Democracy In Action, Football-Style

I was at a party the other night and found myself wrangling with some former philosophy major about the definition of justice. Justice is a slippery concept, and often subjectively defined; in the case of two opposing parties, what's justice for one is often injustice for the other, according to which perspective you're looking at the situation from. Anyways, to make a long story short, I found myself using the National Football League as an example of a just system. Football is an ideal ground for generating a just system, because the end goal is simple and universally agreed-upon: namely, to compete and win. Everyone involved with football, from the players to the fans, wants to see a fairly-adjudicated contest that determines a winner. Asterisks are inherently less satisfying; everyone wants to walk away from the game knowing, more or less, that one team beat the other.

The NFL never stops trying to make sure that this result is achieved. Discussion regarding rule-modification is continuous, and moves in response to perceived illegitimacies that occur on the playing field. Instant replay is a perfect example. Imperfect when originally introduced, it was often the source of controversy; yet, at the same time, the advent of replay-technology and the god's-eye-view it provided made it impossible to simply ignore. Accordingly, modifications to the replay system were introduced, and it is now a satisfying and important part of the game. The key innovation was to limit instant replay's sphere of influence. Namely, what the rule says is that if the replay doesn't show clear, compelling evidence, then the call stands as it was made on the field by the human official. Written this way, the rule satisfies everyone: both the players and officials on the field of play, and the fans on couches at home watching on television sets. It makes a logical concession to the tv-viewers (who have become an integral part of the modern game), while centering primacy for decisions with those who are actually on the playing field.

I excused myself from the conversation with the philosophy major after about fifteen minutes because he was, well, a philosophy major. But part of why I'm writing this blog is to explore my own deep engagement with football, to parse why I find it so damn enjoyable and satisfying. As such, it was pretty fun to find that football was an ideal reference point in a high-falutin' discussion about something like the nature of justice. Besides, philosophizers don't want answers, they just want to keep talking and arguing and talking, forever and ever. Football gots no time for that sort of b---s---. Football wants results, wants to get things done. Thank god for football. Football!