Sports
Robert Lewandowski interview: ‘Noisy’ Barcelona, ‘fearless’ youngsters and making an impact in Messi-Ronaldo era
Robert Lewandowski was battling against the odds at Barcelona.
As their disappointing 2023-24 season came to a close, senior decision-makers at the club were open to the idea of selling the veteran striker after just two seasons at Barca. He had scored 19 league goals as they finished runners-up to Real Madrid in La Liga (to add to 23 goals in his first season), but Xavi and his coaching staff believed Lewandowski, who turned 36 in August, did not have the pressing ability and off-the-ball requirements to lead the line anymore.
Six months later, Barcelona are top of La Liga, have thrashed Madrid and his old club Bayern Munich in the past month, and Lewandowski is the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues across all competitions, with 19 goals in 17 matches.
Many things have changed at Barca during that time. Hansi Flick replaced Xavi as head coach, wonderkids from La Masia, such as Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, have continued their impressive rises and the Catalan club has awoken as a European force. Lewandowski has been a vital part of that success, scoring more goals than games played in both La Liga and the Champions League.
Even for a player of his vast experience, the Polish striker is the first to admit there has been a steep adaptation process since he arrived as their marquee signing in the summer of 2022.
“It might be difficult to compare with other clubs, but everything gets very noisy at Barcelona,” Lewandowski tells The Athletic in an exclusive interview this week. “I have learnt in these years in the club how to stay away from this. At the start, I read and heard a lot of disinformation and in some cases, I didn’t understand why it was happening.
“But then I understood how this media world works in Barcelona and I decided to be completely out (disconnected from it). I don’t focus anymore on these things, it’s too much and not good for the long term of your career.”
It’s not been just the media landscape that has taken some getting used to for Lewandowski. The 36-year-old plays a significant role in a dressing room full of precocious talents. He is 19 years older than Yamal and Cubarsi and there is a 16-year age gap between him and Gavi, as well as a 15-year one with Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado and Fermin Lopez.
Lewandowski and Yamal celebrating during the Clasico win earlier this season (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
At a time when Barcelona needed them given the financial constraints on the club, the next generation have stepped up and made a huge impact in the first team. For older players, particularly those who did not come through the club’s academy, it’s been important to understand and embrace these rising stars.
“At the beginning of my time here, I needed to understand the new generation — their thinking and everything,” says Lewandowski, who is speaking in his role as an ambassador for the digital entertainment marketplace G2A. “I had to learn Spanish as well, but then I started talking with them about different subjects at lunch tables or moments we had together. It’s easy for me to talk about the experiences I’ve had in my career, or simply when I was a teenager.
“Youngsters are completely different now. When I was younger, when a veteran told me to do something, I would obey them directly without a single question. Now it’s different, it’s not good or bad, don’t get me wrong, it’s just different. They are fearless in every sense and not only in football. Society is like that. Youngsters are more fearless and self-confident.
“Over the last year, I feel I have clicked in a better way with them. I usually sit at lunch with several youngsters and we speak about life. I listen to their worries and they ask what I used to think at their age. In a way, we were very similar, but I saw the world from a different perspective to what they have now.”
Flick has acted as a unifying factor between those two worlds, the old and the new. Eyebrows were raised when a German manager who didn’t speak the language was appointed in the summer, but he embraced the job, improved the team and very quickly won over the doubters.
“Every individual in the club is doing better,” says Lewandowski. “We, the players, are doing great on the pitch. I also think we all feel stronger. When you have this fitness preparation we have now, you don’t need to worry about keeping the physical demands of the game and then also think about how to beat your opponent. We now know we are fine, we have the power and the legs to do what we need.”
Some players present for Flick’s first training sessions told The Athletic they were impressed by the German’s knowledge of every La Masia graduate and what they could bring to the first team. Even the youngsters were impressed by this and the confidence he instilled in them has been translated onto the pitch, as seen in the emergence of less-heralded players such as Casado and the now-injured Marc Bernal.
