ABSTRACT
The author's thesis is that while football, on one level, is just a sport that provides entertainment for millions of fans, at a deeper level it has other meanings and speaks to the readers in different ways. Although football is a game about gaining territory and scoring points, ultimately football is about escape and containment. Although the game of football is a rough and violent one, played by huge and often very powerful players, it really is based on strategy and the power of mind. Football has been played for more than one hundred years in American colleges and universities, so there are some rivalries that have lasted for decades and decades. This means that a given game between two teams that have been traditional rivals is not just a game, but part of a continual relationship that may have lasted for fifty or seventy-five years.
