11 Masculinities and Crime
A Brotherhood of Violence and Mutilation
The next three chapters describe the perspectives and experiences of Canadian football players, coaches, and administrators. As such, they include numerous quotes and paraphrases to capture the voices of the participants. I make an attempt throughout to reveal the dissenting voices and varying realities of the embodied knowledge of individual players and administrators. However, I also try to reveal larger trends and themes that can contribute to our shared understanding of violence, hazing, and performance-enhancing drug use in Canadian football.
Perceptions and Experiences of Violence
Many football players in Canada do not perceive their sport to be violent. In fact, nearly half of the interview participants in this study reported that violence is unacceptable in football. This assertion reveals a shared belief among football players that the collision of bodies routinely occurring during each play on the eld is not violent. While every player interviewed indicated concern over acts that happened under these conditions, a substantial minority suggested that in-game contact should not be labelled violence. For example, one junior player stated that “football is a contact sport, not a violent sport.” A player at the professional level reported that football is not violent but is rather “a game of constant collisions.” A CFL quarterback pointed out, “physicality and collisions are happening all of the time. I am not sure I would call that violence.” Likewise, a university player stated, “I wouldn’t declare football as being violent. Some teams are, but the sport isn’t. A good game of football played until the whistle every play and without cheap shots is not violent.” According to these players, violence on the eld only takes place when it is outside the rules of play, and occurs a er a play has been whistled down, or well away from the action of the game. On field violence only occurs when an act goes beyond the routine, sanctioned collisions involved in the sport.
In contrast to the limited de nition of violence that many players and coaches hold, some perceive the routine body contact that occurs on the eld as violence. For example, a university kicker stated, “violence on the eld is an acceptable part of football to the extent that it is exerted in order to tackle or block a player legally.” Likewise, a junior linebacker noted, “I think it could just about be the most violent sport of all of the major sports around today.”
Players do not have a uniform opinion of how violence on the eld should be de ned. Many do not see routine body contact as violence, while others do. All players do, however, report that they perceive contact that occurs a er the whistle, outside of the rules of play, away from the action, or with intent to injure as violence.
Three distinct types of violence emerged from players’ description of the force and collisions of Canadian football: routine contact,