football and religion
Everything that surrounds the South Eastern Confederation football championship characterizes it as a religion. Football is entrenched in the culture of Sothern Americans when it comes to college championship. Many fans are more devout to their teams than they are to their religion. Similar to how religion has been playing the role of social cohesion through creating a sense of community, so does college football. By characteristics, each football team has its group following their having their rituals and their definition of what is sacred and blasphemous and their place of worship just like each religion sector does. The sense of communism is much stronger than religion would bond people. The bond between people is strong, especially by the fact that they have gone through together through disappointment or long drought of championship titles (Kian, pp. 680-699). Fundamentally, the social function of religion is to create community sense, a common ground for followers, something that football has successfully created for each team’s members starting from fans, players, coaches, and the team’s support team. Fans have gone to the extent of using social media hashtags to amplify one’s devotion or devout fans of other times (Jensen et al. pp. 261-278). Some fans do dress in religious figures, and others create congregational meetings. For instance, the fans of Bills do unite to establish their faith and allegiance with signage indicating their continuing belief.
College football in the south has managed to intersect politics, myths, and sports to one set referred to by the southerners as civil religion, this is true because to the college football fans, it is a religion. The participation right is one’s ticket giving one opportunity to engage in the ceremonials and feel a definite sense of togetherness and commitment to the group. Fans have been heard saying that spectating a football match of college tournament can transform how you see what is profane into sacred just by entering into the stadium, or teams workshop for either fans or players. The structure of the stadium is also an indication of sacredness. The playing field is in the center of the stadium, representation of the world’s center, creating a sacred place where the match has to take place. Most importantly, there is an aspect of security; fans and players have a sense of protection from the outsiders. The hosting team must protect their zone to prevent the visiting team from scoring.
It is agreeable that SEC football has to turn out to be a religion. This is true since churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues are increasingly being deserted in favor of the football stadium. Football players are esteemed like Gods, and the standards are bleachers turning football into the new religion. Before the beginning of any tournament, match players sing their hearts out, just as it happens while imploring God’s salvation. There is much more resembles between football and religion by the way it gives the southerners a collective identity and purpose and the feeling that people feel when they interact during the tournament. It has also created the ritual of gathering on weekends after a long working weekdays for individuals who are committed (Bain-Selbo et al., p. 4). The other group of less devout individuals decides to stay home and watch on television. T sum it up, just like religion entertains by spiritual songs and preaching, fans get that same entertainment feeling in a football stadium. The setting is also turned, fans wear clothes similar to those of their teams, and carry icons, flags, and mascots. Followed by repetitive chanting, hand claps to encourage their teams and booing of the opposite side, which all of it is a representation of dedication that was directed towards religion, but now is for SEC football tournaments. Even back then, people used to name their kids from bible characters, but now they are named after players.