Essay Prompt:
Football is more than just a sport—it’s a cultural ritual defined by sacrifice, danger, and, increasingly, moral controversy. With mounting evidence linking the game to brain trauma, long-term disability, and early death, critics such as Malcolm Gladwell, Kathleen Bachynski, and Steve Almond argue that football is not only dangerous but exploitative: a spectacle built on the suffering of young men whose bodies and futures are traded for profit and entertainment. Others defend the sport, insisting that football—like MMA, gymnastics, or bodybuilding—simply demands extreme physical sacrifice, and that athletes like Ronnie Coleman embody the right to choose that pain in pursuit of greatness. Meanwhile, cases like Aaron Hernandez raise disturbing questions about whether teams prioritize talent and profit over the psychological well-being and humanity of their players.
The central argument you will address is this: Is football an unethical and exploitative institution that sacrifices player welfare for public entertainment, or is it a legitimate arena of personal choice, physical excellence, and cultural tradition?
In your essay, take a clear position on this question and support it with evidence from Concussion, Ronnie Coleman: The King, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, and at least three essays from our course materials. As you develop your claim, consider related issues such as:
- Whether colleges and the NFL commodify athletes or empower them;
- Whether spectators are morally complicit in the harm done;
- Whether banning football would protect vulnerable individuals or create worse unintended consequences;
- And whether the pursuit of greatness necessarily involves bodily sacrifice—and if so, whether that sacrifice is a noble choice or a form of exploitation.
Use 4 or more of the following sources to construct a well-argued position:
- “Youth Football Is a Moral Abdication” by Kathleen Bachynski
- “The White Flight from Football” by Alana Semuels
- “American football is dangerous, and it should be abolished” by Dave Bry
- “Exactly How Dangerous Is Football?” by Ingfei Chen
- “Offensive Play” by Malcolm Gladwell
- “Is It Immoral to Watch the Super Bowl?” by Steve Almond
- “Diehard Fans Defend the Game” by Matt Vasilogambros
- “Is It Patronizing to Say Football Players Are Exploited?” by Chris Bodenner
- “Book review: ‘Why Football Matters,’ and ‘Against Football’” by James Trefil
- Concussion (2015 movie on Amazon Prime)
- The Cost of Winning (2020 documentary on HBO)
- Student Athlete (2018 documentary on HBO)
- Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez (2020 3-part series on Netflix)
Sample 9-Paragraph Outline
Title: Blood, Glory, and Profit: The Ethical Dilemma of American Football
Paragraph 1: Introduction (Choose One)
- Hook: Start with a vivid image—an NFL player lying motionless on the turf while the crowd cheers for the next play.
- Context: Football’s status as a national ritual, its cultural significance, and the growing controversy surrounding its dangers.
- Introduce the central debate: Is football exploitative, or is it a legitimate, even noble, pursuit of greatness?
Paragraph 2: Thesis (Claim)
- Example of thesis that opposes football: Football has become an ethically compromised institution that commodifies its players for entertainment and profit, often under the illusion of personal choice—making reform, not abolition, a moral imperative.
- Example of a thesis that supports football: While football is a physically demanding sport, it is not an exploitative institution—it is a legitimate, voluntary arena where athletes exercise personal agency, pursue greatness, and knowingly accept risk. Far from being ethically compromised, football represents a cultural tradition that honors sacrifice, fosters opportunity, and should be preserved without further moral panic or unnecessary reform.
Paragraph 3-6: Your supporting paragraphs that explain the reasons behind your thesis or argument.
Paragraphs 7 and 8: Your 2 counterarguments and 2 rebuttals to those counterarguments.
Paragraph 9: Your conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis.
***
Unintended Consequences of Banning Football (to address in your counterargument-rebuttal section)
Here is a full list of unintended consequences you may need to address to make your argument more persuasive:
Banning football might sound like a bold ethical stance, but it would unleash a cascade of unintended consequences—cultural, economic, psychological, and even moral. Here’s a breakdown of what might happen if the most popular sport in America were outlawed:
1. Loss of Opportunity for Marginalized Youth
- Unintended Consequence: For many young men, especially from under-resourced communities, football is a rare (and sometimes only) path to higher education and upward mobility.
