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Excerpts of Interest

Category: Football

“…this football thing that we never tire of down here takes our minds off these and other issues, if only momentarily”

21 September 20159 September 2015 Drew KaplanCollege Football

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[…]

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“Certainly, the issues Byers laid out continue to stare the N.C.A.A. in the face, even as men’s basketball and football prosper”

1 June 201531 May 2015 Drew KaplanCollege Football

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[…]

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“The catalyst for pro football’s breakthrough in the latter half of the 1950s and 1960s was the new medium of television”

30 November 2014 Drew KaplanFootball

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,[…]

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The NFL Has Been Blindsided about Change

9 March 20147 March 2014 Drew KaplanNFL

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[…]

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Football has “served as a loyal and satisfying proxy” to the “moral incoherence of the wars” abroad

4 February 2014 Drew KaplanAmerica

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[…]

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Radio Broadcasts of Football on Thanksgiving Helped Masculinize The Festival

28 November 2013 Drew KaplanFootball

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[…]

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Families Begin to Enjoy Football Broadcasts on Thanksgiving and A Tradition is Begun

28 November 2013 Drew KaplanFootball

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[…]

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Gender Distinctions on Thanksgiving

27 November 2013 Drew KaplanFootball

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[…]

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How football began to get played on Thanksgiving

26 November 2013 Drew KaplanCollege Football

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[…]

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The Macy’s Parade Has Existed in Competition with Football Games on Thanksgiving Since the 1920s

26 November 2013 Drew KaplanFootball

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[…]

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