I’ve long felt that football did not rocket-launch to the top of America’s consciousness because of an intellectual curiosity concerning strategy. Nor did it basically marginalize the popularity of the other “major” sports through gripping storytelling or by sating the public’s taste for contrived violence through high-speed collisions and brutal tests of strength.
No, at its base, football plays on our emotions.
We experience the highs and lows of winning and losing by deeply investing ourselves into particular teams or players. We take on the role of cheerleader, critic and social-media defender against those aligned with other teams who wish to talk disparagingly upon our own.