Opinion: Our culture of football obsession is out of control
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Recently on a flight to Eugene, I had the displeasure of sharing a gate and flight with the wrestling team of another Oregon college.
I was minding my own business, trying to read a book in a field of cauliflower ears, but they were so loud it was impossible. They were behaving like animals: all over the floor, draped over other people’s seats, spilling drinks, eating the biggest burgers I’ve ever seen, manspreading (a phrase I don’t tend to use but there’s really no other way to describe it) and complaining about having “so much homework” when they had to write a concert review and finish a reading quiz.
I couldn’t have come up with better satire if I tried. One of them kept saying, “When I gotta eat, I gotta eat,” and the coach had his shoes off the entire time.
At the end of the flight, the pilot announced that the team had just won some championship or event, and almost everyone on the plane broke into a round of applause. I know “and then everyone clapped” is a common marker of a completely fabricated story, but I swear to you that it actually happened.
Coming off a bout of irritation at the Super Bowl, I was especially annoyed. Hearing Travis Kelce belt out “Viva Las Vegas” like a drunken frat boy at the long overdue end of a night didn’t exactly inspire feelings of goodwill. These are the people most deserving of our positive attention and highest salaries?
At UO, this obsession with athletes manifests in — you guessed it — football. From the moment I set foot on campus as a freshman, and even in the months before, I was inundated with football information. Everything from the players’ names, the bowl games they had been to and stats about their athletic ability went in one ear and out the other.
I’ve warmed up slightly to the idea of watching football games occasionally on TV, but I ruin it for myself when I think about how much money people spend on the whole thing. During his time playing for the Ducks, Bo Nix was one of the top earners in college football, and recently, the NFL salary cap was set at $255.4 million. We like to talk about “eating the rich” when they’re CEOs who spend too much time online, but what about athletes?
Our football team brings in a ton of money and the UO Athletics Department pays for itself. Looking at the athlete scooters and backpacks, it’s easy to get annoyed by the specialness of it all, but at least it doesn’t cost me anything. The athlete tutoring center, on the other hand, is not funded the same way. I’m not saying I need a special tutoring building for myself, but it would be nice if the favoritism wasn’t so blatant — or present at all, for that matter.
Because I’m making an effort not to be so doom and gloom all the time, even though it’s kind of my job, I looked into the exciting non-sports opportunities for students on campus. Did you know UO students are doing a million cool things? The UO chamber choir competes (and wins!) at the international level.
“It’s literally like if our football team competed in football Olympics,” club member Zoe Pouliot said. “And we win our competitions.”
Elsewhere on campus, student creativity is flourishing without the heavy promotion the football team receives. After asking around on social media, I heard from a variety of students about the clubs and activities that make them passionate.
The Pocket Playhouse is an entirely student-run theater organization that hosts several events every term, including live performances.
The UO Bioethics Society encourages conversations on the ethics around advancements in the field of biology. According to member Lauren Grover, the group recently discussed de-extinction, the process of bringing back extinct species.
Eugene’s Forbidden Fruit is a “Rocky Horror” shadow cast ensemble behind multiple performances per year and provides a place for queer students to bond and explore their identities in bold ways.
The Grove Garden, a community garden on campus, allows students to tend to a plot and grow their own food.
Musical ensembles, other than the marching band, are usually overlooked. UO’s mock trial team often travels to compete. Do entire planes regularly give them a round of applause?
I have nothing against individual athletes, but I’m frustrated by the campus- and country-wide, culture of sports worship. All of the above groups and their achievements are worthy of recognition and promotion but they still get brushed to the side. Why do sports seem to matter so much more than everything else? It’s time to reject our athletics obsession and pay attention to the rest of campus culture.