Analysis Of Serazio's Article Does God Wear A Jersey?

Does God Wear a Jersey?
When sports come to mind, the smells of nachos, frozen lemonade, and hot dogs swirl around in old memories. The noises of clapping and cheering come to mind as the audience is filled with excitement for the oncoming action. Something that does not come to thought right away though is the idea that American sports traditions are increasingly similar to religious practices even indigenous religious practices. While in America it is easy to consider ourselves far more advanced than the tribes of the mid 1700 's there are major similarities between these ancient traditions and our current sports practices such as the use of symbols and rituals as sacred, the pattern of a deep loyalty, and even aggression or violence based

Individuals who cheer on these teams often do not help with practices, major funding, or others direct sources of contribution to the teams. Instead these fans cheer from the sidelines and their living rooms but still associate themselves with the

These old tribes would offer up human or animal sacrifices up to their Gods in order for it to rain, or blessing to come to their families. On the contrary, athletic fans do not go around crusading in the name of their teams, there has been studies showing the link between team devotion and aggression. In 1999 the Social Behavior & Personality: an international journal posted an article titled: Sports Fan Aggression and Anonymity: The Importance of Team Identification. In this article, the authors discussed based off of studies that individuals with a higher identification with the team would be more willing to anonymously hurt a those in the opposite team.“Rather, because their team’s performances have relevance to their self-concept, they become more willing to assist the team by acting violently,” (Cothran, Dykes, Peterson, and Wann 601). Certainly these types of aggression have differences but nonetheless, both