Big Teams. Strong Bonds. Lasting Memories.
Flag football is among the most popular of the intramural sports at the University of Dallas, boasting a tremendous turnout. Why is this so? At face value, a large part of this is due to the sheer size of a football team (and I don’t mean body weights) compared to other sports like volleyball or pickleball. There is enough room on a football team for entire, decently sizable friend groups to play together. This means people can contribute as much or as little to their team as they want without affecting mayhem by not showing up. Thus, intramural football is accessible for all the busy friends, such as STEM majors, who goodness knows have way too much on their plate already.
Football is a sport which is very conducive to close bonding. Football has this effect because it is heavily reliant on strategic plays, whereas other sports at the intramural level, such as ultimate frisbee or volleyball, can be played largely without them. This is due to how the game is structured, and it means that in order to be able to operate smoothly as a unit, the team has to put in the time and work to learn and practice the plays together.
Football intramurals are also popular because it is just plain old fun to practice. Players said that their favorite part of the season was practicing with their team – practicing plays, passing the football and hanging out with their friends. Dominic Le called it “living the good life.”
It is very common to see intramural football teams made up of clubs or NCAA sports teams. This year, the bible study club made an appearance on the field, laying into their opponents with the power of the Gospels, as well as an entry made up of the baseball team, a famously tight-knit group.
Flag football is one of the more physically demanding of the intramurals. This is largely due to the inherently physical nature of the game. Although the intramural is played with flags instead of tackling, it is impossible to make football a completely non-contact sport. Players commented that the intramural games were more physical than they expected. In true college football fashion, this year’s intramurals came with more than their fair share of pushing, shoving and high speed collisions. And yet, in spite of all this, the students of the University of Dallas live up to their reputation as overall excellent sportsmen. Everyone interviewed said that they had good experiences playing with the other teams. Bad blood was rare; everyone seemed to agree that they were there to have fun and blow off some of the stress from looming midterms.
One player’s favorite game was a game that his team lost horribly. They played hard, serving back a strong fight, and though they lost, they were not broken up over the loss. They were not obsessed with winning, he said, and there were no hard feelings; both teams just wanted to enjoy a good game of American Football. This goes to show that our parents were actually right: winning is, in fact, not everything!
Football calls to a deep-rooted, unashamedly American urge for glory in the men of our country. More than other “Made in the USA” sports (such as basketball and baseball), American men gravitate to football with an unwavering consistency. Is it because – better than any other sport – football satisfies the primal masculine urge to prove your worth by going toe-to-toe with your opponent on the field of physical combat, to win glory among your people and confidence in yourself? Steven Cwik said that his favorite memory from any intramural was receiving a catch and running halfway down the field. “We still lost” he said, “but even still, that moment is unparalleled.”