Tackling a Football Issue

Re “Dethroning King Football,” editorial, July 24: Growing up as an athletic young man in Texas means playing football, or at least it used to. I was conscripted into the sport when I was 12 years old. By the time I graduated from high school, I was First Team All-State and recruited by Stanford and Cal.

However, as young gay man, I knew football hated me, and I hated football. Football is a proto-fascist, military exercise. Mostly a dictatorial coach, occasionally a quarterback, calls all the shots. That’s not teamwork.

It’s also highly exploitive of youth. I’ve got arthritis in my cervical spine and I’m not even 40. My doctor believes it was probably caused by years of using my head as battering ram playing football.

Football’s demise spells better days for American society because football’s celebration of masculine violence diminishes the commonweal.

Patrick Love

San Francisco

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You asked, “What’s so bad about” devotion to tennis, badminton, volleyball and academics? And of course the answer is, nothing. But to point out that students of Asian descent, because of differing values, are the cause of football’s declining influence in school is reinforcing the perceived American stereotype of Asians being sissies and wimps. And somehow that Asians can’t hack it in contact sports, thus retreating to those “other” sports.

Instead of lambasting schools where administrators are trying to stir interests in the sport in Asian students and their families, the editors should encourage it. Instead of accepting that choir, tennis and badminton -- as the editorial suggests -- are the extracurricular activities that Asians gravitate toward, it is commendable that these administrators are making an effort to show that there are other, equally valuable sports that students of Asian descent could try and maybe learn to love.

Asians have made enormous strides in every industry in America except sports. Besides Dat Nguyen of the Dallas Cowboys and the Ting twins, Brandon and Ryan, at my alma mater, USC, I can’t name any other Asian football players.

Schools should be lauded for encouraging Asian students to venture out beyond the artificial boundaries that they, and society, have set for themselves. Participating in football won’t cause one to lose interests in academics.

Alexander Nguyen

Chula Vista

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Your editorial on the damaging effects of school officials trying to push football in schools where student interest in the sport is low was a painful reminder of what happened to our son. He was in love with music and the arts, but his high school principal was in love with football.

The school’s band was an award-winning unit much respected in the district for its talents. Additionally, the school had a wonderful theater instructor who struggled mightily against an indifferent administration to attract students and do quality work. None of the arts programs received any recognition to speak of. Most of the football program was financed by the school. Most of the band’s program, aside from the salary of the band teacher, was paid for by parents doing their best to conduct fundraisers.

The final insult, in our view, came when at the last minute the band was forced to cancel an appearance in one of the biggest band competitions so that it could play for a few minutes at a basketball game.

Our son became very disillusioned with school and dropped out during his senior year. To this day I curse myself for not enrolling him in a private school that focused on the arts. I doubt very much if that high school principal, who is probably now comfortably retired, has any idea of how destructive his views were.

Lou Einung

Palm Desert

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The Times truly reveals its attitude toward physical competition when it followed the remark of the popular view that football “builds teamwork and leadership” with, “So does choir.”

Surely among your staff there are those who have played football or rugby and can understand the pride and masculine satisfaction that is felt by he who has competed vigorously and physically against other males in a contest with others similarly motivated. Do you really think that a Frankie Albert, a Norm Standlee, a Pete Kmetovic or a Hugh Gallarneau of Stanford’s famous football team would feel the same pride from a session of choir practice?

T. Bruce Graham

Port Hueneme