Football is a athletics that is profoundly rooted in American civilization. Whether playing football professionally. or in a non-professional context. the primary aim is simple. to win and to hold fun while making it. During the National Football League’s season during the autumn and winter month’s 1000000s of work forces. adult females and kids gather around on Sunday to watch their favourite squad drama on telecasting or live at bowl packed events that are filled with people passionate about football. Live football games are perfect societal state of affairss to analyse from a micro and macro sociological position.
Last twelvemonth. I went to a unrecorded football game in Arlington. Virginia to watch the Washington Redskins drama against the Philadelphia Eagles. That twenty-four hours. I was at that place with two other friends Nelson and Luis. Both of them are Redskins fans but I am an Eagles fan. The common norms for people who go to populate football games are to acquire to the bowl hours before the gap kickoff to take portion in tailgating. Tailgating frequently involves devouring alcoholic drinks and grilling nutrient from the tailboard of a auto or truck. Tailgate parties normally occur in the parking tonss at bowls and spheres. before and on occasion after games. During this clip. household. friends and aliens spend their clip speaking. feeding. imbibing and playing games like touch football in the parking batch which are folkways in this societal scene.
Fans of the Redskins and Eagles come from all over the state to see the game unrecorded. These two squads have a long history and competition. This is due to the fact that they are both in the same division and play against each other twice a twelvemonth. There is an unwritten regulation that fans of the visiting squad must demo regard and be instead tame compared to the place squad fans. Normally the place squad has the most fans at games and because of this fans of the other squad run the hazard of acquiring heckled or hurt if they are ill-mannered and or raging. When I went there I wore my Eagles apparel but being at that place with two Injuns fans. other people did non truly trouble oneself me. Although there were some Redskin fans that looked at me disgusted and a small child even yelled at me “EAGLES SUCK” .
After the tailboard parties have ended Event staff open the bowl Gatess and get down to allow people in. Everyone starts experiencing dying and aroused because the game is about to get down. As I walked towards the bowl and looked around. I started to see all of the different types of people that come to these football games. There were people dressed in suites that looked like they were traveling to a concern meeting. complete households. college aged work forces and adult females moving wild and free and groups of people that come together because of the love they have for football. Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis applies in this scene because there are people like my friend Nelson that let free in the front phase of the football bowl but are more reserved and quiet in the back phase of their place. Nelson’s function public presentation during the clip we were at that place at the bowl encouraged me to be loud. cheerful and joyous which is a complete contrast of my normal ego in the back phase of my place. In our mundane lives we are all histrions and on this Sunday everyone here at the game was a diehard fan sharing the love and passion they have for football and the several squad they support.
As we entered the bowl there were people everyplace. Everyone is knocking into each other but no one gets huffy or starts shouting. This is portion of the societal experience of coming to a football game. Social interactionists will state that the bowl is a symbol that the people use to set up significance. develop their positions of the universe and how to pass on with one another. Personal infinite is non so personal in a bowl but common courtesy should be used like excuse me and sorry if you happen to knock person hard by accident. The outlook of everyone there is to bask the game and see their squad win. Not to hold struggle and get down doing problem. Although there is ever a little per centum that do non cognize how to move or act. That is why the bowl provides security. To do certain everyone there is safe and able to bask the game every bit irrespective of the squad you are rooting for.
When we get to our seats my friends and I are surrounded by both Eagles and Redskins fans. Naturally. I am able to speak with a perfect alien who is an Eagles fan about the Eagles. We shared narratives of past football games and how aroused we were to see the Eagles beat the Redskins. My friends on the other manus spoke with other Injuns fans and shared narratives as good. This is one of the most astonishing things that happen at events like this. Strangers can come together and fall in forces to root against friends and household members. Conflict theoreticians view society is composed of groups that are viing with one another for scarce resources. In this puting the Redskins and Eagles fans are the two groups and we are viing for the win and crow rights for the remainder of the hebdomad until those two squads meet their following opposition. As simple and infantile this might look to be for others. this is portion of the values and beliefs we have as football fans.
