Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America – A Visceral and Funny Cultural History of Sports and Contradictions

by Diane Roberts

Part introspective soul searching, part cultural analysis, Tribal tackles the controversies plaguing college athletics, tracing the dubious historical underpinnings of Americans’ most popular sport, offering a visceral and often funny analysis of its tribal thrills and deep contradictions. Florida State’s football team is always in the headlines, producing Heisman Trophy candidates, winning championships, and, at the same time, dealing with federal investigations into corruption and rape. Same as many big time collegiate sports programs. Seems no matter how the team transgresses off the field, if they excel on the field, everyone forgives them. Writer, professor and conflicted Seminole Diane Roberts looks at the problems plaguing her campus in Tallahassee, examining them within the context of college football itself and its significance in American life, and explores how the game shapes our culture.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2015

Reviews

[Craig Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm no football fan, but I've seen the game played and read a few books about it. I'd rank this one right up there with "Semi-Tough" for being hilarious, smart and quotable. The author, Diane Roberts, tosses off bons mots the way a Mardi Gras float tosses out beads.

The first time I read anything by Diane Roberts was back in the early 1980s when she was writing a regular column called "Das Kapital" for the FSU student paper, the Florida Flambeau. She wrote about the Legislature in a way that made you think that Hunter S. Thompson and Miss Manners had had a child and turned her loose on a typewriter. Her tone was arch, brightly cynical, knowing and yet constantly amused.

That's her tone here too. She's an expert at what I call "the high-low." She cites both high culture and low culture references, sometimes in the same sentence. You're as likely to read about Oedipus or King Lear as you are about Bobby Bowden or Jameis Winston. She knows the sports lingo too, having been a sports reporter for the Flambeau and having had the audacity to sit in the press box and NOT fetch drinks for the male reporters, and even to enter a locker room and ask questions of towel-draped men. She can tell you EXACTLY what's wrong with the NCAA.

Roberts, a native of the Florida Panhandle, was raised to be an FSU football fan and as much as she'd like to quit that habit she just can't. "I knew I was a Seminole before I even knew I was white or a Presybterian or even a girl," she writes. "I knew I was a Seminole before I even knew what a Seminole was. It meant I wasn't a Gator."

She sees clearly college football's barbarity, its racism, how it uses up poor young men for the sake of making millions from merchandise and TV rights and so forth. She even notes how Harvard's fight song inspired the martial music of Nazi Germany.

She wishes she could love baseball instead -- a simpler game, one with less chance of leaving its players with brain damage. The truth, she says, is that "baseball represents how America wants to see itself; football, particularly college football, represents America as it really is: not a Field of Dreams but a consecrated battleground where we celebrate violence and hypermasculinity, usually in the name of Jesus."

Roberts lifts the rug that colleges like to sweep all their scandals under and pulls out all kinds of nasty stories about her favorite sport. Yet in the end, she admits she still loves it "like a bad boyfriend."

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed reading this. Most college football fans I meet and speak to haven't read Foucault or are familiar with cultural studies. So reading this book by an English professor at FSU who LOVES college football while recognizes its warts was very refreshing.

If anything, I was left at the end of the book if the author did TOO good a job making the case AGAINST the game! She discusses the misogyny, the aggressive Christian triumphalism, the racial issues including echoes of plantation culture, and the physical concerns of concussions. She discusses her reasons for loving college football BEFORE devoting a chapter each to these concerns. So by the end, I found myself asking....wait, "so did you READ the book you just wrote???" But, of course, that's her point. That loving college football is irrational and and even mildly irresponsible. But she can't help herself. Neither can I.

[Matt Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

a book about the evils of college football from someone who can’t help but love college football, despite knowing it’s ethical and moral flaws. pretty awesome read

[Denise Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It sounded interesting...especially living in the heart of football central in the south...I just found the first two chapters boring and not particularly well-written so I decided there are too many books and too little time to continue.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Football is a deeply loved, and deeply controversial, sport in America. This is doubly so in college football. Being a baseball fan myself, I have never fully understood the love people have for this sport, but Dr. Roberts' book has helped me to recognize how one can embrace such a violent game in spite of all of its sins.

