The adage says “football is religion in the South.”
I’m nowhere near naive or blasphemous enough to liken athletes to deities or even demigods, but there is some truth in the statement as to how it is received by the community.
For half the year, a large amount of people congregate in the same place on almost the same day every week to chant and cheer—and yes sometimes pray—for victory for whichever team has their allegiance.
Those opposed to the amount of money poured into collegiate and professional football point out that those finances could be applied elsewhere such as roads, schools, etc.
Why follow people from high school to college to their careers when they do nothing more academic than take classes required to play a sport while the majority of intellectuals go unnoticed by mainstream America?
It’s because football is something to believe in.
Whether your team is a perennial championship contender or trying to become one, the act of rooting for your team is unifying.
You may not know the 80,000 strangers sitting around you wearing the same colors and singing the same songs, but the fact that you share these things and a common loyalty is gratifying patriotism on a smaller scale.
For that day, your social circle expands exponentially and a simple “War Eagle!” will earn a similar reply, high five or even a beer.
Besides being a unifying force, football’s presence in the media makes it accessible to the masses because the results are viewable and tangible.
As valuable as the valedictorians and scholars of our generation are, it’s much more difficult to track the progress of an individual’s mind than the body.
There aren’t channels showcasing the country’s greatest engineers or doctors and there aren’t stat sheets for the number of structures built or the number of lives saved.
I’m not saying athletes are more important than degreed professions. I’m just explaining why it is popular, and that’s because football, above all else, is entertainment.
Whether it’s Batman versus Bane or Auburn versus Alabama, the act of having somebody to champion and fight for the name stuck on your bumper, embroidered on your shirt or tattooed in a place your mother would frown upon is inspiring.
For Southerners, football is just another excuse to do what we already do best.
As for the questions regarding the financial side of football, the proceeds from tickets, jerseys, food, hotel rooms and everything that goes into a game day weekend all go back into the community, and it’s no secret Auburn generates the majority of its capital from football season.
There is a reason the majority of schools in the South are hesitant to dissolve their football programs.
In New Orleans in 2005, the Saints franchise was forced to use San Antonio as its “home field” while the city was rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
The following year, the team returned to the Superdome, and its subsequent success brought together a shattered community in a way I had never seen before.
Simply put, people need something in which to emotionally invest.
It’s not religion, but for something that inspires that amount of unfailing loyalty, dedication and common interest, why not believe in it?
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