As the saying goes, know yourself, know your enemy.
Understand American culture. American football is an element that cannot be ignored. If Go is a window for understanding China’s strategic thinking, then American football is undoubtedly a “magnifying glass” for exploring American strategic culture. American football uses the offensive and defensive fronts as the reference system for strategic space imagination, attaches great importance to power, and emphasizes masculinity and heroism narratives. These ways of thinking permeate the bottom layer of American military thinking and logic, and are also the core of American national identity.
In this blog, Galileo Sports - trusted globally for high-quality materials and durable football cage - will take you to explore the mutual penetration and influence of American football and American culture, military and politics, and feel the spiritual core conveyed by American football.
Are you ready to exploring American football imply American culture? Let’s go!
American football evolved from English rugby. It was first introduced to North America by the British Army during a game at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It gradually developed with the competition between American universities and was later promoted to the United States. However, this is the largest sport in the United States today. Although its commercial value is comparable to the Olympic Games and World Cup events, it is only popular in the United States. Leaving the United States, this sport seems to be somewhat acclimated to other countries and difficult to promote. Not to mention football, basketball, and volleyball, even rugby has gained a lot of audiences outside the British Isles and in Australia and other Commonwealth regions.
The goal of the American football game is to push the ball as far as possible into the opponent's position, strive to enter the opponent's end zone and score, which is called a touchdown (touchdown), and strive to score more points within the specified time of the game. Today's American football rules have basically departed from the original English football rules.
A round-based contest between the offensive and defensive lines is a major feature of American football. The offensive team has 4 opportunities to advance 10 yards to the defensive end zone. Each opportunity becomes a first-level offense. When the offensive team successfully advances between the 4th gear, If you advance more than 10 yards, you can get a new 4-level attack opportunity, which is called a new "first down". By constantly getting new first downs and moving forward, the player will bring the ball to the opponent's end zone and touch the ground. That's 6 points (i.e. a "touchdown").
The performance of American football games is "hit and stop," which is confusing to many viewers who are used to watching sports such as football and basketball that progress smoothly. Rugby is a sport that requires very high physical and mental qualities. During the game, both offensive and defensive players will be subject to strong impacts and flanking attacks many times. Every time you fall down due to impact, it doesn't mean it's over. You need to get up and try your best again and again. To complete difficult technical moves, players not only need excellent speed, strength and agility, but also the spirit of taking risks and fighting hard.
The sense of power is the first impression many people who are unfamiliar with American football have on the sport. A group of big men with well-developed limbs and simple minds collide with each other and use brute force to fight for a ball. But physical fitness is only the basic quality to participate in American football. The sport also places great emphasis on teamwork and tactical literacy. The players of a football team will be divided into offensive team, defensive team and special teams team. When one's own team has the ball, the offensive team goes on the field to advance the score. When the opponent has the ball, the defensive team goes on the field to prevent the opponent from scoring (the defensive team can also force the opponent's offensive team to make mistakes. scoring touchdowns), while special teams take the field when punts, penalties and kickoffs are needed. During the game, each player performs his or her own duties and does not hold other positions concurrently.
The offensive and defensive teams of each team are two completely different sets of personnel. Every time the offense and defense transition, a substitution procedure of "11 down, 11 up" must be carried out. American football has a detailed division of labor. Defense is defense and offense is offense. This makes American football different from other ball team sports. The process of the game is interconnected. Whether it is the offensive team, defensive team or special teams, the performance of this second affects the game situation of the next second and determines the tasks that other teammates need to complete in the next second.
This requires players to obey the team's arrangements, put the collective first, and rely on close cooperation as a team. Even stars like Manning and Brady still need teammates to provide cover and other support. Unlike football and basketball, superstars like Messi, Ronaldo, and Jordan can single-handedly lead the team to victory. And this is a very interesting phenomenon in a sense. In a society like the United States that advocates individualism and individual values, the most popular movement is a movement that emphasizes collectivism.
In the United States, rugby is not only popular among the general public, but also highly valued among the military. The military uses football to improve unit capabilities, build morale and promote recruiting. Theodore Roosevelt advocated using football to train soldiers. The Naval Academy and the Army Academy hold a football match every year, and when the Military Academy team competes, the chiefs of operations of each military service and even the President of the United States will personally attend the game as guests. U.S. President Obama appeared at the game in 2011, and Vice President Biden attended the game in 2012, which greatly boosted the morale of the soldier trainees. During the playing of the U.S. national anthem before football games, uniformed U.S. soldiers are often invited to sit on the sidelines as guests, and sometimes U.S. fighter jets even fly over the field at low altitude to add to the fun.
As mentioned earlier, using offensive and defensive lines to conduct round-based contests is a major feature of American football. This is very similar to the confrontation between the two armies during the war. The "hit and stop" tactical round format of each game is also similar to that of a game. A small battle is quite similar. Military terminology often appears in rugby tactics, and rugby elements also appear in U.S. military reports. Scholars who study the U.S. military and American culture have always believed that American sports have more or less influenced the U.S. military.
