I touched on this theme in a previous post about the Super Bowl and thought it should be expanded. Here we go.
The rules of American football could easily have been taken from war. And I mean ancient battles, civil war troop formations If you were to put muskets in the hands of opposing linemen it is easy to picture this game as combat between armies. Two sides facing each other in an archaic battle formation, squaring off and beating one another into submission. Every now and then cannons explode and ‘long bombs’ are unleashed. Wide receivers snag the ‘artillery shells’ down-field. Picture a cannon ball or 155mm shell finding its target. Even the terminology has its roots in the military. ‘Offensive line vs defensive line. ‘Targets’. ‘Blitzes’. Generals/coaches and various support personnel in video booths watch the play and communicate changes in strategy to the soldiers on the field. It’s called a field of play vs a battlefield in the military context. Occasionally the action is so intense and brutal that stretcher bearers are called out to cart away the injured. Medical assistance is offered right on the field in cases of serious injury, just like a medic does his life saving work while bombs explode around him. American football is a brutal game, very male and macho. Like old school war.
By comparison, the European game of futbol/soccer is a more elegant contest. There is continuous movement. Tactics and strategies playing out in real time. There is occasional stop/start where a serious infraction happens, but that is not the norm. The clock keeps ticking. The military analogy holds, but in a modern context. Think drone warfare. There is buzzing movement and continuous action. Killer drones/strikers have a sole function, to destroy the enemy/score goals. The midfielders probe the enemy’s defenses just like reconnaissance drones. They buzz around the field looking for openings and approaches. Similarly to how a drone searches out opportunities and then communicates this information to kamikaze drones, so the midfielders dictate the pace and direction of play and looks to pass the ball to the finishing strikers/kamikaze drones. And like the American game, there are also defenders to guard against enemy capture of the ‘net’. The striking difference is the goalie or gatekeeper. That brings the soccer game back to a medieval time where forts are guarded by walls and the only entry is thru a gate.
I suppose all sports can be painted in similar fashion as having military roots. The comparison is most striking in American football and world soccer. So play or fight on ladies and gentlemen. Let the war games begin!
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