Football is the perfect recreational sport for what psychologists refer to as the “Alpha Male,” dominant male personalities who exhibit highly competitive tendencies. Football combines everything that these men want from a sport: ferocious physical specimens, intense battles for supremacy, and a definitive winner and loser.

Every play in a game of football is an exercise in physicality. Bodies collide with other bodies, blows are traded back and forth, and on occasion, someone gets his world rocked when another player makes a great tackle. Every snap is another opportunity to hit someone, to put a stick on them, to ring their bell. For these reasons, massive, hulking football players enjoy a distinct advantage. A 250-pound linebacker is going to have a lot easier time tackling a fullback than a guy half that size. Football players spend hours in the weight room, a favorite destination of Alpha Males, pumping iron and growing bigger. A game of football is a modern-day “Clash of the Titans.”

It’s no secret as to why many football coaches describe the game in militaristic terms: every game, every quarter, and every snap is a battle. Players fight to gain yards, they fight to throw blocks and make tackles and ultimately score more points than the other team. They measure success in terms of feet and inches, and throw themselves relentlessly at each other for no other reason than a gritty and determined will to win. When one football player gets an advantage, he exploits it ruthlessly, driving his opponent into the ground. These battles occur every single play as the battling behemoths duke it out, and whoever wins these battles will ultimately win the game.

The most important aspect of football for the Alpha Male is the presence of a clear winner and loser. Unlike soccer, wherein a high percentage of the matches end in ties, football games will always feature one team defeating the other. It goes along with the themes that appeal to these macho men: vanquishing the conquered, triumphing over a weaker opponent, claiming victory for all to see. Football games that end in a tie go into a sudden-death overtime, in which the first team that scores wins the game. In situations like that, every player is keyed up for every snap, hoping to make the play that wins the game, desperate not to make the mistake that loses the game. Every player feels the burden of victory, and if one player fails, he will bring down his entire team, and go home in crushing defeat. Conversely, the player that wins the game for his team is elevated to hero status, the pinnacle of achievement for the Alpha Male.

Football is the perfect recreational sport for the Alpha Male because it so totally encapsulates all of the things that the Alpha Male is and aspires to be. Alpha Males are big men, men who spend hours working on their physique, and they do not shirk physical confrontation, but embrace it. Further, they love the idea that there is a winner, and they strive to be that winner, every game, every quarter, every single down.

Author Bio: I write for TIR Massage Stone about hot stone massage and massage stone therapy including hot and cold applications.

Category: Sports
Keywords: football,football coaches,sports,recreation,Alpha Male