- Result: Banning the sport could cut off scholarships and recruitment pipelines, exacerbating socioeconomic inequality rather than alleviating harm.
2. Black Market Football
- Unintended Consequence: If football goes underground, it doesn’t disappear—it just gets more dangerous.
- Result: Unregulated leagues may spring up, especially in areas with strong football culture. Without safety oversight, proper coaching, or medical supervision, injury rates could worsen.
3. Economic Collapse of Local Ecosystems
- Unintended Consequence: Football is a multi-billion-dollar industry with deep ties to universities, cities, and small towns.
- Result: A ban could devastate local economies dependent on Friday night lights or Saturday college games—hotels, restaurants, sports vendors, media jobs, and more would be gutted.
4. Identity Crisis in American Masculinity
- Unintended Consequence: Football, like it or not, is one of the last culturally sanctioned rituals of toughness, aggression, and team-based male bonding.
- Result: Without football as a socially accepted outlet, young men may turn to other riskier or more alienating behaviors to express identity or test resilience.
5. Decline in College Enrollment and Funding
- Unintended Consequence: At many universities, football programs are major revenue engines—not just for athletics, but for branding and student recruitment.
- Result: Removing football could lead to reduced enrollment, cutbacks in academic programs, and tuition hikes as schools scramble to replace lost revenue.
6. Loss of Cultural Cohesion and Civic Ritual
- Unintended Consequence: Football games are communal rituals—tailgates, traditions, and team pride bind communities together.
- Result: Banning football could fracture local identity, particularly in the South and Midwest, where the sport acts as social glue.
7. Displacement of Violence to Other Arenas
- Unintended Consequence: Football channels aggression into rules, teams, and strategy.
- Result: Without that structure, we might see more unchanneled aggression, risk-taking behavior, or violence manifesting in less regulated spaces (gangs, reckless driving, amateur fighting).
8. Moral Hypocrisy and Slippery Slope Questions
- Unintended Consequence: Singling out football raises the question: what about boxing, MMA, rugby, or even ballet and gymnastics?
- Result: Banning football opens the door to more bans—or worse, selective enforcement that reeks of moral inconsistency and political backlash.
9. Undermining of Bodily Autonomy
- Unintended Consequence: While the intent is to protect, the act of banning a sport removes agency from individuals who knowingly choose risk.
- Result: This could spark debates about freedom, personal sovereignty, and whether society has the right to intervene in personal decisions about pain and sacrifice.
The Relevance of Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez:
The documentary Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is a chilling, necessary companion to any serious discussion of the moral crisis surrounding football. Hernandez, a star athlete groomed through the college football system and elevated to NFL glory, was both a product and a casualty of a sport that prized performance over personhood. The film exposes how institutions—from the University of Florida to the New England Patriots—enabled and ignored warning signs: violence, erratic behavior, and deep psychological instability. These weren’t just isolated red flags; they were systemic blind spots, fostered by a culture that commodifies players as disposable assets in a billion-dollar entertainment machine. Hernandez’s case forces students to confront the darker truth behind athletic excellence: when fame, concussions, and unchecked aggression intersect, the results can be lethal.
Moreover, the documentary complicates the question of self-agency. Yes, Hernandez made choices—but were they truly free? Killer Inside makes a compelling case that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), diagnosed in Hernandez posthumously, contributed to his instability. It raises hard questions about whether players fully understand the long-term cost of participation, and whether teams, coaches, and fans are complicit in a cycle that glamorizes sacrifice while suppressing inconvenient consequences. As students grapple with the ethics of spectatorship and institutional responsibility, this documentary offers a haunting portrait of how far a system will go to protect its profit, even if it means nurturing a time bomb in shoulder pads.
Cinemorphosis 
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