Why Americans Love College Football

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Artificial intelligence could already be smarter than we are, prices of groceries continue to rise, and a presidential election is about to disrupt and complicate our lives and arouse uncomfortable emotions such as disappointment, fear, and anxiety.

Contrast all that real or perceived negativity with the next several months with college football daily talk shows, pre-game predictions, College GameDay on Saturday mornings, and the games themselves plus post-game press conferences.

All these things college football-related will relieve us, at least temporarily, about these real, and some suggest existential technological threats, grocery bills, and political acrimony and dysfunction.

We need the relief that college football provides like we need air to breathe food to eat and cold water to drink. It reminds us that despite a disconcerting and sometimes tragic world, there are aspects of life that are enjoyable, relaxing, and devoid of disagreements and financial stress.

We love college football because it brings us together. Not just men, and not just women, and not just children. We all come together, both sexes and people of all ages, to tailgate before a college football game with friends drinking cool beverages, eating fried chicken, and scooping up baked beans with a fork or spoon and placing that goodness in our mouths.

In all of American life, there are plenty of other enjoyable things to do such as attending a movie or theatre production or Taylor Swift concert. But in those cases, peoples’ varied tastes make it less likely older and younger people of both sexes will be uniformly fired up to attend.

Football games and tailgates are not as susceptible to those differences in taste. A tailgate combines a cocktail party with a dinner out with the anticipation of, afterward, pure entertainment watching a college football game. Kids love it too because college football is, at its core, a fascinating game played by real people with real stakes on the line.

Why do we love it so much collectively across the United States?

College football is a perfect vehicle for sustaining friendships and relationships, and there is nothing more important to human happiness than this. A football tailgate and game afterward is all about being with other people, talking, and catching up on what’s going on with each other, in a relaxed setting. Everyone’s there not to sell anything or impress anyone or fire them or manipulate them but rather just to talk about football and our kids and how good the baked beans taste. No one’s job hunting at a football tailgate or game. If on weekdays they’re in that mode, they’re going to the game to take a break from that stress; leave that for Monday morning. No resumes get passed around at a football tailgate and isn’t that beautiful in and of itself.

We love college football also because of the physical contact much like the Romans went to see the gladiators battle in the coliseums eons ago. We like to see the players run into each other and tackle each other and block and strain. We get to see people actually in competition to find out who is the strongest, most determined, and best prepared. And we’re not enduring this struggle; it’s the players.

We’re not worried about getting blocked or hit. We just sit back and watch the safety collide with the wide receiver in the endzone and that exhilarates and satisfies some important need we have.

Why else is football great? Because it’s colorful. The uniforms range from purple to blue to green to black to gold to maroon and every other one of the 64 colors in the Crayola Crayon box.

Plus the field is an upbeat green hue. Seeing bright and varied colors is a beautiful experience especially outside with the breeze cooling our skin getting a bit burned by the ever-shining sun. The visually stimulating visuals extend to the colors of the stadium seats, the colors of sundresses, and polo shirts, the colors of the marching band’s drum, the colors of the scoreboard, the colors of the cheerleader’s pom poms, the colors of the numbers on the scoreboard, and the colors of the first down chains.

We love college football because it doesn’t divide us. It unifies us. It eases our pains. It mollifies our anxieties and fears.

It reminds us that life is worth living. And it feels really good to be reminded of that.