Introduction
Felisa Rogers, in her article, ‘How I learned to stop worrying, and love football’ takes us through her journey into appreciating a game she least paid attention to. Her article is directed to a majority of Americans who have no passion for the game and mainly watch it to fulfil a recreational activity. Felisa recognizes the fact that people have different tastes, which are based on their upbringing; however, this should never be an excuse for them to hate a particular sport. Felisa tries to make her audience understand that football is more than just a game, yet it becomes apparent from the reading that she mainly did it for her husband. In this paper, we critique the article in terms of the way the author tries to convince her audience to develop a passion for football, even if it means for other people.
Felisa shares one of her experiences, which are applicable in helping one love and develop a passion for football, even if they have never liked or enjoyed it. One of the factors that Felisa mentions that can help one develop such passion is fate, or simply for the other person. Felisa realised that at the lowest moment of his husband’s life, all he could think about was football. Loving the game was hence motivated by the need to support and be there for her husband. “Rich’s love for Brett Favre was real, and almost touching. When he talked about Favre, his eyes would sparkle and exuberance would infect his diction, his normal quiet mutter giving way to a braying crescendo”. Felisa’s efforts to make her husband understand that she hated football failed and decided to change for the sake of their relationship.
Compromise and sacrifice are the key components of a successful relationship. Felisa, in many instances shifts gear from mainly talking about football and giving tips on how they managed to work out their relationship through football. It would have been considered that Rich instead made the sacrifice for Felisa by not talking or mentioning football before her. However, Felisa seems to have realised the other areas of their relationships where Rich made the sacrifice for her. “Though I never expected him to take care of me, Rich felt an old-fashioned pressure to be the breadwinner, and when things were going bad, she didn’t see it as our problem, so much as his.” Felisa was compelled to make a sacrifice to save their relationship as well as to make his husband happy.
Reading the article, one is likely to be mixed up on the point that Felisa is trying to bring home. The article is more about sacrifice and compromise in a relationship, where she mainly used football as an example to bring her point home. A person reading the article will not necessarily come out with a promise or a decision to love football but rather learn how to develop new passions for the sake of the other person. Felisa is advocating for the fact that American football has been neglected simply because of the attitudes that people have developed towards the game. It has been assumed that football is for a certain category of people and hence making others shun away from the game. Felisa continues to mention that most of the people that fill up the clubs to watch football are not doing it out of passion but simply for recreation. “four years with Josh taught me what the majority of Americans know instinctively: Watching sports, particularly football, is a good excuse to sit around with friends, drinking beer and eating nachos.”
Felisa also feels that the reason most people of her calibre do not watch football is because they do not understand the rules of the game. However, he mentions that apart from the rules, there is always something a person can enjoy in football. Football is not just about the players chasing the ball but also about the fans, the cheers, the personality of the players and even the interaction that comes with it. Once people drift their attitude from simply watching how a ball is moving from one player to another, to other aspects of the game, they will understand where the fun is. Even though, Felisa is talking about football, she seldom mentions the game but rather the players. His husband Rich was more interested in the players rather than just the game itself. This implies that when passion is built around people rather than what they do, it grows even deeper and becomes more addictive.
Football is one of the world’s most celebrated sporting activities. It has however been a born of contention among American fans who don’t see the need of celebrating the game. The passion for football has been left to few people. American football requires the support of all people since its a culture that cannot be avoided in the world. Football, unlike other sporting activities has been widely accepted and appreciated. It also serves as a unifying factor in a multicultural society. America being one of the countries that has benefited from a multicultural society needs to embrace and support the game. Just as the author of the article records football is about passion, a passion that can be developed by every American citizen who decides to pay attention to it.
Every strategy used by Felisa is aimed at letting Americans understand that football is a culture that all Americans have to appreciate, whether they think it is cool or not. She emphasizes on the fact that that anybody can enjoy watching and following football matches as long as he or she has purposed to enjoy it. No matter how much she felt hatred for the game, Felisia realised that for the sake of her husband and the relationship, she could not avoid it. This hence implies that the earlier the decision is made, the better for a couple.
Works cited
Felisa Rogers, How I learned to stop worrying and love football <http://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/green_bay_packers_saved_my_marriage/>