When the game begins groups of people start heartening while other groups are hissing and everything is tied to what is traveling on in the field. This is a good illustration on how to explicate socialisation. This is the procedure where we learn to go competent members of a group. Sociologist George Mead believed that people develop self-images through interactions with other people. He argued that the ego. which is the portion of a person’s personality dwelling of self-awareness and self-image. is a merchandise of societal experience. During the game fans react to other fans emotions. For illustration. a Redskins fan starts to hiss so another and all of sudden all the Redskins fans are hissing. If they are happy so everyone else will portion that common feeling.
Mead emphasized the human usage of linguistic communication and other symbols to convey significance. When I picked up my friends they both wore their Injuns New Jerseies and chapeaus because societal experience consists of the exchange of symbols which in this instance was the Redskins fan cogwheel. Like Mead. sociologist Charles Cooley believed that we form our self-images through interaction with other people. He was peculiarly interested in how important others shape us as persons. Cooley’s theory of socialisation involves his impression of the looking-glass ego. The looking-glass ego refers to a self-image that is based on how we think others see us. For illustration. I was worried how other Injuns fans would handle me and how they would look at me when I arrived at the bowl with my Eagles gear on. In my sentiment. I was come ining enemy district. I did non show myself wholly because I did non desire to pull attending to myself. When I arrived to the bowl. I noticed that there were a batch of Eagles fans. like me. This made me experience more comfy and more willing to show my love for the Philadelphia Eagles.
In this societal state of affairs there can be resocialization. Resocialization is a profound alteration or transmutation of personality originating from being placed within a state of affairs or environment no longer contributing to keeping a old individuality. This would go on if an Eagles starts to hearten and back up the Redskins. To me this is a rare instance but I have seen people have a alteration of bosom during a football game.
Macro establishments like the mass media influence the exhilaration and exposure of football games being played every Sunday. The fans of the Redskins and Eagles are non merely from Arlington Virginia or Philadelphia Pennsylvania. There are fans from all over the universe who cheer for these two squads. The mass media broadcasts these games live on T. V and this influences people’s attitude towards these two squads. Before the game is played the media builds up the ballyhoo for the match-up between these two squads so more people can tune in and ticker.
This type of exposure from the mass media helps these squads reach a bigger fan base which will increase the squads gross from tickets sold. dress and squad memorabilia gross revenues. The increased gross will hold an impact to the societal interaction fans have when they go see a football game live. When I went to the game. I received a free game twenty-four hours book with participant cards and besides a Redskins towel. I kept them for memories even though I am an Eagles fan. The bowl was good unbroken and there were many sellers at that place to supply sole ware. Functionalists say that society is a whole unit. made up of interconnected parts that work together. In this societal state of affairs the media. proprietors. fans. employees and everyone else involved work as a whole unit to do the NFL successful and give everyone at that place a good experience at these unrecorded football events.
Analyzing facets of a topic or procedure from a macro position can take to solutions on the micro degree. In footings of economic macro establishments in the NFL. the degree of disbursement from an NFL squad proprietor to better the squad to do a tally for the Super Bowl can impact the fan exhilaration and generate bombilation for the local squad. Because of this. local concerns will engage more employees and convey in more money. There will be a trickledown consequence that will profit everyone.
That football game will ever hold a particular topographic point in my memories because it was the first football game I of all time went excessively. The game was near but the Eagles lost. That did non count most. What mattered most is the experience I gained from the minute I arrived. Taking this sociology category has opened my eyes to a universe I ne’er knew existed. From the impact macro establishments have to the forms found in micro sociology. Both of these work together and impact each other’s result. There are many parts working together to do the NFL experience unforgettable and sociology has helped me understand things better which allows me to appreciate everything more.