Lewandowski, of course, had a past with Flick. They worked together at Bayern, achieving great success together in 2020 when they won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the Champions League. The striker, who was named UEFA’s player of the year during his time in Munich with Flick, says the 59-year-old’s man-management has been key to Barcelona’s progress.
Flick and Lewandowski after being named coach and player of the year in Germany in 2020 (M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images)
“I think the first time I spoke with him this year was in the period when Barcelona were looking for a new manager (Xavi left the club on May 24). It was a short period, about two or three weeks before the start of summer,” he says.
“When I got the information, I was very happy because I knew what was going to happen. I’ve worked a lot with Hansi and we don’t need to talk too much — we understand each other very easily and don’t need too many words. When he tries to explain something, I can understand straight away the way he wants to convince us to play. This is one of the things I like the most about him.
“Not just as a coach, he is a very direct and fair person. Even with the players who do not play, he will try to speak to you and tell you the truth. I think all the players appreciate that because if someone is fully honest with you, then you can understand their decisions better.”
The admiration is mutual. In September, after Barcelona beat Getafe 1-0 thanks to a goal from the striker, Flick didn’t hesitate in saying: “Lewandowski is, for me, the best No 9 in the last decade of football.”
“I am very glad to see that the coach supports me. But for me, at this point of my career, seeing what somebody says to the media is not that important,” Lewandowski says.
“The most important thing is what he says to me in private, in the dressing room, in meetings or every day in training sessions. There’s even sometimes he (Flick) does not say something to the media but he says it to me directly. This is key.”
Lewandowski speaking to The Athletic about life at Barcelona and excelling in the Messi-Ronaldo era (Eduard Duran for The Athletic)
The striker’s words might take you back to last season when Xavi was complimentary about Lewandowski in media duties, but that did not seem to translate into the club’s planning in May.
“I don’t refer to any moments in particular, but in my career, I have seen that, sometimes, what is going around is not totally real. The value of the words, for me, is bigger when anyone says it in private to me,” Lewandowski says.
“There are a lot of politics as well in the industry. I know too much about this business. I am not the guy who believes if someone says an opinion about anything… I prefer to listen to certain things myself to then trust them.
“This is not only for me I think. For the rest of my team-mates, too. The most important thing is what we discuss indoors, between ourselves.”
Like plenty of his team-mates, at Barcelona and his previous clubs, Lewandowski is a big fan of gaming and has been for a long time.
“As far as I remember, I loved playing games in my free time,” he says. “Even now, when free time is something very valuable, it just allows me to switch off. It is a space of time when I don’t think about anything else. I am so focused and feel in a different world.”
This feeds into what he says is a “very natural” link-up with G2A, who describe themselves as the world’s largest marketplace for digital entertainment.
“I have been a huge fan of Formula 1 and NBA for years, so I play those games. Now I also spend a lot of time on military games. I remember when I was like 20, at Dortmund, we were playing online with the rest of our team-mates. We were like 15 different players in the same game. In that time, without family, it was probably easier,” he says with a laugh.
His number one priority in life is his family — his wife Anna, who he married in 2013, and his two daughters, Laura (aged 14) and Klara (aged 7).
“The first place goes to my family,” he says. “Whenever we have time and opportunity, we spend time doing things, talking, and being together. Children give you a different perspective, you are responsible for them and you watch them develop their interests, look for their own hobbies and pursue them.
“I love showing the world to my daughters.”
Lewandowski has scored 525 goals in 674 games during his time at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern and Barca and 84 in 156 appearances for the Poland national team. In Europe’s top five leagues, he has won 11 league titles, four domestic cups and lifted the Champions League with Bayern (as well as being runner-up with Dortmund in 2013).
It has been a far from usual path to football’s elite, too. He played for five different Polish teams between the age of 17 and 22, progressing and getting better moves each time, before securing a transfer from Lech Poznan to Dortmund in 2010. He has never looked back and can feel aggrieved not to have won the Ballon d’Or in 2020 — when the award was cancelled due to the pandemic — after a truly outstanding season at Bayern Munich.
