Man
Fuel: Is It In you?
Of Savage Imperialism, Pigskin Monopolists, and Intellectual Emasculation
By Jason Miller
16 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
"Two things only the people anxiously desire -- bread and circuses."
--Juvenal
Searching for masculine bliss
incarnate?
Look no further than NFL
football and its myriad machismo delights….
Fierce armor-clad gladiators
applying wicked hits, battering each other relentlessly, engaging in
bone-jarring collisions, and performing feats of near super-human athleticism….
Provocatively undressed cheerleaders
manifesting our culture’s ideal of feminine perfection…..
Rivers of ice cold beer gushing
forth to satiate our desire to numb the mind and lower inhibitions….
And lest we forget, the NFL
provides us with “Man Law” to shield us from our long repressed
anima, which is constantly poised to assail our grossly exaggerated
masculinity ….
For about six precious months
of the year, the National Football League delivers heavy doses of testosterone,
blood, adrenaline, and alcohol. Man fuel for its addicted minions. Through
the grace of our corporate gods, a host of media innovations (including
a network devoted to the NFL and painstakingly detailed year round analyses)
have significantly diminished the agony of off-season withdrawal.
What could better reflect
the collective psychosis of the American Empire than our mass obsession
with the NFL? Born through violent revolution, expanded by genocide,
enriched by slavery, and elevated to hegemony through imperialism, militarism,
and economic tyranny, the United States, like NFL football, embodies
avaricious savagery masked by a fastidiously maintained illusion of
benevolent civility.
Arising from the same fetid
bogs of spiritual decay that spawned the American Way, the NFL reeks
with the stench of corporate tyranny, patriarchy, racism, superficiality,
greed, competitiveness, and materialism.
Like the Roman Emperors,
our corporate overlords provide their loyal subjects, with panem et
circenses. While hundreds of thousands of human beings (including US
Americans) are dying to advance United States geopolitical interests
in Central Asia and the Middle East, many US Americans are more concerned
with Peyton Manning’s prowess under center, LaDainian Tomlinson’s
bushel basketfuls of touchdowns, or T.O.’s latest outrageous escapade.
In a 1992 speaking engagement
concerning his book, Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky observed:
Take, say, sports -- that's
another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For
one thing because it -- you know, it offers people something to pay
attention to that's of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them
from worrying about -- [applause] keeps them from worrying about things
that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something
about. And in fact it's striking to see the intelligence that's used
by ordinary people in [discussions of] sports [as opposed to political
and social issues]. I mean, you listen to radio stations where people
call in -- they have the most exotic information [more laughter] and
understanding about all kind of arcane issues. And the press undoubtedly
does a lot with this.
It is worth noting that in
a few weeks, about 125 million of the Empire’s citizens will settle
in for a day of hedonistic pleasure. Hallmark Cards calculated that
the Super Bowl surpasses New Year’s Eve as the biggest party day
of the year. US Americans consume more food on “Super Sunday”
than any day except Thanksgiving. Super Bowl celebrants will engorge
themselves with about 15,000 tons of chips and 4,000 tons of popcorn(1).
Meanwhile, 35,000 human beings will die of starvation(2) and our government
will continue pouring half of our tax dollars into the murder machine
they euphemistically refer to as the Department of “Defense”.
In exchange for diverting
the attention of the masses from our ruling elites’ horrendous
misdeeds, the obscenely opulent owners of NFL teams receive generous
helpings of *corporate welfare, an exemption from anti-trust laws, and
the freedom to extort the public.
It Taxes the Imagination
It may seem unbelievable,
but the Daniel Snyder’s of this world are entitled to tax benefits
for a portion of the salaries they pay to players. US tax laws actually
enable NFL owners to depreciate their employees, thus classifying football
players as business capital rather than human beings.
When an owner sells their
team, their profits are taxed as capital gains. Hence these bloated
plutocrats pay a lesser tax rate than we do on our wages or salaries.
And remember those exorbitant
skybox seats that average Joes can only afford in their dreams? Since
50% of the money businesses spend on NFL outings is tax deductible,
corporate elites luxuriate from “on high” for half price(3)
What Happened to Welfare
Reform?
In the late 20th Century,
the public spent $20 billion to subsidize the construction of new sports
stadiums. [Who knows how much higher that figure would be were we to
include the many interest free loans and tax free bonds lavished upon
professional sports team owners](4)?
Logically, one wonders what
the working people got in return for such “investments”.
Here is what the Cato Institute
concluded:
"The professional sports
environment in the 37 metropolitan areas in our sample had no measurable
impact on the growth rate of real per capita income in those areas.
"The professional sports environment has a statistically significant
impact on the level of real per capita income in our sample of metropolitan
areas, and the overall impact is negative.
"For example, the arrival of a new basketball franchise in a metropolitan
area increases real per capita income by about $67. But building a new
arena for that basketball team reduces real per capita income by almost
$73 in each of the 10 years following the construction of the new arena,
leading to a net loss of about $6 per person."
Want more evidence of the
fatuous groupthink plaguing the United States? Take note of Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen. He owns the Seattle Seahawks and is on the public
dole with the rest of the NFL “billionaires’ club”.
In 2000 Allen demanded that the state of Washington pony up 75% of the
$425 million “necessary” to build a new stadium for his
team. His net worth at that time? $40 billion. Despite his nearly unlimited
financial means, the state feared Allen’s threats to move the
Seahawks and met his demand(5).
Who Has Boardwalk and Park
Place?
