By Paul M. Banks
This sport of warrior-poets has produced many prominent politicians: Steve Largent, J.C. Watts, Jack Kemp, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Lynn Swann. All played college or professional football and are Republicans (traditionally the more war hawkish party)
Only one ex-football player Democrat, Heath Shuler (whose social values make him a DINO- Democrat in name only) is currently a player in the big political game.
In part one, I broke down the roots of this trend; here I’ll elaborate on the evidence of the football=war hypothesis. Archie Manning was a famous NFL quarterback. You may have heard of his sons, Peyton and Eli. Archie is currently head of the National Football Foundation and was the lead speaker at the College Football Hall of Fame’s Annual Awards Press Conference. I attended and noticed this sound-bite, “the game has been played by 6 presidents, 7 U.S. Generals, 7 Admirals and 32 corporate CEOS.â€
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
In Texas (the deepest shade of red that a red-state can be) high school football takes on a dysfunctional level of importance rivaling the passion at colleges like LSU or Alabama or professional fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers or Dallas Cowboys. Texans also like to put their state outline into everything they can. The people of no other state place the geographic shape of their borders into as many “Texan brands†as possible. Texas markets its name and “logo†exponentially more; rivaling the disparity with which America brands itself when compared to other nations. Country music, the theme music of Texas (and red states in general), is a genre that rivals hip-hop in its glorification of violence. The main difference is that country music lionizes military aggression while rap music celebrates urban street gunplay. And don’t get me started on the gun laws and firearms culture in Texas when compared to the rest of the country. So it’s safe to say that violence is more glorified in the Lone Star State than anywhere else. But the uniquely American and especially Texan repetition of self-promotion is even more crucial to understanding the underlying ethos and zeitgeist of football.
Stagg Party
My high school was named after one of football’s most re-known innovators, Amos Alonzo Stagg. And as we trained for football battles Jumping Jacks were renamed “Charger jacks,†competitions were “Charger Challenge,†good little soldiers won “Charger Pride awards†and I never had to do as many Charger rolls or extra lap running as the day that I was punished for noticing and mocking this trend. Shameless self-promotion mirrored Texas using the shape of its state incessantly and America incorporating the flag as much as possible. (Seriously, other nations don’t go as nuts over their flag as we do, nor do they prefix so much stuff with the name of their country.)
Football coaches and players ubiquitously repeat the word football as much as possible in interviews. (ex. “That football team can run the football and pass the football effectively. They have a good offensive football team, but we have a good football team too. It’s going to be a good football game.â€) No other sport does this. I realized this in college when I was working as the football beat writer for the school paper and I would later lampoon my school’s head coach, Ron Turner at parties.
It is well known part of the Republicans’ success comes from their discipline, organization and ability to stay on message. They effectively use repetition in reiterating their values and messages; creating the echo chamber that resonates throughout the talk radio, TV talking heads and conservative columnists. The base is mobilized by hearing the same phrases over and over again. Why do you think they kept bringing up David Ayers? Lakoff states on page 50 of his book “Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: the Essential Guide for Progressives.â€
“It has long been right wing strategy to repeat over and over phrases that evoke their frames and define issues their way. Such repetition makes their language normal, everyday language and their frame normal, everyday ways to think about issues.†The militaristic nature of football language normalizes war, especially to the supporters of the more hawkish party.
The Architect
Of course, I had to mention the lead propagandist of this generation’s conservatives, who also found his inspiration from the gridiron. When “Frontline†did a piece on the Machiavellian Karl Rove, it showcased how Genius Boy developed his slow and steady political philosophy as a reflection of its ultraconservative football counterpart, the “3 yards and a cloud of dust†school of thought, a philosophy created by legendary Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes, (an uber-conservative who worshipped General Patton). UMass journalism professor and former close friend of Karl Rove, Robert Israel said in the documentary Bush’s Brain, “Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi said that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. That in my view is how Karl operates.â€
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Parts of this were excerpted from a term paper I did in MBA school. It was on jingoism and for a Political Marketing class.
“crank that crank that Soulja boy”
Karl’s strategy failed in 2006.