The first chapters provide a summary of the game’s history, its development into a professional sport and a brief introduction to how it is played. Those are followed by a condensed, but nevertheless meaningful chapter about how American Football rose above Baseball as America’s number one sport. The structure of the subsequent chapters is as follows: Firstly, they introduce the reader to the long tradition of the Army versus Navy game, followed by an elaboration on the vocabulary and terminology used to talk about American Football. Secondly, the Super Bowl’s pregame show, its development, its impact on national symbols and the nation will be discussed. Finally, the paper illustrates the game’s cultural impact by means of a significant example and it provides the reader a critical analysis of its further development.
“The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It's part of our culture, like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays - beyond their meaning - a factor in our economy.” stated Bob Schieffer, news anchor and journalist, on Super Bowl Sunday 2010.
Indeed, the Super Bowl is nowadays much more than just the championship game of the National Football league. It has become a “major religious festival for American culture, for the event signals a convergence of sports, politics, and myth” (Price quoted in Dougherty).
To me, the most striking feature of the Super Bowl has always been the ubiquitous presence of all the service men and women. They regularly framed the field and the actor who performed the Star-Spangled Banner and were accompanied by a fighter jet flyover once the anthem was sung. I always had the feeling that the military acted as the co-host of the event and that the Super Bowl was, figuratively spoken, under its protection. Those observations altered my view of the game and led me during my extensive research, resulting in the insight that American Football and the military share a rich heritage. In this paper, I will show the reader that the military presence during football games is far from being coincidental and how warlike the game really is.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. History of the Game – The early beginnings
3. The birth of professional football
4. How the game is played
5. How football became America’s number one sport
6. Football and the military – an everlasting romance
7. Football and warspeak
8.1 The Super Bowl and the development of its pregame show
8.2 The burst of patriotism in Super Bowl XXV
8.3 Super Bowl XXXVI
9. The Star-Spangled Banner
10. Football and the Nation
11. The case of Pat Tillman
12. Now, Are you ready for some Football!?
13. The dangers of the war-football-continuum
14. Conclusion
Research Objectives & Core Themes
This bachelor thesis examines the instrumentalization of American Football by political and military institutions, specifically focusing on the Super Bowl as a stage for patriotic and militaristic displays. The author investigates how the game's cultural narrative has been purposefully aligned with war-related rhetoric to foster national identity and unity, particularly in times of conflict.
- The historical link between the military and American Football.
- The construction of the "football-as-war" metaphor in media and broadcasting.
- Case studies of patriotic displays during Super Bowl pregame shows (XXV and XXXVI).
- The role of media propaganda and the "hero-making" process, exemplified by Pat Tillman.
- The consequences of blurring the lines between sporting spectacles and nationalistic warfare.
Excerpt from the Book
7. Football and warspeak
"With the weapons I have, there's no stopping us." "We went out there and ran our first play, and it worked great." Both of these quotes could have been very well used to talk about football or war, however, one was used to express confidence about the upcoming Super Bowl in 1991 and the other one described a ‘successful’ bombing in Iraq. Kelly’s as well as the fighter jock’s choice of using such an ambiguous expression for their respective statements reveals the shared lingo football and warspeak share to a certain extent. Such a metaphorical use of a shared lingo is an extremely useful rhetorical tool because it enables its user to reduce complexity. Everybody who heard or read the above mentioned statements was immediately able to understand them. They are just one of numerous examples of the metaphorical mixing which increased over the course of time. Marbella points out that “[t]he shared lingo has been there for some time -- the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1949, for example, referred to Gen. Omar Bradley as "that brilliant quarterback, one of the best men on any all-time, all-American military team"”. She furthermore argues that these metaphorical overlapping was amplified by the fact that the beginning of the Gulf War “has roughly coincided with the football playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl”. The power of the football-as-war metaphor was arguably given its ultimate accolade when the President of the USA, George Bush Sr., called the Gulf War his Super Bowl. Symbolically, there is probably no higher honoring that the football-as-war metaphor could have ever received. To place the Super Bowl and the Gulf War on the same level is an awe-inspiring act and it points towards football’s nature as a warlike game. Its resemblance with war can best be shown by dividing it into two different aspects, which are: the visual/rhetorical and its art of playing.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the cultural significance of the Super Bowl and presents the core argument regarding the interconnectedness of football and military heritage.