“In a way, strikers need to be selfish sometimes,” he says when reflecting on his goalscoring. “There can be situations where the team is not finding their way and the strikers, for the position we play in, can make a difference by doing their own thing.
“I think that there are two positions in the game that require a different personality from other footballers: goalkeepers and strikers. We both can make a difference out of nothing.”
This mentality perhaps reflects the era he has lived and played in: led by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two prolific goalscorers who motivated themselves through fierce ambition to be the best in the sport. It is hard to stand tall beside those two, but Lewandowski believes there are many reasons to feel proud of his legacy — and to know that he has gone toe-to-toe with those two greats in spells and at times even surpassed them. Only Messi and Ronaldo have more than his 99 goals in the Champions League; he could hit 100 on Tuesday against French side Brest.
“I have been playing football in the same era as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I think I’ve been close to that elite level in some moments and even beat them in different games. I think we can say I was around!” he says.
“It means a lot if you get close to guys like this. It makes me very proud to see that in the era of Messi and Ronaldo, sometimes, Lewandowski also managed to break some records and make an impact.”
Lewandowski and Messi facing each other at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Sustaining greatness is the biggest challenge for the next generation, such as Yamal and Cubarsi, according to Lewandowski. Earlier this season, he described Yamal as “the best winger in the world at the moment”. It was big praise — not just from a team-mate, but from a striker who has been surrounded by some of the world’s best wide players throughout his career.
“Every young talent in the world needs to have the challenge to not just reach the top of football, but to stay there,” says Lewandowski. “And for me, nowadays, this can be even more difficult than before.
“Now you have social media, footballers with money from a young age, maybe you win some titles and you have a lot of people saying you are great… all of this can be difficult to process. If you don’t build up the mentality in the right time, later on, it can be complicated to figure out the tougher situations.”
In 2022, Lewandowski signed a three-year contract with Barcelona, extendable to a fourth season if he played more than 50 per cent of minutes in the 2024-25 campaign. Everyone at the club expects this clause to be triggered and for Lewandowski to remain Barca’s No 9 for another year.
Are there more plans in Lewandowski’s mind beyond that?
“I can’t do too many long-term plans right now. I see myself very well now,” he says. “Maybe in two or three years, I feel like I don’t want to play anymore at the top level, but in this age, you can’t know exactly what’s going on. But I feel that I am where I dreamt to be, in the right place with the right people.
“The way Barca fans have supported me, it’s been amazing. In games but also in my daily life, it’s been special.”
He is targeting the 2026 World Cup with Poland, too: “I want to be part of the qualifiers and we will see. For me, it’s special to play for my country, I can never say I’ve had enough. I feel I have this power to help them on and off the pitch.”
His contract at Barcelona has often been a subject of discussion around the club. Lewandowski is one of the top earners and last September, in a press conference, president Joan Laporta revealed the striker offered to “adequate his contract” in a way that could help Barca’s finances to register new signing Dani Olmo on time.
“I would prefer not to talk about details,” says Lewandowski when asked what exactly he proposed to the club. “For me, it is that being a part of Barcelona is not just being a player. I think I can be an important figure in the club in all departments. I like to share what I think, my opinions. I’ve had many experiences in football, management and everything around the industry, so I think my thoughts can be helpful.
“When I spoke with the president, I shared my thoughts. I am a person who is not afraid of sharing opinions. Not to attack anyone, but just discuss the best solutions for the club.
“If we get the club to a better place, that’s going to have a good impact on me, too, so that’s a win-win and the best way to live my profession.”
Barcelona are doing plenty of winning at the moment, six points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga (albeit their rivals have a game in hand) and in line to qualify automatically for the Champions League round of 16.
Lewandowski, at the ripe old age of 36, is playing a starring role.
