ABSTRACT
Within this chapter, I begin the exploration of the sporting popular in the post-9/11 period by thinking through the very active processes through which the nation-at least as a cultural entity-is conjured up. To do so requires understanding the continued resonance of the nation in a globalized world and the role of key individuals-cultural intermediaries, media professionals, politicians, celebrity performers-in the active constitution of national culture. From that juncture, I turn to the initial ‘knee-jerk’ reactions to 9/11, highlighting the important relationships among sport, television, and the state in (re)defi ning the nation, coming to terms with 9/11, providing ‘offi cial’ understandings and interpretations of the event, and setting the terms for a geo-political-military response. Prior to discussion of the post-9/11 sporting popular, I begin the chapter by locating the contemporary cultural politics, and (corporate) constitution, of the nation.
