Pigskin disenchantment

Football season is underway, at both the college and professional levels, and has begun to dominate the Sports Center clips that E watches to put himself to sleep at night. It's hard to say that I was ever a serious fan, but for a long time rooting for the (other Washington) Redskins - and appreciating football in all its forms - was part of my self-definition. I liked to pull out the story of watching Super Bowl XXII with my dad, broadcast live on a Monday morning in Tokyo, as an indicator of how football had come to mean something to me. My dad worked pretty long hours, and it was exciting to me to get excited with him. It was the first victory of a Black quarterback in the Super Bowl, which must have meant a lot to some people in the District of Columbia - he's still the only person to claim that distinction, in a sport that still underrepresents Blacks at QB, and in leadership generally. Once it was pretty clear that the Redskins would beat the Broncos, my dad drove me to school, and we listened to the end of the game on American Armed Forces Entertainment Service radio.


In his prime: http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Doug-Williams---Looking-For-Receiver-Photograph-C12961613.jpeg

I also think football is a smart sport, fun to watch, with great adrenaline moments. And football lends itself to great dramatic stories of teamwork and triumph, like Friday Night Lights, as well or better than other sports do.

But this year my negative feelings about the sport are on the rise. There's been a lot of press about dementia and brain damage, as well as damage to the rest of the body, among former players in the NFL and even at the college level and younger. It's not really new news, and it's very consistent with what you might imagine for guys who go out there and smash into each other week after week.

I suppose if I'm honest, I'd admit that the waning fortunes of the Redskins, and my lack of a fan community or means to watch them regularly, contribute as much to my dispassion as does my distaste for the long-term injury potential. (After all, I go out and play street hockey every week, despite the high frequency of ACL tears and other traumatic events in that arena.) As an aside, I've never liked the name Redskins either, with its unsavory freight of racial bias.

The upshot is, I'm not really looking for a way back in. I'd like to cheer for the Huskies, and I'd definitely be up for a few hours of flag or touch at Thanksgiving, but for the most part, I don't need football to be a part of my life.