Culture Conflict
Cultural Conflicts, Playing Out on the Football Field
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN Published: January 27, 2012
CAfter his team was routed by the New England Patriots in January, driving the Denver Broncos out of the N.F.L. playoffs, Tim Tebow jogged off the field. Camera crews and photographers surrounded him, waiting for Mr. Tebow, the quarterback, to drop to one knee and bow his head in prayer, his famous and controversial signature gesture.
The place of religion in American public life has long been a source of friction, including in court cases on prayer by college teams.
Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback, has drawn attention for a signature gesture: his head bowed in prayer.
This time, Mr. Tebow did not oblige the media and the game’s tens of millions of viewers. As he vanished into the stadium tunnel, he seemingly took the polarizing issue of public religiosity away with him. The clamorous national conversation, depicting Mr. Tebow either as role model or object of ridicule, rapidly subsided.
It was a mistake all along, though, to think that Mr. Tebow was the issue. It was a case of confusing the lightning rod with the lightning. With the Super Bowl game one week away, instead of asking ourselves, “What is it about Tim Tebow?” we might better ask, “What is it about football?”
What is it about football that makes it, more so than any other American sport, the arena for expressing larger societal conflicts? In the Vietnam War era, football was conflated first with the divisions over patriotism and foreign policy — with the legendary coach Vince Lombardi an outspoken critic of the counterculture, and some antiwar activists saying that football was itself militaristic. More recently it has rippled with friction about the place of religion, and specifically evangelical Christianity, in public life.
Well before Mr. Tebow came to fame, court cases about team prayers arose from a college in Kentucky and a high school in New Jersey. Reggie
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN Published: January 27, 2012
CAfter his team was routed by the New England Patriots in January, driving the Denver Broncos out of the N.F.L. playoffs, Tim Tebow jogged off the field. Camera crews and photographers surrounded him, waiting for Mr. Tebow, the quarterback, to drop to one knee and bow his head in prayer, his famous and controversial signature gesture.
The place of religion in American public life has long been a source of friction, including in court cases on prayer by college teams.
Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback, has drawn attention for a signature gesture: his head bowed in prayer.
This time, Mr. Tebow did not oblige the media and the game’s tens of millions of viewers. As he vanished into the stadium tunnel, he seemingly took the polarizing issue of public religiosity away with him. The clamorous national conversation, depicting Mr. Tebow either as role model or object of ridicule, rapidly subsided.
It was a mistake all along, though, to think that Mr. Tebow was the issue. It was a case of confusing the lightning rod with the lightning. With the Super Bowl game one week away, instead of asking ourselves, “What is it about Tim Tebow?” we might better ask, “What is it about football?”
What is it about football that makes it, more so than any other American sport, the arena for expressing larger societal conflicts? In the Vietnam War era, football was conflated first with the divisions over patriotism and foreign policy — with the legendary coach Vince Lombardi an outspoken critic of the counterculture, and some antiwar activists saying that football was itself militaristic. More recently it has rippled with friction about the place of religion, and specifically evangelical Christianity, in public life.
Well before Mr. Tebow came to fame, court cases about team prayers arose from a college in Kentucky and a high school in New Jersey. Reggie