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"Football is war" - Rinus "The General" Michels. For the non-soccer fans: Michels was the trainer who invented the Total Football playstyle and was named coach
by vanderZwan 8y ago
"Football is war" - Rinus "The General" Michels.
For the non-soccer fans: Michels was the trainer who invented the Total Football playstyle and was named coach of the century by FIFA in 1999[0]. Although I just learned from Wikipedia that the above quote is taken out of context, I always thought it was an insightful one: football is ritual warfare. And as the article suggests, we're probably better off for its existence, because those tribal instincts are still in our DNA, and they need to come out one way or the other.
And I say that as someone who really dislikes football, partially because of the tribalism.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels
- Lewton 8y agoI don't think there's any particularly good reason to believe that giving tribalism an outlet through sports is healthy. It might as well be that giving tribalism an outlet leads to more tribalism. Kind of like how expressing emotional anger might make you angrier[0] [0] https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102344514&t=1531744331893 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102344...
- vanderZwan 8y agoPlay-fighting is different from real fighting, though.
- moretai 8y agoYeah people don't die. But there's a chance that energy gets dispensed through other forms. I mean there is so much money in sports. There is so much money in just exerting dominance. So much to gain. Notoriety. Plus, I can't even begin to imagine the mental destruction that goes on in these players. Depression, Ego Inflation to the point of psychosis. Why can't we transcend domination and go back to play?