In response to the political protest of National Football League (NFL) player Colin Kaepernick and subsequent controversial comments from President Donald Trump, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft declared, “There is no greater unifier in this country than sports and, unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics.” Such a sentiment is commonplace in sport, whether it is about race, political affiliations, or responses to tragic events, and it quickly became an organizing theme for NFL owners as they sought to defuse the issue. Meanwhile, sports media and others echoed the call for unity and largely dropped discussion of the commitment to social justice that had originally animated Kaepernick’s protest. This essay argues that claims to unity are rooted in the logic of consensus, a value in democratic theory that offers an illusion of peaceful cooperation while denying important conflicts and differences. As understood through the rhetorical tradition and theories of agonistic democracy, athletic activism in the NFL has been important precisely because it disrupts the illusion of unity on which the national anthem ritual rests. In short, contesting unity and consensus seeks to identify communicative resources that facilitate social justice in and through sport.

The Armed Forces Bowl provides a troubling integration of commercial sport and the American culture of militarism. The game features patriotic displays and symbols that have become increasingly central to sporting events during the 'war on terror,' represents the first time a military manufacturer has been the official sponsor of a college bowl game, and depends on a ubiquitous rhetoric of ''support the troops.'' By expanding the familiar conflation of sport and war, the Armed Forces Bowl simultaneously trivializes the seriousness of war as it emphasizes the seriousness of supporting the American military. This rhetorical division offers a delimited conception of appropriate American identity, thereby normalizing war in general and endorsing the 'war on terror' specifically.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract