Super Bowl. Weight Watching. Violence against Women and Men. Human Trafficking.

Severely Injured NFL Player Being Rushed To Hospital.

by Sean O'Torain

When I was young I played rugby. I was mad about the game. I did not know then that one of the reasons was that it allowed me to release my anger at the world in which I lived and do so in a regulated and legal fashion which did not get me arrested. Nor did I know then that the many concussions I suffered would severely affect me in later life. One English pastor once called cricket "organized loafing." Well Rugby is "organized violence."

It is the same with American football. It is "organized violence." There are many negative affects that come with this activity. One of them is not lack of profits for the owners of the teams. They get the local tax payers to build their stadiums and make a fortune.  They also get young men who cannot get another way to make a lot of money to beat each other up and damage their brains and bodies for life. American football, like all professional sports is a racket where the owners of the teams and the bureaucrats and the advertisers make a fortune. All sports should be amateur. There should be no professional sport. But this is not what I am going to talk about today.

The day of the Super Bowl has more domestic violence cases reported compared to any other day of the year. The violence does not stop at the stadium. It extends into the home. More than enough said about the atmosphere created by this so-called sport. Super Bowl day also has the highest incidence of sex trafficking of any weekend of the year. The crowds of mainly men who travel to see this violence want sex and pay for this. More than enough said about this so-called sport. American football is a vicious sport which helps create a violent atmosphere in society, helps create an atmosphere of support for US wars and occupations abroad and helps create the anti women ideology of US capitalism.

I got an example of how pervasive this is recently. I am in my old age and I am about 35 pounds over weight. So I decided it was now or never, I had better lose some weight and try and add a few more years to my life. I went to my local club which claims to help you lose weight. It meets weekly and at every meeting tries to suggest foods to eat, life styles to adopt etc. It has some good ideas. I was there last year in the run up to Super Bowl day and they were suggesting foods you could eat at the super bowl parties and not gain weight. I raised what to me seemed the very reasonable idea that as Super Bowl day had the highest domestic violence of any day of the year and the highest sex trafficking rather than watch our diets we should not celebrate Super Bowl day. As I say I thought it was a reasonable suggestion.

But the organizers of the class did not see it this way. They got extremely irate. it was like I had thrown a grenade into the room. And in a way I had. Only it was a political grenade. It raised the whole question of US sport and US capitalism. The organizers suddenly switched from being the most diplomatic and friendly to being angry and aggressive. They had obviously been prepared to keep "politics", that is the seamy side of real life out of their class. I was told most severely that was not the place to discuss domestic violence or sex trafficking. Every other member of the class sat silent. All but one were women. After severely telling the class organizers off I resigned from that class. Everything is political, even the class to try and lose weight. You can change your diet but do not interfere with the big money economics and politics of Super Bowl day and American football.

All sport should be amateur. American foot ball damages the brains and bodies of the players. It helps create an atmosphere of violence and sexism in society. It helps create an atmosphere of the need for the US to go and "kick a.." all over the world. It helps the bank accounts of the owners of the clubs and few players who make it through unscathed. Do not celebrate Super Bowl. All sports should be amateur.