(Additional contributor: Mark Carey)
(Top photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)
And now, 12 Final Thoughts from the first weekend of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
1. The first on-campus Playoff game kicked off at 8:10 p.m. ET in front of 77,622 roaring fans at Notre Dame Stadium. You didn’t have to be in the 25-degree South Bend weather to get the chills. Anyone watching on TV could appreciate the magnitude of this moment for a sport that has only ever played its postseason at bowl games and neutral sites.
The honeymoon lasted about 40 minutes, until Indiana fell behind Notre Dame 14-0 and the first wave of complaints began. The wrong team(s) got in. The game(s) were boring. Twelve teams was too many. Or too few.
Twenty-seven hours later, Ohio State completed the fourth home blowout of the first round, an anticlimactic ending to such an anticipated weekend. Maybe the committee did a bad job. Maybe it was the weather. Or … maybe Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State are really good teams.
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2. The eighth-seeded Buckeyes were the biggest wild cards coming into the weekend. Who knew where their heads would be three weeks removed from their Michigan nightmare? Many of the fans who booed them off the field that day apparently stayed home for this one, as tens of thousands of orange-clad Tennessee fans infiltrated the Horseshoe.
Well, those concerns went out the window before the end of the first quarter. Ohio State raced to a 21-0 lead en route to a 42-17 demolition of the ninth-seeded Vols. The Buckeyes’ star-studded offense did whatever it wanted, starting with quarterback Will Howard’s best performance of the season: 24 of 29 for 311 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Tennessee’s cornerbacks had no answers for receivers Jeremiah Smith (six catches, 103 yards, two TDs) and Emeka Egbuka (five catches, 81 yards), and running back TreVeyon Henderson (14 touches, 134 yards, two TDs) was electrifying.
Only head coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly can say why Ohio State’s offense has so rarely played to its potential, or why it flat-out no-showed against Michigan. But this version could win a national championship.
3. How would you like to be No. 1 seed Oregon watching that game? The Ducks went undefeated, including beating Ohio State at home in a classic — and now they’ve got to go play the Buckeyes again in the quarterfinals? While Penn State gets Boise State? Seems like a bug.
But it’s going to make for a fantastic Rose Bowl — and a classic Big Ten-Pac-12 matchup, no less. Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks get my benefit of the doubt because they’ve been more consistent all season and they’ll be well-rested. But remember, Ohio State was on the verge of winning their first meeting before that back-breaking offensive pass interference call on Smith. And Howard will be out for revenge after his last-second clock miscue cost the Buckeyes their last shot.
Texas racked up 292 rushing yards vs. Clemson. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)
4. No. 5 seed Texas has been at its best this season when the running game gets cranked up, and that’s exactly what happened in Saturday’s 38-24 win over No. 12 seed Clemson. Tailbacks Jaydon Blue (14 carries, 146 yards, two long touchdowns) and Quintrevion Wisner (15 carries, 110 yards, two TDs) became the first Longhorns tandem since 2022 to both go over 100 yards. Texas advances to the Peach Bowl, where it will meet Big 12 champion Arizona State and will be expected to win. The Sun Devils got much better as the season went on, and star running back Cam Skattebo finished fifth in the Heisman voting, but man, Texas’ defense is really good. And this time it’s not playing Georgia in Atlanta.
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5. Clemson finished with four losses for the second straight season, but quarterback Cade Klubnik gives the Tigers hope for 2025. After falling behind 31-10 in the third quarter, Klubnik got Clemson back within one score despite the Tigers being down their top two running backs. Klubnik finished 26 of 43 for 336 yards, three touchdowns and an interception and had more rushing attempts (13) than his teammates (11), but he got no help from Clemson’s defense. Two plays after Clemson cut it to 31-24, Texas’ Blue dashed 77 yards for the dagger touchdown.
Dabo Swinney recently signed his first-ever defensive player out of the transfer portal, Purdue end Will Heldt. Now he just needs a few more.
