Week 7: The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete.

When I was reading through this week’s text one quote stuck out to me “Early twentieth-century football was trench warfare, favoring defensive strategy and field position above everything else. The game perfectly with an increasingly militarizing nation.” One thing that I liked about the quote was the semi-foreshadowing of World War One. Throughout this class, we have talked about how the military liked the idea of sports due to the idea that it would create more fit and athletic young men who would become enlisted. This connection I think is very important for where this class is going with the early history of sport, especially in America. I also found it interesting that Teddy Roosevelt was such a fan of football, for some reason I had been told/taught that he was against it and wouldn’t let his kids play it. Because of that I always thought that he was against it so learning that he was a fan at some point was very informative. These origins of the sport are almost the exact opposite of what it is today. Based on this quote “The field was bigger, the ball rounder, and punting much more important than in today’s football”. While I’m not surprised that the game has evolved, I find it interesting that the game was so fundamentally different, and how it evolved so fast. In other sports like basketball, I feel like it took so long to evolve, whereas football would grow and evolve a lot faster in comparison. I think that this comparison to the militaristic aspect of American history and football allowed it to grow much faster and evolve into what it is today. The physicality that football offered was the reason why the military enjoyed it. The teamwork and aggression that was key to the sport, along with the larger focus on defense made it a lot easier for it to spread across the country. Having the president at the game was key to spreading it across the country. This state-sponsored sport allowed it to become one of America’s sports. Without this focus on the militaristic aspect, it may have never spread as much as it did.