Operating as a “legal”
monopoly enables NFL owners to manipulate their market and keep the
demand for professional football teams artificially higher than the
supply. Refusing to accommodate cities that desire (and are capable
of sustaining) pro football organizations allows the monopolists to
inflate the values of their teams. For example, from 1997 to 1998 the
average value of a professional sports team rose from $146 million to
$196 million.
The NFL cartel further empowers
these moneyed elites to successfully insist upon insane television revenues.
Who picks up the tab? The cost is ultimately recouped from the fans
in the form of increased cable TV rates and higher prices (to offset
retailers’ higher advertising costs during NFL games).
The Football Trust also endows
men like Paul Allen with the power to extort money from taxpayers(6).
According to economist and
author Andrew Zimbalist, the Justice Department could take action against
the NFL, but it is "susceptible to political pressure not to upset
sports."(7) What a shocking revelation!
Hey, Coaches, Leave Our Kids
Alone!
Lamentably, the NFL also
reflects the covert, and sometimes overt, racism which still pervades
our society. In a March 2006 interview with former NFL player Anthony
Prior (about Prior’s book, The Slave Side of Sunday) James Harris
noted that:
In the NFL, 65% of the player
force--as you know and well document in the text--are Black. Six percent
of the general managers are Black. No--as you noted--no owners in the
NFL are Black (8).
Later in the interview, Prior
commented:
This is what I call “mental
slavery.” Slavery is not limited to bondage and chains. You got
parents, preachers, teachers, coaches, fundamentally imposing these
characteristics on these young Black children in America, that without
sports, you’re going to amount to nothing. Every Black athlete
we see on a professional level, he is one in 12,000. There are two things
that can’t lie: That’s God and mathematics.
Prior’s quote underscores
what is perhaps the NFL’s greatest sin. Mirroring the deeply duplicitous
Horatio Alger portrayal of upward mobility in the US socioeconomic hierarchy,
the NFL, its loyalists, and a multitude of college and high school coaches
perpetuate pernicious myths. Myths that motivate our children, particularly
those who are Black and impoverished, to pursue pipe dreams, embrace
vacuous values, and severely skew their priorities.
Contrary to the fallacious
belief that football is a viable route to a free college education,
only 20% of college athletes receive full scholarships. At least 55%
play with zero financial assistance. A 1996 study determined that a
mere 45% of Black college football players attained their degrees.
Another study revealed that
66% of Black teenagers believe that they will become professional athletes.
33% of White teenagers share the same misconception.
Here are some sobering statistics
which reveal the virtual impossibility of their dream:
The US population is 300
million. In 2000 the US Census indicated there were 10 million males
of typical NFL draft age. Each individual’s odds of experiencing
life as an NFL player drop precipitously when one considers that there
are only 15,000 football players eligible for the draft each spring.
Of those 15,000, 160 young men secure NFL roster spots. 160 out of 10
million!
While it is understandable
that many Black teens facing significant structural barriers to escaping
a life of poverty aspire to be the next Michael Vick, Harry Edwards,
a Black sports sociologist, put their false hopes and vain efforts into
perspective:
“Statistically, you
have a better chance of getting hit by a meteorite in the next ten years
than getting work as an athlete.”(9)
Infantile Self-Absorption
Imagine what our youth (and
the rest of us) could accomplish if we focused more of our time, energy,
resources, and efforts on attainable goals and socially redeeming activities.
Right here in the United
States over a million people are homeless at any given moment. Tens
of millions lack proper nutrition and access to health care. Our infant
mortality rate is the highest amongst industrialized nations. Untold
numbers caught in Katrina’s Diaspora are still scattered to the
four corners of the Earth. One in seven US Americans live below poverty
level.
And if enough of us amongst
the poor and working class united, it would be within our collective
power to alleviate the suffering of those in need.
Yet we choose to subsidize
billionaires like Paul Allen and to immerse ourselves in NFL football,
the product of an entity that embodies nearly all the reprehensible
traits of predatory American Capitalism.
Our unitary executive has
run roughshod over our Constitution, caused the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of innocents, and blatantly violated the Nuremberg Principles.
In his recent television address, the Decider informed us that he will
defy the will of the American people by sacrificing more of our own
and escalating the genocide against the Iraqi people.
And it would not be beyond
our capacity to end these horrendous crimes against humanity. Without
the complicity of the masses, Bush, Cheney, et al would be rendered
impotent.
Yet we choose to remain transfixed
by the alluring seductions of the NFL and its corporate partners.
Regrettably, it appears that
many of us in the United States suffer from the delusion that the rest
of the world exists to provide for our comfort, pleasure, and prosperity.
Pity we’re too busy
“living NFL and drinking Diet Pepsi” to notice the staggering
numbers of emaciated, mutilated, and obliterated human beings we are
leaving in our wake as we “protect our way of life”….
End Notes:
*Author’s Note: Tragically
ironic, isn’t it, that a nation obsessed with cutting “entitlement
programs” to uplift the poor is so eager to dole out freebies
to those wallowing in excess wealth?
(1) http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/
19089/super_bowl_sunday_partying_eating_and.html?page=2
(2) http://www.starvation.net/
(3) http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0300eitzen.html
(4) http://www.theinternetparty.org/commentary/
c_s.php?td=20020507111553§ion_type=com
(5) http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0300eitzen.html
(6) http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0300eitzen.html
(7) http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/1998/january7/stadiums.html
(8)
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/
20060309_anthony_prior_nfl_racism/
(9) http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/mar99eitzen.htm
Jason Miller
is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually
and spiritually. His essays have appeared widely on the Internet, he
volunteers at homeless shelters, and he is recovering from his addiction
to the NFL. He welcomes constructive correspondence at [email protected]
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/
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