I mean I’ve of course unlearned the regressive social circumstances of football, nor is it unique to football. It’s fairly common in many male-dominated spaces, particularly ones which tend to cater to toxic ideals of masculinity or, as it is sometimes euphemized, comradery.

I think basically all people who were socialized male have had these experiences at one point or another, whether it be in football, in class, in the military, at sleepovers, in the locker room.

My point is more so that football has a particular “culture”, or it did when I was a kid. And that culture was not necessarily socially productive at a young and impressionable age. When we see certain behaviors in particularly young men, we have to wonder where they come from, and what we are doing to cultivate that.