“The American male’s obsession with sports seems to suggest that the love affair is a natural expression of masculinity,” wrote researcher Douglas Hartmann for the American Sociological Association. Masculinity is being defined here with some sort  of dormant biological manifestation. The idea of the spectator sport, in this case, is of self evaluation. Performance on such a high level eliciting some evolutionary desire to better oneself. This begs the question, what happens when the game being observed is of a brutal nature? As researcher Nina Passero grimly elaborates, “...the positive regard toward aggression in organized sports... breeds a culture of violence. Boys are also taught to take risks and compete aggressively... establishing violence and aggression as requirements of masculinity.” It is shameful, because sport can be so beautiful  when allowed. Articulated movements trained for decades, brain and body becoming the most finely tuned instrument on the planet. Those moments of awe however are sparse, sprinkled in-between play after play of unwavering brutality. Violence being accepted is the byproduct of achieving ultimate athletic prowess, achieving greatness.

American football is the de facto point of debate for the country’s grisly appeal to violent sports, and has been since its conception. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt demanded football be modernized with less brutality, lest he’d be provoked to enact a presidential declaration banning the sport altogether. In 2024, the NFL reported 182 concussions, down 17% from the previous season. While this is forward progress, 182 is still, assuredly, not zero, and it doesn’t reflect the harrowing reality of many individual stories. On September 12th, 2024, Miami Dolphins Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion that forced him to be sidelined for 2 months before he was cleared to return. At 26 years old, that concussion marked his third playing professionally. Last year, The Boston University CTE Research Center’s discovery diagnosed 345/376 former NFL players with the same brain trauma prognosis as Tua. Leading neuroscientists believe CTE to be the decisive underlying culprit responsible for violent tendencies seen in active and retired NFL players, with countless stories of the like being frequent in our culture. Yet, more than a century after President Roosevelt’s decree, The NFL is the most popular sport in America, with recent data showing nearly 19 million concurrent viewers through week 5 of the current 2025 season alone.

Athlete culture in the United States is one of idolization, with some even proselytized as if ordained by God to change a franchise. For most athletes, the ability to achieve financial freedom and excel at their childhood dream is enough justification for the violent trial of their bodies as any. Conquest being at the foundation of competition is archaic in its resolve, and yet for many in our modern era, not only do they expect this, but they have become complacent by the notion. For the men who fantasized of hitting a game-winning shot but never had the prowess to go pro themselves, they will forever be subjugated to the rafters, fawning over the feats of other men’s grisly ambitions.

Ron Fairly, a Los Angeles Dodgers’ first-baseman and outfielder from 1958- 1969, was asked once for comment about his late former teammate and right-handed pitching tyrant Stan Williams. He recalled a story about a particular meetup with the Atlanta Braves. Fairly had walked into the club house after pre-game warm ups to witness Williams throwing pitches full speed at a pinned-up photo of Hank Aaron, notorious Braves legend and now Cooperstown Hall of Famer. When Fairly meagerly asked what he was doing, Williams hurled the last ball in his hands, and in between swallows of breaths calmly replied, “Practicing.”