The Highlights and Drops of Football

          Ranging from simple entertainment to acquiring currency, entering competitions or seeking to strengthen your skill level, games are a very interactive feature of our lives. We engage ourselves with inanimate objects from our early childhood, only to advance and seek in our more developed years, more thought provoking and engaging games in which we may involve others. The games we prefer say quite a deal about our personalities, and how actively we interact with others during social interactions. This is not to exclaim one game is more worthy than another, as to denote someone being more outgoing or creative than somebody else. Every game we play has a value and a purpose to it.
          We will encounter a multitude of games in our lifetimes. Some games are fun and exhilarating: these are activities we wish to play time and time again, because they are enjoyable. On the other hand, some games are for limited circumstances: playing an ice breaker with new classmates at the start of a semester is dandy, however, this game would not hold much value when the class is already 52% completed. Although, for the games we do regularly engage in, we as humans most certainly do enjoy being a part of the activity, even if we are not physically involved. How is this?

The above flowchart depicts what type of activity
our entertainment is ("Why Do We Play Games?").

          Watching others play a game may also give ourselves a sense of thrill or enjoyment, because we are routing for one side involved in the event- the game. We may see this with sports teams. Not everyone is a professional athlete being showcased to the world on television: if we are unable to be them, why not cheer for them instead? Taking this type of position allows for ourselves to compensate for the lack of initial involvement of the game or activity, by instead playing out our interests and thoughts through the involvements and actions of the people directly involved in the situation.
          As we become more and more involved with a select group of people essentially putting on a performance for our entertainment, we will also start forming a preference for a specific team, person, position, and so forth; likewise, we will hold develop biases towards others who challenge our preferences. The term BIRG, “basking in reflected glory,” entails a sense of success one likes to announce to others when their team, or other form factor, is victorious, wins an award, or any other announcement which contribute to a positive image. Even though someone else accomplished the feat, BIRGing allows the individual to feel accomplished and well defined as well, as though they were directly involved in the event as well. Incorporating the pronoun “we” to announce whatever the triumph of your team is a simply way to BIRG, aside from the traditional methods of wearing select apparel or spitting out social media posts. Clearly, you want to ensure everyone around you knows who you associate with- the winning side of course! On backside of BIRGing, there is CORFing, or “cutting off reflected failure.” While it’s excellent to be the winner, now everyone may be victorious all the time. In the event whatever you’re routing for is defeated, it may very well be discouraging to accept. The idea of CORFing is to temporally disassociate yourself with the loosing team until the event essentially blows overs and everyone moves on to allow the team to redeem themselves with a new match or event. During CORFing, the opposite behaviour of BIRGing is expected.
          In the 2011 FRONTLINE documentary “Football High,” the topic of football is the area of interest as select high school players are analysed during their involvement with this sport. One of the first segments this documentary highlights, is the attraction of Kiehl Frazier who at one point in his life was "ranked one of the top five high school quarterback in the country [USA]." His personal history shows his excellent abilities to standout from the crowd as an athlete, as showcased during his time in youth football at ten years of age. Other than making appearances in the documentary, his family members appear supportive to his position. Seriously. They have gone a step further from simply attending his high school games to BERGing in his bright spotlight by hiring a sports promoter to showcase him. What better way to advertise a high school senior who is being “recruited by more schools than any high school athlete in Arkansas history” than to hire a stranger to promote him like overpriced coffee. Evidently for the time in the documentary, both his own family and the sports promoter seen this young man not only as an athletic asset, but a person who may soon be rowing through the financial world. I’m sure his family cares and supports him dearly, however, deliberately hiring a promoter who said what he’s doing for Kiehl “is much like marketing a product,” feels in a sense out of place, and frankly the situation is taken a bit too far. At this point in my life, I have yet to have someone tell me they want to “promote” me. The purpose or concept of what these specialized people do, is understandable. However, if I am already making a name for myself and have already acquired a sea of people who know who I am, why would I need a third party to both leach and BERF on me? It’s like listing an item for sale online, only to receive calls from a third-party company to tell you they are able to “ensure” the product sells, and your only expense is the closing fee. I understand Kiehl is in a situation many of his other peers may never be in, yet, he was already “promoting” himself through his own means.

(Cube Entertainment)

          Clearly, there is a great deal of pride in each game of football played. Oh. The keyword there is “played.” Any sport may be aggressive and nonetheless physical, yet football is in its own category. I would not deem the objective of football is to purposely harm or injure the opposing team, however, wounding others in some fashion evidently is common practice in this game today. Jamie Croley, an athletic trainer for Shiloh Christian, stated “in years past we used to say he got his ‘bell rung,’ but we’ve kind of shied away from that and we actually call it what it is… and it was a little bit of a head trauma.” “A little bit,” really? What happened to naming the situation correctly? This part of the documentary did not make me smile, which is aided by a few scenes pertaining to CORFing. I'm sure these coaches are very proud of their team, however, they are not taking responsibility of the events occurring to the players in a convincing manner. It’s not the best approach, but I understand coaches of all sorts want their players to continue forth and play strong even when they need a break, which may very well cause them to look around areas of injury or health trauma. During my four years of high school, I participated in marching band. One of the favourite phrases the band instructor and his step-son enjoyed repeating was “pain is only weakness leaving your body,” essentially telling us to stop complaining among our sections and stand up straight when we march, because we just had a water break. The point here, is that people really may be pushed too far and in some cases feel they are “obligated” to continue forth even when they really need to stop.
          In part, I start to wonder what happened to holding an objective for skill as an athlete? Why is it “okay” for football players, whether professional or not, to purposely roughhouse other players during gameplay? If this were hockey, I believe the obnoxious players are sent to the “time out box” and their team is penalized in some fashion. I’m not claiming every game of football is like this, although has this turned more into a game of brawns over a game which should ideally be brains since times are always discussing “strategies?” Why are students being treated as machines?
          The documentary also shines a negative light on a high school team in Little Rock, Arkansas. Is it not odd we are told to stay indoors during days of high heat index, yet if you are on a football team this is “training weather?” While the whole situation was unfortunate and preventable, an unnamed man, possibly the coach, did acknowledge the span of high degree weather was something that “made you think [about] when it’s that hot outside,” such as in the sense whether to have practice outdoors at all. Similar to Croley, the entire situation is blown off and CORFed. When the reporter asked him if they cancelled practice, he remarked “we don’t cancel practice cause of the heat.” Interesting. I understand there is a value behind practicing when it’s cooler or warmer than room temperature outside, however, just like telling an athlete their injury is “nothing to worry about,” it’s not correct on the part of the coach to tell off their players to keep going.
          Regardless of how well and often your team trains to be the best, you will not win if your members are sick at home, injured, or elsewhere. I'm not sure if this odd phenomenon is a factor unique specifically to the United States, or if it's occurring on an international level with other countries. US sports teams need to focus on cleaning up their behaviour on the field, rather than only thinking about suiting up for the game, before national regulations take away what "fun" is already in these types of games.

Works Cited

Cube Entertainment. HyunA Bubble Pop album cover art. 18 Feb. 2017,

     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_Pop! Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

"Why Do We Play Games?" YouTube, uploaded by Vsauce, 23 Mar. 2013,
     www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jDspIC4hY. Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.