Yesterday in class we had a long discussion about football and its fate due to all the injury issues of the recent past. This discussion reminded me of Cullen Murphy's book, Are
We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, which compares modern day America to the Roman Empire. I think this comparison can be extended to football and the gladiator games.
Both are very centered around violence, which is obvious in football considering there used to be a show that's sole purpose was to show the most excruciating hits of the week. Also, both of the images shown here seem to me to have a similar sense of tension. No violence is occurring in the moment in either one, but in both the viewer can tell that it is eminent.
So then what happens to football? Well gladiator battles began their decline while Christianity was becoming popular in the Empire, and the battles were outlawed shortly after Christianity was made the official Roman religion. The adoption of Christianity brought with it a new set of morals that abhorred gladiator fights, leading to their slow demise. Likewise, I think the only thing that could make Americans let go of football is a significant change in morals. With our current way of thinking America's favorite sport is staying for a long time.
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