Ruptures in the field

Abstract

The National Football League (NFL) stands as one of the most visible and dominant organizations within American popular culture. However, despite being at the pinnacle of its popularity and the precipice of its seemingly last obstacle of international expansion, the last decade has seen the league confronting a series of crises that have destabilized and challenged the previously coherent meanings of the sport put out by the league and broadly recirculated within popular discourses. Propelled by these crises, the previously accepted framing of the league as "America's game" has come under increased scrutiny as media, citizens, and public officials critically reevaluate the role and merits of the league in contemporary American society. In this project I examine three cases situated in or around these crises: (1) the increased awareness of the medical dangers of playing the game, (2) the emergence of luxury stadiums, and (3) the league's philanthropic efforts. These case are an important heuristic lens for examining contemporary tensions between the NFL, identity, community, and commerce. As the league increasingly positions itself as a global media and sport corporation, it is upsetting and reshaping its historical localisms: the relationships to its fans, the cities that host its teams, and even the country which it calls home. Furthermore, the economic pressures of continual capitalist expansion as guided by neoliberal restructuring-favoring privatization, the primacy of unregulated markets, and ideologies of individual determination-require the incessant commodification of not only the NFL and its players, but also its constructed meanings. In examining these cases, this dissertation establishes and analyzes the often contradictory and contested motivations, aspirations, and meanings of the league in contemporary U.S. society. v

Big Football: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Culture and Color of Injury in America’s Most Popular Sport

“…Just as the ubiquitous pink campaigns mask racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to cancer treatment and mortality rates and stress the radical hope of medicine and technology over a consideration of the environmental and industrial causes of cancer and the functioning of health care systems (Jain, 2007; King, 2006; Lubitow & Davis, 2011; Pezzullo, 2003), the expressed appreciation for veterans does not entail a critical appraisal of the military industrial complex or the overrepresentation of poor people in the military (Lutz, 2008). While the figure of the “wounded warrior” is of course linked to implications of injury, commemoration in a “conflated sporting-military space” (Rugg, 2016b, p. 218) invites the viewer to play the role of a respectful, approving consumer of capitalist destructiveness and express consolation for seemingly inevitable generational traumas rather than engage in politics or recognize “basic human costs” “in the context of profit” (Butterworth, 2014b; Fischer, 2014; Jain, 2007, p. 506; T. Jenkins, 2013; King, 2008).…”

“…The pink uniforms, participation of breast cancer survivors in pregame festivities, and television commercials featuring mothers and sons combine to create an “atmosphere” of “self-congratulation and celebration” and “comfort” for the audience, deflecting attention from the obstacles, inequalities, morbidity, “ugliness,” “shame,” “terror,” and mortality that women and communities endure as a result of cancer (pp. 504-506, 519; Rugg, 2016b). The campaign also clearly articulates “heteronormative ideals of family and femininity” through an “intense focus on motherhood,” Adam Rugg (2016b) writes, “enforcing a positive outlook that situates breast cancer as a deeply personal event” and “absolv[es] .…”

“…504-506, 519; Rugg, 2016b). The campaign also clearly articulates “heteronormative ideals of family and femininity” through an “intense focus on motherhood,” Adam Rugg (2016b) writes, “enforcing a positive outlook that situates breast cancer as a deeply personal event” and “absolv[es] . .…”

“…The more recent trend involves “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) campaigns to bolster brand images and prevent regulations (Benson & Kirsch, 2010). Although much has been said about football concussions in the media, and recent scholarly volumes powerfully examine football, culture, and politics (Leonard, George, & Davis, 2017; Oates, 2017; Oates & Furness, 2014b), academic inquiry into the NFL’s strategies remains limited (but see, e.g., Johnson, 2016; Montez de Oca, Meyer, & Scholes, 2016; Rugg, 2016a, 2016b). Here, I investigate the league’s multisided CSR campaign, which involves harm reduction reforms as well as public relations and philanthropy.…”