Focused mostly on her own campus, Florida State University or FSU, Dr. Roberts' explores the love fans have for the game and for their teams and how it binds people from disparate walks of life for a season. But what is most interesting about this book is that she also explores the egregious number of sins that this love papers over: racism, homophobia, sexism, violations of the constitutional separation between church and state, lack of academic achievement by many "student-athletes," and crimes committed by players. Yet she does it with sarcastic wit that lets you know that while she does not approve of any of this, damn it she still loves the game. The writing in here is comparable to any of the best sports writing I have seen for baseball. And for an outsider such as myself, it opens a window into a culture I know very little about.

Will college football have to change its ways? Definitely. Too many players destroy their bodies for a dream that few of them will ever achieve and none of them are paid proportionately to the income they bring into their schools. Too many players are allowed to get away with too many egregious crimes such as rape and theft. And too many players are given a passing grade for classes they either didn't attend or didn't pass. Dr. Roberts appears ready for such changes, but will still love the game even if these needed reforms do not come this season. And, I suspect, many other fans feel the same way too.

[bethany m. planton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Me, I’ll still care way too much, even though I know better. This is my tribe. These are my people.” In Tribal, Diane Roberts provides a great sociological look at football’s history. As a football fan(atic), I enjoyed the nuance Roberts brought to the sport. I would not have been as open to reading the book if the author did not love the sport.

[Dylan Bean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just in time for the end of the season. I always knew I was brainwashed but damn

[John Barbour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I have given this book a less than average rating; I give Diane Roberts an A+ for getting my attention. Unlike Diane, who was born here and got the Seminole “genes”; I ended up in Tallahassee because of a job that only lasted 4 years and was lost largely because of the very culture that Diane describes. That was 11 years ago.

Consequently, I do not share the love – hate relationship that she does. I also do not share her version of feminism or her distaste she seems to have for Christianity. Like most so-called liberals teaching in our universities, I wonder if she has ever seen a real Christian.

Having said that, I do think she has described the heretical version connected with football pretty well. When I took the behind the scenes tour of Doak Stadium, I was just as disturbed as the Apostle Paul must have been when he visited Athens and saw the many idols ( Acts 17:16).

Yes, the place is filled with statues and icons of the ‘gods” of football. She is correct. But true Christianity says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Old Testament) and “Little children keep yourselves from idols” and “flee idolatry” (New Testament). What she describes as the “secret heart of America” and as a very Tribal thing is in reality something that keeps people from God. Football, like gladiator games for the early church, does that.

Maybe she needs to see the distaste portion for football in her psyche as a sign that something is wrong and quit playing games with words.

Instead of criticizing organizations like The Fellowship for Christian Athletes, she should be praising it as a positive force in an otherwise very barbarous, brutal, sexist, retrograde, and racist culture that mistakes an aggressive fake Christian triumphalism complete with sexy cheerleaders singing “Just a Closer Walk with Me”, for the real McCoy.

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. Only reason it wasn't five stars is there were some sections that just went on a little too long. Like the Bowden life story, but I guess that's necessary in a Seminoles focused story.
Roberts is a life-long Seminoles fan who was occasionally in exile in Oxford (England, and Mississippi). The book is set against the accusations laid against star FSU QB Jameis Winston and Roberts uses this lens to tell the story of college football's complicated history: from crimes, race and sexism, scandals and how it's possible to love the sport even knowing its warts.
I enjoyed the info on the big name programs, but also smaller programs like Florida A&M who had more national championships than FSU.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earthshaking, but a good page turner of the shrine we have built to college football and its star programs, coaches, and players, touching on race, misogyny, NCAA hypocrisy in financial exploitation, and long-term injury. The author is enough of a legacy fan that this is not exactly a searing expose (not that there's any "secrets" left to expose these days).

[Jessica // Starjessreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where my football fans at? I love football and I love nonfiction, so I was pumped to read Tribal: College Football and The Secret Heart of America by Diane Roberts.

There is a lot to unpack in this book. What I most appreciated was how the author approached her writing as both a lifelong rabid college football fan, and as an academic. The author writes with a critical eye on the many problematic issues and the often horrifying history that go hand in hand with college football fandom.

I’ve always had a lot of cognitive dissonance about loving something that can be so fun, unifying, and full of joy and tradition while also often being rife with misogyny, racism, classism, homophobia, not to mention addiction, paralysis, and brain injury. I am still processing a lot of what I have learned reading this book, and it has further opened my eyes to a game I have grown up watching and loving.

