Female-Dominated Homes -> Male-Dominated NFL

Female-dominated homes -> Male-dominated NFL

I am always poking (searching curiously) my nose in some book to learn more about our society and the NFL. 

Now I spend hours researching various aspects of the NFL.

I was surprised to discover a dissertation that mentions the original inspiration for organized sports in America. 

You should read it, too: 

Organized Sports Participation, Masculinity, and

Attitudes toward Women

by

Joseph E. Boyle

The dissertation made a connection between female-dominated households and feminizing young boys.  It stated that this situation gave rise to the development of organized sports.

I thought, this is very interesting.

If this conjecture is true, then the flow would be from organized sports such as little league football, to football in public schools and colleges, to professional football--all inspired by women whose boys would have spent too much time with them, except for the intervention of sports.

This article is written to stimulate a discussion.  I do not have the answer or a well-prepared rebuttal for this notion.

What I have to say is based on personal observation and not on a statistical study.

I have observed that a large number of NFL players tend to say they want to help their mothers, one way or another.

I have observed that one of the NFL players that attended the same college as I did, gave most of his bonus to his mother.

Here is a quote from the research:

"During the late nineteenth century, American parents perceived women as "feminizing" the

young male population, so the idea of the American sporting culture was borne out of a backlash against these "feminizing" ways.

"The driving force behind the American sporting culture was the development of the urban middle class that occurred between 1880 and the end of World War I.

"The result of the new urban middle class was smaller families, the loss of servants, and the absence of working fathers which led to the notion that sons were spending too much time with their mothers (Hantover 1992).

"The overabundance of time sons spent with their mothers was seen as having a negative impact on the development of masculinity."

Another interesting quote:

"The origin of Professional Football can be traced back to 1892, with William "Pudge" Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.

"In 1920 the American Professional Football Association was formed. This league changed its name to the National Football League (NFL) two years later, and eventually became the major league of American football. Primarily a sport of Midwestern industrial towns in the United States, professional football eventually became a national phenomenon.

"Football's increasing popularity is usually traced to the 1958 NFL Championship Game, a contest that has been dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played".

 "A rival league to the NFL, the American Football League(AFL), began play in 1960; the pressure it put on the senior league led to a merger between the two leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the most watched television event in the United States on an annual basis."

Well, this is enough of my B/R course in Football 101.  This article is written for some of my students who know very little about the history of the NFL, although they know a lot about the contemporary NFL stars.

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