
The Comprehensive Illusion of Football (2015) - kawera
https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/the-comprehensive-illusion-of-football?currentPage=all
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mildavw
"...there may be no activity that draws closer public scrutiny that the public
knows less about"

I agree that this quote may be a bit hyperbolic given, say, politics and
Hollywood. But otherwise, the article is spot on.

I played football through high school and what television repackages and sells
is a manufactured narrative based on a tiny sliver of the game. I loved
playing the game, and I enjoy watching games on TV. There is very little
overlap in the way one engages with the sport between those two experiences.

While playing, and for years afterwards, I couldn't understand why people
watched it on TV. Eventually, though, I started to understand and enjoy the TV
version. Decades later, I read some pieces by Nate Jackson
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Jackson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Jackson))
which pulled me back into the player mindset and the thesis of this article
was stark and obvious once again.

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regulation_d
Do you feel this has changed at all with the way games are broadcast? I feel
like with the advent of HD and SkyCam, I spend more time analyzing the play
calling and keeping track of what's going on in the trenches.

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mildavw
Do you mute the announcers? They're the ones constructing the narrative. And
of course, the replays and camera angles are a huge part of the production
too. So yes, it has changed with more technology: the virtual l.o.s. and 1st
down lines, better slo-mo, more cameras. It's all part of the package to tell
the story.

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euler_
I think this article is a bit pretentious. The authors far flung similies
create an air of moral smugness. Not a fan.

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bmer
I am not a football fan, and I too just found the article hard to read...

Too wordy, too many tangents, get to your main thesis fast: why is football on
TV a sleight of hand?

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gowld
What's the answer?

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qbrass
Football on TV is just another reality show.

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ppbutt
"Television has sought to make football more palatable to viewing audiences by
magnifying the game’s balletic beauty and deëmphasizing the its brute
concussive aggression."

Grammar error in the first photo caption...

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ppbutt
Grammatical _

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jt2190
(2015)

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sctb
Thanks! Updated.

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kawera
Sorry, didn't note that.