2. History of the Game – The early beginnings: Provides a historical overview of how football evolved from university soccer-like games into a brutal sport that required intervention by figures like Theodore Roosevelt.
3. The birth of professional football: Discusses the transition from collegiate amateurism to the professionalization of the sport and the eventual founding of the NFL.
4. How the game is played: Explains the strategic nature of American Football, emphasizing its resemblance to a game of chess played by "gladiators".
5. How football became America’s number one sport: Analyzes the cultural myth-making that elevated football above baseball, framing it as the nation's true passion.
6. Football and the military – an everlasting romance: Examines the long-standing tradition of the Army-Navy game and the ideological merging of athleticism and patriotism.
7. Football and warspeak: Investigates the shared linguistic arsenal between football commentators and military communication, highlighting the "football-as-war" metaphor.
8.1 The Super Bowl and the development of its pregame show: Details the integration of military flyovers and patriotic displays into the modern Super Bowl experience.
8.2 The burst of patriotism in Super Bowl XXV: Focuses on the role of the 1991 Super Bowl in fostering national unity during the Persian Gulf War.
8.3 Super Bowl XXXVI: Explores the hyper-patriotic response of the NFL to the events of 9/11 and its impact on the national collective consciousness.
9. The Star-Spangled Banner: Reviews the historical creation and usage of the national anthem as a tool for cementing American national identity in sports.
10. Football and the Nation: Synthesizes the argument that the NFL functions as a vehicle for nationalism, blurring the lines between sporting competition and political ideology.
11. The case of Pat Tillman: Analyzes the media's transformation of the late Pat Tillman into a propagandistic symbol of nationalistic sacrifice.
12. Now, Are you ready for some Football!?: Deconstructs the military-infused messaging found in broadcast promotional material like Monday Night Football.
13. The dangers of the war-football-continuum: Warns of the societal risks when football and warfare are mimetically treated as identical phenomena.
14. Conclusion: Reaffirms the author’s thesis that football has been systematically instrumentalized to satisfy national demands for safety, identity, and political alignment.
Keywords
American Football, Super Bowl, Military, Patriotism, National Identity, War Rhetoric, Propaganda, Pat Tillman, NFL, Media Spectacle, Cultural Myth, Warspeak, Army-Navy Game, Colin Kaepernick, Sports Sociology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this thesis?
The work investigates the profound and systematic connection between American Football and the U.S. military, analyzing how the sport has been used to cultivate national identity and promote war-related values.
What are the central thematic pillars of the research?
The main themes include the militarization of sports media, the creation of patriotic rituals during the Super Bowl, the linguistic overlap between warfare and football terminology, and the manipulation of narratives for political purposes.
What is the author's primary research objective?
The objective is to reveal that the military presence in football is not incidental but a deliberate effort to satisfy public demands for unity and national self-assurance in times of crisis.
Which scientific approach does the author use?
The author employs a qualitative cultural and media analysis, examining historical records, media commentary, and established academic theories on identity, symbolism, and propaganda.
What specific topics are explored in the main body?
The chapters cover the evolution of the game, the specific integration of military imagery (such as fighter jets and the national anthem), and the critical analysis of media-constructed heroism.
How would you characterize the work based on the provided keywords?
The work is a sociopolitical critique of modern American sports culture, specifically focusing on the intersection of media spectacles, nationalism, and the sport-military industrial complex.
What role does Pat Tillman play in the author's analysis?
Pat Tillman serves as a critical case study for how the media manipulates the story of an athlete to create a "perfect citizen" or propagandistic icon, often masking the complex truth about the person's life and death.
How does the author view the "Monday Night Football" branding?
The author views the promotional material for Monday Night Football as a textbook example of how the NFL indoctrinated its audience by blending military vocabulary with football excitement to justify national military objectives.
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- Björn Nicklausson (Autor:in), 2016, The Super Bowl. America's Game and its instrumentalization to promote war?, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/352746
