Special Super Bowl LV Post: Should I Like Football?

Last updated on: February 6, 2021 at 8:56 pm by Francis J. Beckwith

Special Super Bowl LV Post: Should I Like Football? 2021-02-06T20:56:01-05:00 Francis J. Beckwith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Tomorrow I will be watching Super Bowl LV. Although I love watching football, I sometimes wonder if I should. I address this question in an essay entitled I published over six years ago soon after Baylor University opened up its new football stadium. Originally published on September 12, 2014 over at The Catholic Thing I republish it here in its entirety:

Ever since my wife and I bought a giant flat-screen television set for our living room, I cannot get enough football, whether it’s the NFL or college. (It also doesn’t hurt to be an alumnus of the number 1 high school team in the country, Bishop Gorman, and a professor at Baylor, which produced the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner, Robert Griffin III, and two weeks ago opened its majestic 45,000-seat, McLane Stadium). Prior to purchasing the TV, I used to watch football intermittently throughout the season, though paying far more attention during the playoffs and bowl games.

But recently, I’ve begun to entertain the question: should I like football? There is, of course, much to like about it. It is exciting; the players are amazingly gifted; the coaches are like military tacticians plotting to out-maneuver their adversaries; and there is a special pride that arises when you experience your city’s or school’s team on-field accomplishments and the positive national attention that they receive.

And yet, there is the intrinsic brutality of the game. For unlike sports in which physical contact is tangential (baseball, cycling) or organically connected to the players’ performance (basketball, soccer), in football the intentional collision of players is the whole point. For example, a concussion in baseball, cycling, basketball, or soccer is unfortunate, but it is not treated as an expected consequence of the game’s point. In football, it is, as they say, part of the game.

So much so that when the University of Texas announced that its starting quarterback, David Ash, would be out indefinitely after suffering multiple concussions, the most recent of which occurred during BYU’s September 6 drubbing of the Longhorns, ESPN reported: “Texas coach Charlie Strong said Monday. . .that the Longhorns will push ahead with Tyrone Swoopes as the starting quarterback.”

While a young man’s brain function may be compromised for life, there’s no need to worry: the state’s premier university has another equally talented college student, though with a non-shaken brain, willing to step in.

I am fully aware that the question I am entertaining is to take a small step in the direction of embracing cultural heresy, especially in Texas, a place that my wife and I have called home for over a decade. In the state of “Friday Night Lights,” and in the nation of “Remember the Titans” (one of my all-time favorite movies, I might add), there is probably nothing more subversive than to suggest that it may be legitimate to harbor doubts about the goodness of football, especially if you’re like me and you truly love football.

This observation, of course, presupposes several other questions: Could my seemingly ordinary affections be disordered? Is it possible that I have grown to love that which I should not love? Can your fondness for a particular activity blind your critical faculties from seeing the activity’s true vice? In the abstract, the answer to each question is clearly “yes.” But in terms of the specific issue at hand, football, the best answer I can offer right now is, “I don’t know.”

No doubt, some will respond to my queries by trying to change the subject. They will turn it into a routine exercise in applied libertarian moral theory by simply claiming – as if claiming is all that is required to establish the veracity of a moral theory – that all the participants, except for those under the age of 18, are adults, and if adults consent to engaging in inherently dangerous activities with each other, who are we judge?

This is no real response, since my initial query assumes that the answer to it depends entirely on whether the activity under scrutiny is likeable in itself. The question is about the nature of the activity. It is not about the dispositions and choices of those who engage in the activity.

At what point does a sport’s physicality shift from an impressive display of athletic excellence to gladiatorial exhibitionism choreographed by ambitious entrepreneurs for a jaded public with an ever-increasing appetite for ordered violence? Again, I do not know. But I do think the question is worth asking. (In case you were wondering, this evening I will be watching the Baylor game against the University of Buffalo, since I still do love football).

