society.

In an extremely reductive summary, football is essentially prime young men clashing their bright minds physically together all to throw a weirdly shaped ball for a touchdown.

As society, we take the most fit and prime young men, with all of their raging masculinity, and put them in a gladiator-style arena to “fight.” As they anxiously bounce up and down on the sidelines, aching to race out onto the field and fight for their team or scream warlike phrases, it’s not hard to see the bundled energy wound up like a spring inside.

Taking a step back, I think it would be very confusing to explain the sports culture of America to an alien. Football is absurd in its similarity to war, except the end result seems fruitless. It is as if humans have an innate drive to fight. You read the “Iliad,” and then you watch football, and the similarities are striking. Common pep talks in football include ideas like “play for the brother next to you” and “cut your heart out and put it on the table for your brothers.” Gory imagery, really, for just a silly little game, don’t you think?

It seems equally absurd that hoards of unathletic people arrive at the stadium to buy corn dogs and yell. When the game, that they have no true emotional connection to, turns sour, they yell and become angry.

But yet, is this silly tradition something to laugh at, or does it play a crucial role for society as a whole? I think the latter. For the fans, what is the difference between patriotism and fanatic love for a football team? There appears to be no clear distinction between these two sentiments. Both patriotism and the illogical love of a specific sports team unites strangers together under one cause.

Gladiator-type, brutish arena events are not a new concept; the origins trace back to Ancient Rome, or even before. Society has always been attracted to semi-brutal performances, and such games, no matter how cruel or seemingly silly, truly do unite a community and purge the spirited characteristic of society. Catharsis is powerful.

From a psychological perspective, people tend to form “in-group” bias, attaching themselves to a specific team. The Social Identity Theory in psychology speaks directly to this phenomenon by suggesting that people derive part of their self-esteem from the groups they belong to, leading them to favor their “ingroup.” However, social psychology warns us of the danger of human tendencies to create “ingroup” and “outgroup” stereotypes, as they can bring animosity and arbitrary discrimination simply because someone isn’t in the same arbitrary group as another. Isn’t it harmful if I hate Harvard on Saturday simply because I randomly chose to enroll at Yale and therefore Harvard’s football team is worse in my mind than the Bulldogs? 

However, maybe we need some sort of division in society in order to reach unity and order. And sports team affiliations are low stakes divisions — these differences and the ensuing competition normally do not run much deeper than surface-level. 

After careful consideration, I do not view football in the same way as my mother. Maybe these boys do need a farm to work at, but society needs them on the football field. Go Bulldogs.