Article November 14, 1983 Issue

Football is not war

JACK FORREST TAYLOR

Recently, before a nationally televised collegiate football game between two prominent schools in the southern United States, the television commentator read an excerpt from a local newspaper that stated, "... this is not just a football game, this is war!"

As a Christian Scientist and high-school football coach, I found this warlike concept of football caused many problems—the main one being that wars and battles produce casualties. On at least two occasions I found myself sitting in a hospital lobby praying as I waited for the recovery of team players. Both players did recover, but the widespread belief in football as "war" remained a continuing challenge to me as a coach.

Mrs. Eddy states, "Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory."^{ Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118.} This concept of warfare as being with a material sense of oneself, and not with another team or individual, is very thought-provoking, and it became the basis of solving other football-related problems I confronted later.