The Erotic Gaze in the NFL Draft

Race and the NFL Draft: Views from the Auction Block

“…Such qualifications may reflect the experiences of minorities who have found few rewards for challenging racialized practices in other institutions-if challenging racism reaps little more than accusations of oversensitivity, minorities learn to avoid traditional paths to reconciliation or to frame complaints in ways that try to remove race from the equation (Feagin and Sikes 2001;Weitzer 2000). As Oates (2004Oates ( , 2007 points out, however, practices like "walking the plank" emphasize a power structure in which a mostly white ownership structure profits from selling the opportunity for a largely white audience to examine and judge minorities' bodies. Our findings reflect this power structure, with minority respondents identifying these circumstances as having racial overtones, while white respondents may relate more fully with the distribution of opportunity and reward and with those making decisions about that distribution.…”

Big Football: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Culture and Color of Injury in America’s Most Popular Sport

“…In capitalizing on hypervisible although highly controlled and disciplined forms of Black masculinity (Brown, 2017; Cunningham, 2009; Mower, Andrews, & Rick, 2014), the NFL also profits from and propagates a dominant racial “common sense” (Omi & Winant, 1994, p. 4) that involves intersecting logics of “white innocence” and “black abstraction” (Ioanide, 2014; Ross, 1990). Whereas scouting reports, video games, and the media tend to portray White players in terms of work ethic and intelligence, Black players are commonly depicted in terms of innate “physical attributes and negative intangibles” (Boylan, McMahon, & Monroe, 2016; Leonard, 2004; Oates, 2007), a kind of “racial athleticism” (St Louis, 2004). Video games like Madden are not dissimilar from the sports media in general, David J. Leonard writes, in representing Black male players as “physically and verbally aggressive,” “excessively muscular,” “hyper-masculine,” and possessing “sheer force” and “pure athleticism.” In this way, actual and virtual manifestations of football combine to “indulge white pleasures as they affirm stereotypical visions of black bodies, as physical, aggressive and violent,” “playing on white fantasies as they simultaneously affirm white privilege” through consumption (Leonard, 2004, pp.…”

Biological Fandom

“…(Indeed, the NFL Combine and Draft also hold special significance for fantasy football “dynasty leagues” as users of that format are allowed to “keep” players year-to-year indefinitely.) Poked and prodded in what has otherwise been called a “‘meat market” (McLane, 2008; Oates, 2007), players undergo a battery of medical tests and measurements, both physical—X-rays, CT scans, checking of vital organs, blood, urine and stool samples—and psychological, in order to place a value on their biological being (Oates, 2007; Oates & Durham, 2004).…”

“…Separated from an actual playing environment, athletes are graded on their measurables (height/weight) and performance in drills—such as the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill, broad jump, and bench press—in order to test speed, agility, power, and strength. Based on the resultant numbers, players may find their “draft stock” (value) has either risen or fallen (Oates, 2007; Oates & Durham, 2004).…”