6. Penn State’s 38-10 rout of SMU must have been cathartic for the 100,000-plus in Beaver Stadium, even if it meant becoming popsicles for four hours. Nittany Lions fans have spent much of the past eight years getting let down in big games, but this performance was emphatic. Two pick sixes in the first 17 minutes got the crowd roaring, and it soon became apparent that SMU’s offense stood no chance against Kobe King, Abdul Carter, Dominic DeLuca and Dani Dennis-Sutton. Penn State’s own offense was hardly overpowering (5 yards per play), but it didn’t need to be. Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings (20 of 36, 195 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions) struggled badly against the best defense he’s faced, while SMU managed just 58 rushing yards on 36 attempts.
Penn State’s defense overwhelmed SMU in a 38-10 rout. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
7. Penn State now heads to the Fiesta Bowl, where its rushing defense gets a next-level challenge in No. 3 seed Boise State and Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty, who has 2,497 yards and 29 TDs on the ground this season. James Franklin’s team will likely be a heavy favorite for a second straight game. (It opened as a 10.5-point favorite, per BetMGM.) Thanks to this tournament’s funky seeding, the Nittany Lions managed to draw the committee’s No. 9 (Boise) and No. 10 (SMU) teams in their first two games. Top seeds Oregon (against No. 6 Ohio State) and Georgia (against No. 5 Notre Dame) have tougher quarterfinal draws than Penn State, which has the second-best odds to make the title game (40 percent), according to The Athletic’s model.
It’s a golden opportunity for Franklin’s team in its biggest postseason game since the 2017 Rose Bowl against USC.
8. If you thought the bickering from three weeks ago over the final spots in the bracket would be rendered moot once the games started … you must be new here. Just like in the BCS and the four-team CFP, every lopsided postseason game becomes a retroactive rallying cry for the team(s) left out. Even Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, still miffed his 9-3 team didn’t get in (while pretending that home loss to 4-8 Kentucky never happened), took some shots at the committee during both the Notre Dame-Indiana and Penn State-SMU games. (He was noticeably silent during the Ohio State-Tennessee game.)
Look, SMU got embarrassed. But the committee boxed itself in when chairman Warde Manuel declared after their penultimate rankings that teams whose seasons had ended would not be reevaluated after the conference championship games. At that point, the story became whether SMU would get “punished” if it lost to Clemson (which it did). Given a truly blank slate, maybe the committee would have given someone like 10-2 BYU a second look. As it was, it faced considerable pressure to avoid “knocking SMU out” for playing a 13th game. And then the Mustangs lost on a 56-yard field goal. They had to be in.
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9. No. 7 seed Notre Dame finally got its first BCS/CFP win, dominating No. 10 seed Indiana (the final score was 27-17, but it was 27-3 with two minutes to go) to set up a fascinating Sugar Bowl quarterfinal against No. 2 seed Georgia. In some ways the Irish and Bulldogs are mirror images: Both teams are physical on offense but with the ability to be explosive (see Jeremiyah Love’s 98-yard touchdown run Friday), and both have filthy defenses. Adding to the intrigue, Georgia is expected to be without injured quarterback Carson Beck, meaning backup Gunner Stockton will make his first career start against the nation’s top-rated pass defense.
But we may find out just how important those first-round byes can be. Whereas Georgia will have had 24 days of rest come Jan. 1, Notre Dame saw several key players suffer injuries 11 days out. Standout defensive tackle Rylie Mills went down clutching his knee after a sack and did not return. And starting right guard Rocco Spindler spent the second half in street clothes. The severity of those injuries is not yet known, though Marcus Freeman told ESPN that Mills’ injury was “not season-ending.”
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10. Curt Cignetti’s Indiana was one of the best stories of the 2024 season, but boy did it end with a dud. It wasn’t just that the Hoosiers got blown out. The brash Cignetti, who just hours earlier on “College GameDay” proclaimed, “We don’t just beat Top 25 teams, we beat the s— out of them,” could not have coached more conservatively as IU punted from the Notre Dame 37 in the first quarter, settled for a field goal from the Irish 16 already down 14-0 and bafflingly punted down 20-3 in the fourth quarter.