Overall, I gave this book three stars due to its more research and fact-heavy presentation. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but I personally prefer a more narrative nonfiction style. It was good, but not a page-turner. However, I am glad I read it, and it’s a short 225 paperback pages for those who are interested.
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I read this book on the heels of listening to a riveting podcast from Wondery called Gladiator about the life and death of Aaron Hernandez (former New England Patriot and Florida Gator). I highly recommend it!

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, but surprisingly dense read about college football. The author grew up in Tallahassee, FL, so she was very much in the epicenter of one of the major college football programs in the nation: Florida State. As such, she is very familiar with the good and the bad of college football, which she brings to life in her writing. While discussing football, some of the key players, coaches and games, she also enters into discussions about various themes associated with college football, from race dynamics, gender biases, liberal and conservative debates about society in America, the exploitation of the athletes ...all can be tied into this work on college football, which she does a solid job of doing. The layout of the book is broken up into "quarters" and "halftime", but the themes tend to jump around. When she does discuss those themes, there is a good degree of thought in them, which would appeal to die-hard college football fans and those people who couldn't tell you the difference between Florida State and Florida A&M. (Personal aside, she grew up viewing the University of Florida as the "enemy", and while her writing tries to be objective, I don't think she cares too much for UF (a bonus in my book)). Perhaps not the definitive tome on college football, but worth a read.

[Linda Loretz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a huge football fan, but I read this for a Florida book chat. The book focuses mostly on southern college football, with an emphasis on Florida, but there is mention of many other teams and incidents. It was worthwhile to read it, yet I finished feeling disturbed by the corruption in college football that I had only been tangentially aware of before reading this book. I was astounded to learn how many star football players have allegedly committed immoral acts and crimes to have them overlooked and forgiven by coaches, college presidents, police departments, and sometimes even victims. The fan bases and alumni support for winning college teams are discussed in detail, and the whole culture of the big game left me dumbfounded.

Diane Roberts makes some astounding analogies about southern football and the NCAA. I laughed out loud when she compared some prominent football "families" to ancient Roman rulers, British dynasties, the Vatican, and other esteemed institutions. This author understands college football’s role, both historically and in our present times, and she is both fan and critic.

[David Finger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Diane Roberts really gets you looking at, and thinking about, college football in a different light. Although she clearly comes at this book from an academic standpoint, her love for the sport is undeniable. In many ways her fandom offers her a shield from what can only be described as some harsh criticism levied on the sport. From the tragic hazing death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion, to the disturbing racist history at her beloved FSU (culminating in the suicide of its first black player, Calvin Patterson), Roberts takes an honest and difficult look at some of the problems with the sport that we often end up trying not to think about. Perhaps most noteworthy is the unfortunate connection between sexual abuse and college football, and in particular how victims of sexual abuse sometimes are targeted by fans as was the case with FSU QB Jameis Winston.

[Thomas P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough read at times. Some good points about what is wrong with college football were addressed by the author, yet most it seems, had already been written about many times over. But the biggest problem with the book is the droning on and on, of linking college football to the general history and events of the world, which, again, has been written about ad nauseum. Also, the author seemed condescending in her writing style at times. I must admit though, the section about the Bowden family was pretty funny. This would be a decent book to read I suppose, for someone who does not know much about college football.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want a book filled with gratuitous multi-syllable words and a pervasive feeling of a bitter, angry late middle aged woman, this is the book for you The author is clearly impressed with herself, but I venture to say, the rest of the world simply finds her pretentious and pompous. I will say this, she is an expert in grandiloquence. I give it five yawns.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy, was this book a wake-up call. It was recommended to me when I visited Tallahassee and it was an eye-opener. I’m not a die-hard football fan, so some chapters were a bore, I’ll admit, but many were fascinating and incredibly illuminating. I’ll never think the same way about college ball again. Wow.

[David Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun look at college football in the south. I like the authors’ perspective of the FSU/UF rivalry. I graduated from FSU, thus I completely understand much of what the author wrote about. A very enjoyable read.

[Cindy Grossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

She loves it even with all of its foibles and dangers. The erudite author delves into college football exposing its underbelly, while admitting she is a devoted fan.

[Emilee Garber · Rating 3 out of 5]

i learned a lot about college football in the south

and will probably immediately forget it bc my brain just doesn’t work anymore, but that’s not diane’s fault

go noles!!!!

[Savannah Bass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact: I learned from this book that my Family Law professor played baseball for FSU

[DH · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few books about football by a woman. