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MARKETING SPECTATOR SPORTS WITH VIOLENCE: THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
By Andy Baker
When Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was arrested in February 2000, he became the second NFL player (joining wide receiver Rae Carruth of the Carolina Panthers) in four months to be charged with homicide. While these two cases have been particularly egregious and visible, off-field violence by NFL players is widespread. Reports of arrests for domestic abuse, sexual and physical assault, and burglary pepper the sports pages throughout the year. Indeed, in 1998, two authors estimated that twenty-one percent of all active National Football League (NFL) players had been charged with some criminal offense.(1) NFL executives immediately disputed this accusation, arguing that its employees were no more likely than typical citizens of the same age and race to have criminal records. Moreover, the NFL pointed to its anti-violence counseling programs and seminars for rookies as proof that it was active in combating the trend. Finally, the league has recently formally considered, although it has not yet implemented, proposals to stiffen disciplinary measures for criminal activity.
Despite the NFL's attempts to project the image that it is actively combating off-field violence, I argue that the league actually uses and encourages on-field violence, which is mandated by the rules of the game, to market itself. Furthermore, the league couches the on-field, "bloodless" violence in metaphors of war, weaponry, and bloodletting to enhance its appeal. To support this argument, I present data from 1) fieldwork I conducted in my living room, where I watched an NFL Monday Night Football broadcast on 27 November 2000, and 2) a quarter-century's worth of otherwise useless knowledge gained from wasting countless hours following professional sporting events. My coding and tallying of the television broadcast indicate that commentators frequently use violent metaphors and make explicit comparisons between the game and more serious forms of violence. Moreover, commentators (and probably spectators) prefer violence and pain, if administered within the rules of the game, to more gentle and painless, yet equally effective, ways of achieving the goal of winning.
Commentators' messages during an NFL game broadcast are riddled with references to violence. On its face, this might seem to be a natural by-product of the game's rules and the way it is played. Football is premised on the rule that a play ends when the defensive player induces the player with the ball to touch the ground with something other than his hands, head or feet.(2) In other words, defensive players are required to tackle the ball carrier, which they can accomplish in any number of ways: tripping up the ball carrier by grabbing his feet, slamming one's shoulder, forearm or torso into the ball carrier after taking a long running start, or grabbing the ball carrier's shirt and dragging him to the ground. In everyday life, and indeed in most professional sports, this would be considered extremely violent, incendiary and downright injurious behavior.
Despite this, television narrators frequently savor and praise especially violent play, as long as the violence is legal according to football's rules. For example, announcer John Madden is well known for extolling defensive players with excellent tackling capabilities by saying "that's good hittin'" and replaying hard collisions multiple times. Regardless of its severity or danger, narrators often refer positively to "a good clean hit." In a November 27 broadcast, announcers featured Carolina Panther Reggie White's oft-used "club" move, in which he swings his arm and strikes his opponent's upper body to knock the opponent down. Then they praised White as one of football's "class acts."(3) Indeed, exceptionally hard tackles and painful collisions are replayed on sports news and highlight shows, even when the recipient is injured as a result of the contact.
Besides praising pain and violence that occur within the rules of the game, the NFL promotes itself by comparing the game to war. Announcers' descriptions of play are sprinkled with metaphors referring to war and weaponry. In a recent NFL game, I counted 15 such metaphors in just one half of play: slightly more than one metaphor every 5 minutes. Players were referred to as "fighters" or "troops." Quarterbacks were "trigger happy" or "field generals" that "gunned" the ball. Defensive players launched a "sneak attack," "tomahawked" the ball loose, or took a clean or hard "shot" at an offensive player. More explicit references to war and violence were also surprisingly frequent. One announcer actually said, "the whole game's a war" and took liberties with a cliché in referring to "just another night at the very violent office." He also claimed that one player did not play well until "he tasted his own blood." In fact, death itself was invoked with few reservations. Players were referred to as "getting killed," and one narrator got excited about an ensuing on-side kick because he enjoyed seeing the players "kill each other."
In sum, NFL announcers' messages praise violence and use violent metaphors to market the sport to spectators. The technique seems to be successful. NFL football is the most watched sport in the United States. Violent plays and hard hits are cheered especially loudly by fans, and "kill 'em!" is a popular cry at football games. It is not clear whether the violent nature of the game and the violent discourse surrounding it explains its players' often violent and criminal tendencies off the field. However, the league's use of violent play and discourse to promote the game probably does little to mitigate this alarming trend.
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1. Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, (New York: Warner Books, 1998).
2. Most plays end with a tackle, but they can also end with the ball carrier going out of bounds, an incomplete pass, or a touchdown.
3. These announcers deemed White as such despite his openly prejudicial views about race and sexual preference.
Andy Baker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Houston. He recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Andy is currently conducting research on citizen responses to market reforms in Latin America and mass political behavior and communication in Brazil. His critique of the NFL notwithstanding, Andy is a diehard Chicago Bears fan.
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