In 2019, the US think tank Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) released a report titled "Tightening the Chain: Implementing a Strategy of Maritime Pressure in the Western Pacific" Report. [1] In this report, it is rare to directly apply football tactical design to the strategic deployment of the US military. The report proposes adopting a maritime pressure strategy against China, using the first island chain—the barrier formed by Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and maritime Asia and the Southeast Asian peninsula—to challenge China’s military superiority within the island chain, and Limit China’s access to areas outside the Western Pacific during the crisis.
The report straightforwardly compares the maritime pressure strategy to the tactics of American football: a defensive line is arranged on the front line, which can be used for defense and forward pressure at the same time. The defenders roam the backfield, freeing themselves in space to prevent the offense from attacking deep into the backfield through both sides.
Switching to the Western Pacific, the first island chain is the "defensive front" of the United States, responsible for forward defense and pressure to the west of the first island chain. The U.S. military such as Guam and Hawaii to the east of the first island chain serves as the rearguard and security. The defender is responsible for preventing deep strikes and replenishing the front line at any time. The maritime pressure strategy not only emphasizes the concept of joint operations and the integration of sea, land and air forces, but also emphasizes the integration of U.S. allies in the Western Pacific and deepening collaboration with its Indo-Pacific allies.
The emergence of this report supports the view that the strategic or tactical design of the US military will indeed be affected by American sports. Studying the tactical design in American sports can help analyze the strategic or tactical planning of the US military.
The similarity in tactical design is another similarity between American football and war. The offensive side usually designs tactics to advance the ball, trying to allow other players to concentrate their forces at a certain stage to help the ball carrier break through the defensive end or bypass it. Its defensive line is just like in war. On the battlefield, in order to advance the troops, they often deceive the opponent's attention by attacking in the east and west, so that the opponent cannot clearly judge where the main attack point is. During the game, the coaches from both sides came up with endless tricks, which are often talked about by many fans. This coincides with the thinking in the art of war that "soldiers are crafty." Raiders head coach Joe Gruden says he has a playbook thicker than the Los Angeles City Yellow Pages. There are often hundreds of tactics in a team's playbook.
In football games, the quarterback attacks through the air under the cover of the front line, accurately connects with the wide receiver deep behind the enemy, puts the opponent's defense into trouble, uses continuous ground attack to balance the aerial attack, defeats the opponent's defense, and leads him "troops" enter the opponent's "territory".
American football, a culture similar to battlefield performance and masculinity, has a certain representativeness of American culture. For many people, football embodies American characteristics, such as its emphasis on physical strength and competition. This kind of sport with a certain degree of violence has not disgusted the fans, but has made the sport more popular.
An obsession with football's power, intertwined with American patriotism and military propaganda, gave the U.S. military an emotional identity at home as it expanded overseas. Rugby is portrayed as a conflict between men less deadly than war, and the sense of power is conveyed through the spectacle of the entertainment, and the fervent emotions that so obviously inspire players and fans alike, allowing those who are involved to enjoy the power it brings. Sensory stimulation, you don’t need to be fighting in the trenches or on the streets of foreign cities to feel the excitement brought about by military operations.
Personal heroism is another obvious way in which football and the military are culturally linked. Soldiers and players alike became narratives of masculinity, and the creation of personal heroes was a powerful tool of American identity. However, as mentioned before, rugby is a sport that emphasizes the supremacy of the collective. The performance of individual heroism is transformed into a contribution to collective honor. The process of shaping heroes becomes an important ideological tool, which allows soldiers, players and even the audience to To shrink oneself in a higher ideal.
It is this greater collective good and honor that highlights the key role of the country in football culture. Football provides the country with ideological elements that help maintain cohesion and consolidate the national atmosphere in the domestic political structure of the United States. Rugby is not just a sports game, but has been given an important cultural role, reshaping national identity and national form.
The constructive role of sports culture in the mainstream culture of society should not be ignored. While American football is popular among the American people, it has also spawned football-themed cultural products, such as movies such as "All My Heart" and "Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk." While these movies have earned box office, It also shapes the mainstream values of society. Sports not only shape the body, but also the spirit. So, is this a practice that we can learn from in terms of our country’s spiritual civilization construction work? The movie "Win the Championship" with the theme of the Chinese women's volleyball team released in 2020 is a good attempt. The characteristic of sports as a cultural carrier should be taken seriously. The promotion of sports not only enables citizens to keep fit and cultivate their will, but also promotes the construction of mainstream culture.
Sports is a cultural window. It helps us understand the social landscape, national character and even strategic thinking of other countries.If you want to continue to pay attention to the dynamics of American football, please pay attention to Galileo sports, if you are a fan of American football, you may wish to buy a football strike net of your own, improve your skills, and give yourself a chance to win!
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