Previous Post

January 29, 2021

Baylor Provost Defends Free Speech Against Cancel Culture

Next Post

March 5, 2021 Thomas S. Hibbs named new J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2010 Election 2012 2012 Election Abortion Academic freedom Academic Freedom Alliance Affirmative Action Al Mohler Alvin Plantinga Amazon.com American Culture Animal Rights Anti-Catholic Bigotry Antichrist apologetics Apostolic Succession Appearance Aristotle Ash Wednesday atheism Baptists Barack Obama basketball Baylor Best Books Bias Biden Billy Joel bioethics Bishop Gorman High School Bishop Robert Barron blogging Bob Dylan books C. S. Lewis Called to Communion Calvin College Calvinism Cancel culture Casey v. Planned Parenthood Catholic Catholic Answers Catholic saints Catholic Social Thought Catholic World Report Catholicism China Christianity Christianity Today Christians Christmas Christopher Hitchens Chuck Colson Church Fathers Church of England communion of the saints Conclave Confirmation Conservatism Constitutional Law contraception conversion stories Cornel West Critical Race Theory Culture of Death Culture of Life Daddy's Little Girl Darby Beckwith David Boonin David Crowder David Novak Defending Life DEI Dinesh D'Souza Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Dr. Tod Worner E. O. Wilson Easter Edgardo Mortara Edith Schaeffer Elizabeth Beckwith Emergent Church Emily Edmondson Epistemology Equality Eric Metaxas Ethics Evangelical Philosophical Society Evangelical Theological Society Evangelicalism Evangelicals Evangelium Vitae EWTN faith and reason Falkirk Center family Federalist Society feminism Film First Amendment First Things Football Fr. Robert Barron Francis A. Schaeffer Frank Capra Frankie Beckwith God Good Friday Gospel Coalition Grateful Dead Gratitude Greg Koukl Ground Zero Mosque Hadley Arkes Harold Joseph Beckwith Harverford College Hell Higher Education Hillary Clinton Hobby Lobby Houston Baptist University Humanities humor Integralism intelligent design Internal Revenue Service Islam It's a Wonderful Life Ivy League J. Budziszewski Jesus Movement Jimmy Akin Jimmy Stewart Joe Dickerson John F. Kennedy John Gerstner John J. Haldane John Locke John Rawls Journeys of Faith Judaism Judith Jarvis Thomson Justification Keith Green Keith Whittington King James Version Las Vegas Latter-day Saints Laura Nyro Law Lawrence Ferlinghetti Levon Helm Liberalism Liberty University Lou Reed Lutheranism Malcolm & Alwyn Marriage Martin Luther Mary the Mother of God Media Media appearances Michael Licona Michael Ruse Michele Bachmann Michelle Bachmann Mike Huckabee Mike Krzyzewski Miracles MIT Mitt Romney monozygotic twinning Moral Theology Mormonism music N. T. Wright Natural Law New Books Network New Evangelization new word New York Times Newt Gingrich Newtown Massacre Nicholas Wolterstorff Norman L. Geisler Note Dame Notre Dame NSA spying O. Carter Snead Papal Conclave Papal Conclave 2013 Passover Pat Robertson Patheos Penance Personhood Philosophy Philosophy of Religion Planned Parenthood Political Correctness Political Liberalism politics Politics for Christians Pope Benedict XVI Pope Francis Pope John Paul I Pope John Paul II Pope John XXIII Pope Leo XII Pope Paul VI Pope Pius XII Prayer in Schools President Barack Obama President Bill Clinton President Ronald W. Reagan Princeton Problem of Evil Prolife Protestantism Providence College Public Discourse Publications Publishing Purgatory R. C. Sproul Racism Ralph Wood RCIA Real Presence Reformation relativism relics Religion religious art Religious Liberty Religious urban legends Republican Party Resurrection Return to Rome Reversion Rhetoric Richard Dawkins Richard Mouw Rick Santorum Riley Beckwith Robert P. George Rod Dreher Roe v. Wade Roger Olson Ronald Dworkin Ronald W. Reagan Rush Limbaugh Russell Moore Ryan T. Anderson Sanctity of Life Satan Sexual Ethics Sexual misconduct Snoop Dogg Social Justice South Park Southern Baptists Speaking Engagement Speech St. Augustine St. Francis of Assisi St. Peter's Catholic Student Center St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas More stained glass Stand to Reason Stanford Stephen H. Webb Studies in Christian Ethics Super Bowl LV Syllabus The Band The Beatles The Bible The Catholic Thing the Christian university The City The King's College The Moral Argument The Sacraments The Vatican theology Theology of the Body Thomas Aquinas Thomas Nagel Thomas S. Hibbs Thomistic Institute Tim Challies Timothy George Tolerance Tony Sclafani Transubstantiation Trump U. S. Supreme Court Uncategorized University Faculty for Life University of Dallas UNLV Vatican Virtual Book Burning Volokh Conspiracy Walker Percy William F. Buckley William Lane Craig Wokeness Word of Fire

Select a Month August 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 July 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 January 2023 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 September 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 October 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 July 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did the angel say at the tomb?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Be still and at peace. He is not here; He has risen! Fear not, for I bring news. Go and sin no more.