Text Wrestling: Summary and Response

In “Offensive Play” written by Malcolm Gladwell, the idea of “How different are dogfighting and football?” is presented. Throughtout the article Gladwell bounces back and fourth on topics including football, dogfighting, and science. The focus of football is that of a offensive lineman, which includes a story from a retired N.F.L. player by the name of Kyle Turley. The part about dogfighting depicts Michael Vick, the animal rights posterboy, and provides an in-depth view of not only the dogs during a fight, but the thoughts and actions of the owners. And last but certainly not least is the science aspect where neuropathologist Ann McKee along with former college football player and professional wrestler Chris Nowinski team up to give us key examples of former N.F.L. players suffering from dementia.

As the story starts we are introduced to Kyle Turley, an ex-football player who served nine years in the National Football League playing as a offensive lineman under multiple teams. After passing out at a Nashville bar one night with his wife, Turley goes on to tell us about multiple times he has been invloved in big hits on the football field. Occasionally going cross-eyed, getting blurry vision, and in one case being knocked unconscious. Scary part was when he had passed out at the bar in Nashville, he compares it to the exact same feeling of being knocked unconscious during a football game!

Michael Vick is then introduced for pleading guilty to his involvement in dogfighting and an extremely graffic description of a dogfight takes place thanks to “The Social Milieu of Dogmen and Dofights” and article written by sociologists Rhonda Evans and Craig Forsyth. Two dogs are placed in a pit and subject to fight one another, often to the death. “In a dogfight, as soon as one of the dogs ‘turns’-makes a submissive gesture with its head- the two animals are seperated and taken back to their corners.” Only to be released again to finish the job, which in this case continues for over an hour. After the fight, the loser has two broken legs and blood gushing from her throat. This is when possibly the most humane action of the night takes place. The loser is killed with a couple gunshots, wrapped and carried to the owners vehicle. Why do people get involved in this line of work? “For the entertainment of an audience and the chance of a payday.” Sounds like you could use that very same quote to explain why football players play football.

The article once again switches gears into the medical side of this argument, and Ann McKee is introduced. McKee is a scientist specializing in the field of neuropathology, which is basically the study of disease in nervous system tissue. McKee begins studying patients with Alzheimer’s disease, finding out that there are typically two trademarks of the disease. But after taking a close look at a seventy-two-year-old mans brain, she then realized this man had a different condition. A condition called chronic traumatic encephalotpathy (C.T.E.), and this condition is the result of injury. McKee then joins with Nowinski to further investigate the link between dementia and football. Nowinski tells Mckee that he will help her find more brains of ex-athletes to strengthen her research. In one case a linebacker who played for sixteen years showed damage done equivilent to using his head as a battering ram, another where a teenager showed to have more damage done than a fifty-year-old.The story then bounces back-and-forth like a game of ping pong tying in facts from concussions, stories of dogfights, and revealing issues of what it’s like to be a professional football player along with issues facing retired football players. All three parties clearly love what they do; scientists on trying to understand brain disease and inform players of future risks, possibly even prevent suicide in some cases. Dogfighters as they place bets, entertaining an audience and making money, pitting their animal against another in the most primitive form of competition. Then football players giving everything they have day in-and-out, seeking the love and respect of millions of people and at the same time making millions of dollars. No matter how hard you try to prevent football from being non-violent; “There is nothing else to be done, not so long as fans stand and cheer. We are in love with football players, with their courage and grit, and nothing else-neither considerations of science nor those of morality-can compete with the destructive power of that love.” The same can be said of dogfighting , so to give a general answer to Gladwells opening question: Dogfighting and Football are different in many ways, but this article proves that they are similar in many more.

Response:

Before reading this article, my brain has never connected the sports of dogfighting and football together... then again I also played defensive lineman in High School. I only played two years due to an injury, and no it wasnt a head injury. I don't recall ever getting a concussion, but I definatly rememeber getting dazed after some plays also really bad headaches. Like Turley said in this article "its impossible for an offensive lineman to do his job without 'using his head'." In the sport of football it is essential to put your body on the line for the sake of a play, regardless of the repercussions. Much like the art of dogfighting, which made this quote really stand out in my head: "At any organized pit (dog) fight...one can observe the owner of each dog changing position at pit-side in order to be in sight of his dog at all times. The owner knows that seeing his master rooting him on will make a dog work all the harder to please its master." For some reason the thought of a coach running down the sideline as a running back breaks through a crowd and rushes for a fifty-yard touchdown to win the game. The owner (coach) changing position to be in sight of the dog (player). This brought chills down my spine. I know this reference isn't exact, but it made me think of things. Like how a man can be left in a tub of ice, with a concussion, only to fall asleep and die if someone hadn't been sitting in the tub next to him. It suggests that the coaches treat their players like dogs in a dogfight "And why? For the entertainment of an audience and a chance of a payday."

Dont get me wrong, I love football. It's arguably one of the greatest sports in the world, but reading this article opened my eyes to another perspective of the game. The perspective of Kyle Turley, a retired offensive lineman from the National Football League. A man who has recieved numerous concussions over a 9-year professional career. A man who has a great chance of developing Alzheimer's. A man who put on a show week in and week out for nine years, got paid alot of money, but now that he has retired faces problems unimaginable. Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner, met with Micheal Vick on regards to Vick's dogfighting sentence of twenty-three months in prison to make sure he was genuinely remorseful. Goodell sat with Vick for four and a half hours, considering every alternative he could imagine, and after considering what was right for Vick, along with our society and N.F.L., finally reinstated him. Now "One wonders whether, had he spent as much time talking to Kyle Turley as he did to Michael Vick, he'd start to have similar doubts about his own sport." That is a great question, but lets think about it: Roger Goodell is the Commissioner of the N.F.L. "the commissioner is the highest executive position. The exact powers of the commissioner depend on the constitution and/or rules of the league. Commissioners are elected by the owners of the league's clubs, and handle matters such as discipline, arbitration of disputes between the clubs, etc."(site-wikipedia). Now Goodell has voluntarily taken a 20-25% paycut of his 11 million dollar salary of 2008. 11 million dollars. Do you honestly beleive a man making 11 million dollars on a sport that delievers fans with bone-crushing hits on a day-to-day basis is going to turn the N.F.L. into a flag or touch football game? I highly doubt it. Why? Becuase the fans wouldn't pay $100 to see a non-contact football game. Fans would be upset, arena's wouldn't get filled, and owner's would be enraged.

So what can we do? There has been new helmets made, to help prevent a big impact, but no amount of padding can stop 100 g's of force from rattling your brain. Eliminating full contact practices could help, but even in those practices, there has been evidence of big hits to the head. Basically "There is nothing else to be done, not so long as fans stand and cheer. We are in love with football players, with thier courage and grit, and nothing else- neither considerations of science nor those of morality- can compete with the destructive power of that love." I couldn't have said it better myself.