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American Football

Today, we tackle football. It’s the most popular sport in the US, shining a sometimes harsh light on so much of what we have been, what we are, and what we hope to be. Savage, creative, brutal and balletic, whether you love it or loathe it … it’s a touchstone of the American identity. Along with conflicted parents and players and coaches who aren’t sure if the game will survive, we take a deep dive into the surprising history of how the game came to be. At the end of the 19th century, football is a nascent and nasty sport. The sons of the most powerful men in the country are literally knocking themselves out to win these gladiatorial battles. But then the Carlisle Indian School, formed in 1879 to assimilate the children and grandchildren of the Native American men who fought the final Plains Wars, fields the most American team of all. The kids at Carlisle took the field to face off against a new world that was destroying theirs, and along the way, they changed the fundamentals of football forever.  Correction: An earlier version of this episode included a few errors that we have corrected. We've also added one new piece of information.  The piece originally stated that British football had no referees.  While this was true in the earliest days of British football, they were eventually added. We stated that referees were added to American football in response to Pop Warner. American referees existed prior to Pop Warner, in order to address brutality as well as the kind of rule-bending that Pop Warner specialized in. Chuck Klosterman said that the three most popular sports in the US are football, college football and major league baseball. In fact, baseball actually ranks 2nd, college football is third. Monet Edwards stated that 33 members of her family were players in the NFL. That number is actually 13.  We also added one new fact: over 200 students at The Carlisle Indian School died of malnutrition, poor health or distress from homesickness.  The audio has been adjusted to reflect these corrections.
Duration
1h 17m
Broadcast on
29 Jan 2015
Audio Format
other

Today, we tackle football. It’s the most popular sport in the US, shining a sometimes harsh light on so much of what we have been, what we are, and what we hope to be. Savage, creative, brutal and balletic, whether you love it or loathe it … it’s a touchstone of the American identity.

Along with conflicted parents and players and coaches who aren’t sure if the game will survive, we take a deep dive into the surprising history of how the game came to be. At the end of the 19th century, football is a nascent and nasty sport. The sons of the most powerful men in the country are literally knocking themselves out to win these gladiatorial battles. But then the Carlisle Indian School, formed in 1879 to assimilate the children and grandchildren of the Native American men who fought the final Plains Wars, fields the most American team of all. The kids at Carlisle took the field to face off against a new world that was destroying theirs, and along the way, they changed the fundamentals of football forever. 

Correction: An earlier version of this episode included a few errors that we have corrected. We've also added one new piece of information. 

The piece originally stated that British football had no referees.  While this was true in the earliest days of British football, they were eventually added. We stated that referees were added to American football in response to Pop Warner. American referees existed prior to Pop Warner, in order to address brutality as well as the kind of rule-bending that Pop Warner specialized in.

Chuck Klosterman said that the three most popular sports in the US are football, college football and major league baseball. In fact, baseball actually ranks 2nd, college football is third.

Monet Edwards stated that 33 members of her family were players in the NFL. That number is actually 13. 

We also added one new fact: over 200 students at The Carlisle Indian School died of malnutrition, poor health or distress from homesickness. 
The audio has been adjusted to reflect these corrections.


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So wait, wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC and NPR. Alright, should we get to, yeah, hold on man, I'm gonna put my door on now. Hey, I'm Jack, I'm Rod, I'm Robert Krollich, and today just for geeks, we're gonna start to get to work out in a park. So let me set the scene, a couple days ago, we gathered a bunch of Radio Lab listeners in McCarron Park in Brooklyn. You guys are amazing for coming out today, thank you so much. This is a random set of listeners, whoever showed up, whoever showed up as a result of a few tweets and Facebook postings, got about 70 people. It was a super cold day, this park was covered in snow, and we had brought everybody there to help us make some noises that we would use in this segment, like, gasping or chanting or it was amazing, you'll hear them throughout the hour. But when people got there, we hadn't actually explained to them why we wanted them to make these noises. So just to start things off, I just asked them a couple questions, okay, so questions of the moment. Others ask, "How many of you guys like football?" "How many of you guys hate football?" "This is not a shocking revelation." "No, I'm kind of expecting." "How many of you guys think that football will disappear in the next 10 years?" With these anti-football sentiments, I believe they say more about you and I and our fans than the game. Although, in fairness, I mean, there are a lot of people who, I wouldn't even consider myself a "I watch this for the ads." Okay, whether you watch for the ads like you or whether you love the game like I happen to you, or loathe it like some others, football right now. Huge! It isn't American, past high ratings for the rules, 97 and a half million views. Sunday's game was the most watched event in American television history. Super Bowl Sunday has become a national holiday. It's massive. It's massively popular. That's not the same as... Well, I think you think it's massively interesting, also. Here's a way to think about it. Sally Jenkins, author of the book The Real All Americans, she puts it this way, "Imagine a thousand years from now, maybe ten thousand, maybe a hundred thousand years from now, we're all gone, all our history has been forgotten, all the silly, trifling games we play than lost to time. Imagine the future human beings looking back on us." Let's say, you know, some archeologist goes around digging, they're going to find these really, really huge stadiums. That's what they're going to find, okay? Yeah. And they're going to understand, just like we understand about the Greeks, what was really important to us. Okay, so here's the thing, radio lab listeners, we're going to do an entire hour on the game of football. In part, because it just seems to me that there are a lot of questions in the air about football

Transcription truncated.

Today, we tackle football. It’s the most popular sport in the US, shining a sometimes harsh light on so much of what we have been, what we are, and what we hope to be. Savage, creative, brutal and balletic, whether you love it or loathe it … it’s a touchstone of the American identity. Along with conflicted parents and players and coaches who aren’t sure if the game will survive, we take a deep dive into the surprising history of how the game came to be. At the end of the 19th century, football is a nascent and nasty sport. The sons of the most powerful men in the country are literally knocking themselves out to win these gladiatorial battles. But then the Carlisle Indian School, formed in 1879 to assimilate the children and grandchildren of the Native American men who fought the final Plains Wars, fields the most American team of all. The kids at Carlisle took the field to face off against a new world that was destroying theirs, and along the way, they changed the fundamentals of football forever.  Correction: An earlier version of this episode included a few errors that we have corrected. We've also added one new piece of information.  The piece originally stated that British football had no referees.  While this was true in the earliest days of British football, they were eventually added. We stated that referees were added to American football in response to Pop Warner. American referees existed prior to Pop Warner, in order to address brutality as well as the kind of rule-bending that Pop Warner specialized in. Chuck Klosterman said that the three most popular sports in the US are football, college football and major league baseball. In fact, baseball actually ranks 2nd, college football is third. Monet Edwards stated that 33 members of her family were players in the NFL. That number is actually 13.  We also added one new fact: over 200 students at The Carlisle Indian School died of malnutrition, poor health or distress from homesickness.  The audio has been adjusted to reflect these corrections.