There seems to be an element of the human psyche that loves to watch the execution of domination, especially by a superior male animal. Huge male brutes overtaking other huge male brutes and beating them into the ground through actions known in sports terminology as tackling or blocking.
Blocking?
Tackling?
Symbolic rape?
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - The defense was as good as advertised, and if you don't believe it, Tyler Wilson and Bobby Petrino have the bruises - Wilson on his body, Petrino on his ego - to prove it.
The special teams were nothing less than special, and if the offense didn't look like a machine, it displayed more than enough working parts.
But it wasn't enough for Nick Saban to beat Arkansas straight up in all three phases of the game Saturday en route to a 38-14 day at the office.
Alabama dominates Arkansas by blocking and tackling - and don't forget pranking
But, alas, football does not always function as a contest between equals, witness the recent scandal of Penn State -- oh, but we must mourn for football: Joe Paterno's long career.
According to USAToday everything is a subset of "Joe Paterno's long career", including the monster Jerry Sandusky, a powerfully connected man in a monstrously power sport.
Football the sport reigns supreme over all. It's the tang of Autumn air, hot dogs, beer, lavishly-catered tailgating parties, team marketing logos on a huge variety of items manufactured in China, gatherings of business associates, acquaintances, possibly even friends, a marketing ploy for making a sale, huge municipal bonds for arenas, a powerful and complex and profitable combination of factors, it is enormously important who you know in the industry of football, a really, really big business -- too damned big to fail so don't dare touch it!
To give the Wall Street Journal its due the Wall is classy enough to make Paterno a subset of a story casting a bit of glory on Pennsylvania's Republican governor, Governor Targets Sandusky Charity. This would be necessary because Paterno is well-known to be a prominent Republican in the State of Ohio.
American manliness, worshiping (or pretending to worship) football because it is the sublimely "manly" sport, bruising and brutal, glorious war on a football field with scantily clad female cheerleaders to boost the bruised ego of the football warrior.
And the homoerotic subtext: snapping towels at nekkid butts in the shower, the triumphant embraces of heroes after a well-executed play, glory shining in the eyes of young boys as they gaze lovingly at the football hero, eromenos, Greek love.
But not Greek love, no wooing, no seduction, merely the seizing and brutal taking in a shower of a small and powerless boy because it is the manly prerogative of a "manly" man who is well-connected in the industry of football, who has powerful friends who will protect and look out for him, the rather ruthless brotherhood, the nearly priestly hierarchy, reminiscent of that other priestly hierarchy that is still rockiing with scandal, the other brotherhood but probably of the same mother, a woman named Mary.