There's Something Rotten About the Game of Football (first draft) I love football. I live for the anxious anticipation of every incoming play, for the adrenaline rush I feel when my Eagles enter the red zone. I am drawn to their season-long crusade and enthusiastically encourage them in each new battle. They light a fire inside me every time they play. Every Sunday a similar fire sweeps across our nation, capturing our national attention while commanding us to watch our gladiators on the grill. We can't get enough of our football, our indisputably American sport. The American Pigskin is unrivaled in the world; no other country has a system as established, historic and respected as our National Football League. Therefore, no other country grapples with questions of ethics and morality in the practice and consumption of its signature sport. Football is a beautiful and brutal game, and for every touchdown we cheer for, there are ten earth-shattering hits we scoff at. Our stadiums are built on the blood, sweat and tears of hundreds of athletes, who put on an extraordinary spectacle of violent force. With each snap of the ball, the facing linemen add another cut, bruise and pain to their growing collection. They walk off the field with cuts from the game, and leave the game burdened by the scars of their careers. Life after football is forever changed by the time spent in the sport and the mentality that allows injuries to occur. Our fascination with the brutality of football has allowed this culture of violence to spread to all levels of the NFL. The system is corrupted by tolerance for horrific injuries, yet we fans rarely consider the full consequences of our ferocity. Football is dangerous... middle of paper... the team's demand for victory, and he had suffered for it. Ultimately, however, injured athletes can always refuse to take the field for safety reasons. But they almost never do. Individualism takes a backseat to the good of the team, and players regularly deal with their pain for the good of their teammates. They are brothers in arms and will ignore their personal needs if they conflict with the group (Eitzen, 61). Together, coaches, doctors and players build an environment where injuries are normalized and ignored. At each level they do it for different reasons: players for their teammates, doctors for the coaches. Overall, they are playing to our desire for victory and glory on the football field. Just like everything else, our demand for entertainment plays into this culture of violence. Ethics have nothing to do with it.