Football Persuasive Essay

If you ask someone who is not from America what an Americans three favorite things are, you will most likely hear Freedom, Cheeseburgers and most importantly football. Coming from a sport whose biggest stage, the super bowl is viewed by over 115 million viewers worldwide and whose annual revenue totals over 17 billion dollars between the Professional and collegiate level (which is more than the NHL, Premier League, and NBA combined), it is safe to say that the sport of Football plays an important role in the United States. Despite the recent studies and research on the negative effects and injuries that can occur to players bodies in football sustained in football, people are still flocking to watch and play it from the youth levels all the

way up to the professional levels. Aside from its mass popularity and revenue generation in the United States, football is the ultimate sport because it is enjoyable to play, teaches many important life lessons and has established its own unique culture.

From my personal experience I can say that it is both an enjoyable and fun sport to play. In no other sport (except for boxing) are you allowed to hit somebody as hard as you can and not be penalized for it. I believe this is what draws so many people to the game is the big hits, the big tough guys and the seemingly superhuman abilities that they possess on the field. I have played the game six years now competitively at the recreational, high school and now collegiate level and it seems that the more I play it and am able to learn about it the more fun I am able to have doing it. Football in my opinion is the ultimate team sport because if one person out of the 11 messes up or does bad on a play the whole play is screwed up so in football especially the team element is emphasized heavily and is crucial to a team's success when it comes to winning a game. If you are someone who feels they have a lot of pent up energy and you have some athletic ability, football might be the perfect sport for you. A unique thing about football is that unlike sports like soccer where you almost have to be skinny and fast to play, you can be a big and slow person and be a dominant force for your team, these kind of players are called lineman and it is their job to protect their teammate from getting hit. Whereas football does not discriminate by size if you can play or not, it does take a special kind of individual to excel and continue to play the game. In order to play the game of football you must be very mentally tough because you will get knocked down and if you are not mentally strong enough to pick yourself up when you get knocked down, the game of football is probably not for you.

The game of football has not only taught me many important life lessons but it has also taught me about myself and what my potential is. When playing the game of football at times you will get knocked down as I was referring to earlier in my paper, but you can also say the same thing about life, it will knock you down and you will feel like giving up but it is all about how you respond to that adversity and football is a great sport to be able to learn that lesson in. Perhaps Rocky Balboa says it best “It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” I owe great thanks to this game for what it has been able to bring out of me, a specific example of this was during my senior year I had to change positions because it would benefit the team. I had always been a cornerback (because of my short and small stature) but the coaches saw that it would help the team more if I stepped up and played linebacker. I was originally scared to play this position because that meant I would have to be going up against guys who were literally twice my size and I figured I would get crushed. But I worked up enough courage to play linebacker for the whole season and I excelled at it. Needless to say, this taught me that you should always push yourself to your limits because you never know what you can do or accomplish until you try it, this is the most important lesson this game has taught me.

The game of football is unique to all other sports because it has its own unique culture around the game that no other sport resembles.

If you go to almost any college campus on a saturday in the fall you will see something extraordinary, thousands of people gathering in one stadium to see a football game. But the events and festivities do not just stop there, typically you will see many people tailgating and having cookouts with their friends decked out in their teams memorabilia and colors all around the stadium. I find this to be cool especially from a player’s perspective because to me that shows how dedicated they are to their team and they feel as if they are still a part of the game. Also if you ever go to a football game you will notice several things...Big flood lights overlooking the stadium, bands playing their music in the background, cheerleaders dancing and cheering their cheers, the echo of the loud PA speakers and last but not least the roar of the crowd. No other sport has the same combination of these and I think all of those different elements contribute to what makes the game so exciting and fun to be at, it is all because of the atmosphere. Because football games are only played once a week it gives each game that is played a little bit more importance thus making each moment a little more

exciting.

My hope is that whether you know a lot about football, grew up around it or know nothing at all about it is that you will be able to inform yourself about the impact that football has on the United States of America. Even if you do not particularly like the game of football itself it offers many different positive experiences such as socializing with friends, free food at tailgates and being a part of something that is ever growing. I encourage everyone to go to a game and experience for themselves and develop their own opinion of the game. I would love for this game to have the same impact on someone’s life that it did on mine because I truly believe that I would not be where I am today if it were not for this beautiful game.