The comedian George Carlin has a classic routine in which he compares
the gentle, pastoral game of baseball with football, which he describes
in martial terms. .In football, the object is for the quarterback, also
known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault,
riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in
spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun,. Carlin tells his
audience. .With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his
troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a
sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the
enemy.s defensive line..

Such violent imagery would understandably make some readers wonder about
the curious symbiosis editor Michael Austin and a host of academician
writers put forth in Football and Philosophy: Going Deep. Despite the
variety of subject matter, the writers agree that football.whether on
the high school, college, or professional level (the pressures of youth
sports has its own set of considerations which are not addressed in this
volume).is a violent game, which is a great hook to draw in readers
dubious about the connection.

The seventeen essays cover the gridiron gamut, from the idea of .trash
talk. as a form of cheating to the use of performance enhancing drugs;
from the mindset of winning as the sole acceptable outcome of the game
to the role of friendship and sportsmanship; and from the superstars.
super-egos to the utilitarianism of salary caps.

Football and Philosophy is divided in four .quarters.. .Football.s
Lessons for the Game of Life,. .Playing Well Between the Lines,.
.Philosophical Armchair Quarterbacking,. and .Metaphysical Mojo..each of
which is ostensibly designed to zero in on a specific aspect of the game.
Several of the essays, however, seem to be interchangeable among
the chapters.

Among the highlights:

Daniel Gallagher wonders if Aristotle.s philosophy of friendship plays
into the game on the field. Theoretically, yes; but in reality, only in
circumstances that don.t impact negatively on an individual (think of
two friends competing for the same spot on the roster, or who find
themselves on opposite sides of the line of scrimmage).

.The True Nature of Cheating. engages the reader with its use of semantics
as it poses various scenarios. Certain behavior might run contrary to the
rules, Marshall Swain and Myles Brand aver, but .not all rule breaking is
cheating.. On the other hand, a strict adherence to the rules, while
faithfully following the letter of the law, is not always .ethical..

In .They Don.t Pay Me to Be Humble. M. Andrew Holowchak observes the
counterintuitiveness of individual stars with the concept of team play.
The elite athlete might accrue spectacular statistics and undoubtedly his
rushing yards or touchdown passes contribute to the overall success of his
mates, but if it comes with an overly-inflated ego, as was the case with
.Neon. Deion Sanders and Keyshawn Johnson, the locker room can become an
uncomfortable place. .Like leeches on flesh, ego-puffed players feed off
the numerical analysis to the extent that they care more for their own
numbers than for their team or sport,. he writes. There may not be an .I.
in .team,. but there certainly is an .E. in .ego..

Returning to the military metaphor, purple-prose producing sportswriters
often compare football players with the gladiators of ancient Rome. In one
of the more entertaining essays, Heather L. Reid examines the similarities
between these .combatants,. as well as their relationships with the people
in the stands.

A few essays, such as Austin.s .Crowning a True Champion: The Case for a
College Football Playoff,. seem to have little to do with the book.s overall
theme. Similarly, Stephen Kershnar.s .A True MVP. (most valuable player),
focuses on a topic of frequent debate, but can it really be considered a
philosophical question? Such pieces, while interesting and entertaining, seem
out of place. Another issue: these essays mirror what conditions could be like
in an ideal world, a place rarely visited in the world of professional (and
even high-level college) sports.

Anthologies such as Football and Philosophy are, by nature, frequently uneven.
Having said that, each essay here is thought-provoking for reasons that might
have little to do with philosophy per se, but are nevertheless worthy in their
own right.


http://www.amazon.com/Football-Philosophy-Going-Popular-Culture/dp/0813124956

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