Like some of the things that I’ve become fond of in college, if you would’ve told younger me that I would like football now, I would’ve thought you were crazy. This is especially true about football, because when I was younger, whenever football would come up, I would tell anyone all the reasons why I didn’t like it. However, as time goes on things can change, especially when it comes to what we like.
I’ve never given football a fair shot but when last semester started to wane, I suddenly came face to face with football. It was hard to ignore that football games were kinda fun when I went to the Big Game (a rivalry match between UC Berkeley and Stanford) and then the 49ers got good, which made the games even better. Now I’m even excited to watch the Super Bowl on TV even though I still have some concerns about football.
In truth, it was only until I saw football from my friends’ and family’s points of view that I grew to understand why football was popular. To me, this is where the beauty of sports like football can be found: in the eyes of the people we love.
When the pandemic hit and all of us were locked inside our homes, I started getting into sports by watching compilations of baseball games. Up until that point, I had never been as invested in where I would go to watch most of my favorite baseball teams’ games. However, being left to my own devices gave me the chance to see in more detail what baseball could be — how it wasn’t a game of checkers but rather chess. And that excited me. Thus baseball games became very fun because I would pepper my family with questions.
As my knowledge of baseball grew, so did my love for it, and this experience primed me to like football. There is something about learning about new things that have the power to bring new people into the legions of fans for a sport, especially when you’re trying to have fun together.
Though the bonds of family and friends can allow someone to put on rose-tinted glasses for a sport like football, there are aspects of sports that we cannot ignore. Most sports have a dark side, and I think we all have to be aware of exactly what we are watching.
There are people all over the country who put their bodies and their minds on the line for a sport they love. With sports like football, they have a national stage and that alone should make us want to make sure these players are being treated fairly. If there is one thing all of us at home can do, we should do our research about sports like football.
So, here’s what I know about football now. From what I’ve heard from newscasters, friends, family, and people who have followed football longer than me, the NFL has a disgusting culture around injuries. This is specifically true when it comes to concussions, which can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. CTE is when the brain degenerates after repeated blows to the head. CTE has no cure and is most commonly associated with football players, though has been diagnosed in other sports.
Football is a sport built on taking repeated blows to your body. Seeing the probability of developing CTE go from uncommon to more than likely is not right. The NFL cannot allow its players to come back onto the field early from a concussion, like what happened with Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in Weeks 3 and 4 of the current season.
This irresponsibility from the Miami Dolphins and other teams that have been recorded in different publications like The New York Times is not sustainable. Disregarding injuries will only harm more families for generations to come, and if someone were to ask me if I would recommend that they play football, I would say it is not worth it. No sport or job, for that matter, is worth someone’s life.
All of these grievances have made up why I and probably others didn’t like football, but I’ve become more of a football fan because I’ve tried looking at the other side of football. This is where having people in your life who know a sport better than you comes in handy. Having a lot of questions about football and then having someone to answer them allowed me to see the level of skill that is involved in football.
When one keeps a sport like football foggy and not concrete, it is easy to dismiss it. However, when that shield of uncertainty is taken away, one can find what is fascinating about a subject.
With football, I find that how a drive (AKA a play) is constructed is fascinating. Though more commonly fans remember the drives made by the quarterback on offense, there are also the defensive drives where a middle linebacker leads the team. This tidbit among others made football into a puzzle to be solved, and for a lot of people, figuring out a puzzle is very exciting.
So, as a fan of the 49ers, I’ll be looking out for Fred Warner — who is the middle linebacker for the team — as he makes defensive drives because football is a tandem sport.
My new excitement as my favorite football team makes a good play is not divorced from why I will still gripe about the sport. No matter how fun it is to watch with my family, there are still plenty of moral quandaries in football. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what is good about football. From now on, I intend to have a critical eye but an open mind to more sports, because if there’s anything that I’m completely sure about, there will always be a game on the TV to watch.