Just like against Ohio State on Nov. 23, Indiana (11-2) was completely overmatched in the trenches, and quarterback Kurtis Rourke (20 of 33, 215 yards, two TDs, one interception) misfired to several open receivers. A disappointing ending to the program’s best season in a half-century.
Notre Dame beat Indiana in their first matchup since 1991. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
11. With the game out of reach in the final minutes, ESPN’s Sean McDonough was not shy about questioning why Indiana, with its weak schedule, was included in the CFP in the first place. Kirk Herbstreit went in for more the next morning. In general, I agree with them that the committee needs to be more discerning about schedule strength in this age of 16/17/18-team conferences. Indiana will not be the last Big Ten or SEC team to win 11 games against empty calories.
But there was nobody else worth going to the mat for this season instead. The alternatives either lacked their own big wins (Miami), lost to bad teams (Alabama and Ole Miss) or lost to multiple other teams on the bubble (South Carolina).
It was only a few years ago people were complaining that the four-team CFP was mostly the same teams every year. I personally enjoyed the novelty of watching Indiana in a Playoff game. At least until that punt.
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12. That’s not to say I have no beefs with the new format. Reserving the first-round byes for conference champions was well-intended, but it had a profoundly unfair effect on the seeding this first year. The No. 3 (Boise State) and No. 4 (Arizona State) seeds, both champions, are double-digit underdogs in their quarterfinals to the Big Ten (Penn State) and SEC (Texas) runners-up. That’s not how a bracket is supposed to work.
And there’s one other flaw worth considering, now that we’ve experienced our first on-campus games: The top four seeds don’t get to hold their own. I myself love a trip to Pasadena, but I bet even Oregon fans would trade their Disneyland trip in exchange for Ohio State having to come back to Autzen Stadium.
But that’s not going to change in the next 10 days.
(Photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
Sports
Women's volleyball star has message for NCAA after Texas AG sues org over trans inclusion in women's sports
San Jose State women’s volleyball star Brooke Slusser warned the NCAA after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the organization over transgender inclusion in women’s sports.
Paxton filed the lawsuit on Sunday, accusing the organization of deceptive marketing practices for allowing transgender women to compete against biological females. Paxton said in a news release the NCAA violated the Texas Trade Practices Act “which exists to protect consumers from businesses attempting to mislead or trick them into purchasing goods or services that are not as advertised.”
San Jose State Spartans player Brooke Slusser has a lawsuit filed against the team. (Courtesy of San Jose State Athletics)
Slusser, who was a part of a lawsuit against her own school and the NCAA for allowing a transgender woman on the Spartans’ roster this season, posted about Paxton’s suit.
“Hey NCAA, just in case you haven’t realized yet this fight will just keep getting harder for you until you make a change!” Slusser wrote on X.
Slusser and other plaintiffs had asked a judge to grant an injunction to prohibit Blaire Fleming from competing in the Mountain West Conference women’s volleyball tournament last month, but they were denied.
SJSU RESPONDS TO VOLLEYBALL PLAYER MASS EXODUS AFTER TRANS ATHLETE SCANDAL ROCKED PROGRAM
Texas AG Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit on Sunday. (Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
San Jose State made it to the finals of the tournament but lost to Colorado State.
Paxton accused the NCAA of “engaging in false, deceptive, and misleading practices by marketing sporting events as ‘women’s’ competitions only to then provide consumers with mixed sex competitions where biological males compete against biological females.”
“The NCAA is intentionally and knowingly jeopardizing the safety and well-being of women by deceptively changing women’s competitions into co-ed competitions,” Paxton said in a statement. “When people watch a women’s volleyball game, for example, they expect to see women playing against other women – not biological males pretending to be something they are not. Radical ‘gender theory’ has no place in college sports.”
Paxton said he was seeking a court to grant a permanent injunction to prohibit the NCAA from allowing transgender athletes in women’s sports in Texas or “involving Texas teams, or alternatively requiring the NCAA to stop marketing events as ‘women’s’ when in fact they are mixed sex competitions,” the news release said.
Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA, speaks during a press conference on Aug. 13, 2024, at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. (Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar/USA Today Network)
The NCAA released a statement to Fox News Digital later Sunday.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,” the organization said.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
The ripple effects of the brawl that broke out between Ohio State and Michigan football players in late November are still spreading. A massive scrum ensued when celebrating Michigan players tried to plant a team flag on Ohio State’s field.
Are the fines levied on each team — $100,000 — too low for high-stakes college football? Was the police response appropriate? Should flag-planting be outlawed?
Sadly, the shoves and punches on the football field reflect a broader trend surging across America: a CEO was gunned down in the street, reporters and media personalities face increasing threats, a presidential candidate was nearly assassinated. And a staggering 23% of Americans now believe that we “may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
Football’s popularity, and its brutality, always takes heat for its role in the larger culture of violence. One writer condemned it as “unspeakably violent” and “wrapped up in machismo, militarism, swagger and patriotism.” Another wrote that violence and danger are “the beating heart of football.”
No doubt football is suffused with gladiatorial bravado. The growing emphasis on curbing the game’s long-term health risks, especially its connections to brain injury, will benefit players and fans alike. But as the bowl games and college playoffs roll out, we should note this as well: Too much is learned from football to cast it aside.
The football field — the baseball diamond, the basketball gym, the tennis court — is where millions of Americans learn discipline, respect for opponents and the value of coordinated action. Athletic contests are a schoolhouse of democracy that inculcates the habits of civic engagement necessary for a free people to thrive. Sports — even contact sports — are part of the solution, not the problem.
Participation in sports fosters a commitment to fair play. Fans and players understand that victory has no meaning if it’s achieved dishonestly; cheating undermines the integrity of the game. We lose respect for those who steal signs or use performance-enhancing drugs to get a leg up. The same is true in civil society — when the rules are violated, the whole system is weakened. Fair play in sports mirrors the importance of fairness in democratic society and a respect for the rules of engagement set by our political tradition.
Our government is held up not just by elected officials but by processes — the separation of powers, checks and balances, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections — that are time tested. These processes are the rules of the game. Without them democracy ends.
Sports breed civility. With the handshake at the end of a hard-fought contest, players recognize the effort, skill and fair play of the other side. Fans love watching LeBron James, but it’s his teammates and opponents who most understand his greatness, having themselves spent decades in practice and the weight room. They know how much dedication his level of excellence requires and they respect him for it. The same holds true on the Little League field.
This attitude is needed in civic life, and disturbing trends of rising polarization and disrespect between political adversaries illustrate why. Gridlock flourishes and resentments brew under those conditions. Effective policymaking demands respect for different views and acknowledging that well-meaning people can disagree on first principles. Grappling with differences is the beating heart of a pluralistic society.
Lastly, sports instill an appreciation for what can be accomplished through teamwork and coordinated action. No player can succeed without the support of others. No football game has ever been won by one person alone; no gymnast has ever excelled without a coach.
In our restless world where mobility means opportunity, and the average American moves from their friends, family and local community nearly 12 times in their life, it’s easy to forget that we aren’t just wandering individuals, disconnected from a broader community. Sports, like other kinds of association, gather us together and remind us that the things worth accomplishing require collective effort. We need the games we play and watch to keep from turning further inward, deeper into the isolation and paranoia that fuel our present crisis.
When commentators say that football is irredeemable — “pure violence as entertainment,” said two sociologists in these pages — they aren’t saying the quiet part out loud, they’re forgetting the quiet part entirely: The intensity of sport belies a deeper communion, that we learn to respect each other and ourselves when we face off on the field.
Frederick J. Ryan Jr. is the director of the Ronald Reagan Center on Civility and Democracy and a USC alumnus. James Washington is the president of the Rose Bowl Institute, a two-time Super Bowl champion and a UCLA alumnus.
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