We Americans, especially Jews and supporters of Israel, are facing daunting issues: growing anti-Semitism, Israel’s security challenges, radical Islam, general upheaval in the world and acute political polarization in our country, just to name a[…]
As the architect of the modern N.C.A.A., [Walter] Byers became stuck in the contradictions that would define intercollegiate athletics. He railed against commercialization even as he encouraged and courted it through the expansion of the[…]
The catalyst for pro football’s breakthrough in the latter half of the 1950s and 1960s was the new medium of television. The sport’s flow of play could be followed even on a grainy black-and-white screen,[…]
The N.F.L. was blindsided by the magnitude of the Dolphins’ bullying scandal and by Sam’s recent disclosure that he is gay. The cases of Martin and Sam suggest that a drastic change is needed in[…]
Over the past 12 years, as Americans have sought a distraction from the moral incoherence of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the game has served as a loyal and satisfying proxy. It has become[…]
The introduction of football made the holiday more appealing to many men. By adding listening to an athletic contest to a feast, families recognized that popular entertainment on the radio enhanced the celebration. Listening to[…]
In the 1920s, football finally moved into the home, rather than being merely a form of outdoor amusement which threatened to overwhelm the domestic celebration. The family might dine and then listen to a football[…]
What was lost on these devotees of the game was the irony in a family event, punctuated by (mostly) men listening to a game noted for its aggressive body contact, warlike language, male bonding, and[…]
Lower-class men had been making merry and poking fun at their betters for centuries, on Thanksgiving and other holidays. In the late 1880s, the upper class developed its own form of misrule in their exuberance[…]
Macy’s parade, even in the 1920s, existed not in the shadow of the family feast or the church service, but in competition with the afternoon football game. Football was clearly the more significant of the[…]
