Sociology in Action: A Falcons Game Experience - Prof. Robert L. Caine, Study notes of Introduction to Sociology

Download Sociology in Action: A Falcons Game Experience - Prof. Robert L. Caine and more Study notes Introduction to Sociology in PDF only on Docsity!

Sociology at a Falcons Game

Jonathan Holtzclaw SOCI 1101 Fall 2010 Dr. Caine

Sociology at a Falcons Game

On Thursday, November 11th, at 8:20 PM, I attended the Atlanta Falcons game in the Georgia Dome against the Baltimore Ravens. It was a very exciting game and an all around good time for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I went with my dad because he had gotten tickets a week earlier for us to go. Leading up to this game, I had learned a lot about sociology and had learned many new terms from Dr. Caine’s SOCI 1101 class. I was amazed at how these terms could be applied to my time at the Falcons game. Throughout this paper I will talk about what I observed. I will only use Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach 8 th^ edition by James H. Henslin as my reference. My dad drove next to the airport to park because he thought there would be a big crowd and this hypothesis of his ended up being correct. We got to the Marta Station around 7 PM to take the train to the dome where we saw both Raven and Falcon fans together. Most fans were nice and if there was trash talking, then it was just for fun. Trash talking is considered functional in our society as long as nothing bad happens as a result of it. If a fight had broken out, then it would have been dysfunctional. When we got to the dome, we stood in line and showed our tickets to the guards at the gates and they let us by. We were searched by the guards to make sure we weren’t carrying anything dangerous. This process is part of our non-material culture and is a norm

some slight discrimination in football that people don’t notice. I think the discrimination is ignored because most of the time, the black and white players work together and win. Our seats were pretty high up and there were two fairly attractive girls who sat in the seats next to us. I might have talked to them if I wasn’t with my dad. It would have been strange if I had even tried talking to them while he was there. Throughout this game, there were many better seats that were empty. This could be because the “bourgeoisie” as Karl Marx would call it, or corporate companies, couldn’t find people to pay for the expensive seats (Henslin). Now to start the game, the kicker raised his arm up as a symbol to let the crowd and team know that he was kicking off. This is when I started to notice a lot of the players and plays that were being called. Most of the players had an achieved status of being known as a celebrity. For example, Matt Ryan achieved the status of “quarterback” for the Atlanta Falcons. He performed well in his role as quarterback in this game also. He was definitely the leader of the team that night. According to Chapter 5 of Henslin’s book, Ryan was both an instrumental and expressive leader because he was emotional about winning and he also stayed on task with the plays he chose. Most of the players held higher statuses than the fans because they had more property, power, and prestige. At halftime, Arthur Blank, the Falcons owner, came up and spoke to thank the fans and to retire former player Deion Sanders uniform number. Arthur Blank would be considered the bourgeoisie also by Karl Marx. That is because he owns the means to

produce wealth. The players and fans would be the proletariat because they actually produce the money by working. This isn’t considered a class conflict to me though because everyone was having a good time and nobody was really being exploited by the owner. During halftime there were many fans buying beer and food. According to Robert Merton, beer would be a manifest function because it intends to make fans happy and helps them enjoy the game. It can be a latent dysfunction though too because it can cause people to fight and cause trouble if they drink too much. Thankfully I don’t think anything like this happened at the game. As the game went on, it got more exciting and nerve racking. The Falcons seemed in control for most of the game so the fans were all happy and some were even joking around. However in the 4th^ quarter of the game the Ravens finally took the lead which made some Atlanta fans very nervous and the whole stadium got quiet. The falcons then came down the field with less than a minute left to score the game winning touchdown. The crowd erupted louder than they had been the entire day. This just comes to show how symbolic the Atlanta Falcons team is to a city and its fans. When the Falcons scored that last Touchdown, fans who didn’t even know each other were hugging and giving out high fives. Things like this wouldn’t be acceptable at any other time. When the game was finally over, all of the Falcons fans were joyous and let everyone know by yelling and screaming various phrases such as “7-2”, or “1st^ place”. It

Works Cited:

H e n s l i n , J a m e s M. E s s e n t i a l s o f S o c i o l o g y : A D o w n t o E a r t h A p p r o a c h. 8 t h e d. U S A : H e n s l i n , 2 0 0 9. P r i n t.