Bill Wylie-Kellerman, in an article concerning the principality of sports, that is sport’s spirituality and power, responds to a statistic that Catholic theologian Michael Novak mentions as an answer to the question of whether violent sports like football sublimates and controls violence or socializes us to violence and legitimates it. Novak mentions the interesting fact that police officers around the country know that during Monday Night Football crime rates plummet. However, Wylie-Kellerman points out another fact that is far more telling. Super Bowl Sunday is regularly the day highest in incidents of spouse abuse. He follows, “All that testosterone saturated in adrenalin and alcohol. Then half the men in the world’s largest viewing audience come up losers for the day. I suppose they either buy something or beat somebody” (The Witness, Jan/Feb 1998).
Do sports control violence or legitimate it? Wylie-Kellerman also points out that inner-city gang colors are typically of football or sports teams.
