Rams third and 4 on the Titans 34 yard line. Warner takes the snap, drops back, sees Marshall Faulk run up the gut and avoiding coverage. Warner passes to Faulk, just as Blaine Bishop comes across the middle and levels Faulk as the defenseless halfback first touches the ball. As Faulk falls to the ground, Bishop stands to greet the roaring crowd, beating on his chest like a warrior. Faulk proceeds to the sideline to lick his wounds as the punt team comes onto the field, and the defense prepares to destroy the punter as their hunger for blood is insatiable.

Why is this so popular? Football at all levels is better than ever. We even pay up to fifty bucks a fight to watch the WBC title fight every six months or so. Heck, even USC has a rugby team. Men love violence. Weather consciously or unconsciously, we actually all thrive on some sort of violence occasionally. If you drive by a bad wreck, you hope that everything is ok, but secretly you wonder if there is a corpse or any lost limbs. I even have sat on the couch following the tragic events taking place in the Washing

One theory is that if you work forty-plus hours a week, that watching a sport such as football all weekend long is something of a release. Football is a way to vicariously experience physical empowerment. Boxing, for example, is even more so. You find yourself shouting “punch him! Kill him! Knock him on his ass!” and secretly it’s what you want to do to your boss, your in-laws, or your bastard neighbor. These arenas encourage and allow these activities to take place, and its perfectly legal. But if you flatten a stranger in the Wal-Mart parking lot, you are probably getting sued. If your boss tackles you when you are trying to leave his office, you will probably charge him with assault. Because the office is a particularly subdued environment where emotions are rarely expressed, tensions run high and pressure needs to be released elsewhere. However, the football field does not provide a psychological solution to your physical tensions. Come 9 a.m. Monday morning you are back at the office where your boss is in control. At five p.m. on Friday he was a manipulative bastard, and guess what, it will be the same on Monday when you return, especially if his Clemson Tigers lost.

Another argument as to why we are so enthralled by this violence has to do with our society as a whole. Men in the U.S. are brought up with the expectation of becoming powerful and aggressive. Men like to feel in control. And lets face it, how more can you feel in control than by hitting another man and tackling him?

Some topics in this essay:
Europe Europeans, Clemson Tigers, Kill Knock, Washington DC, Blaine Bishop, Heck USC, Massachusetts Rams, , Marshall Faulk, Football American, violence weather, feel control, onto field,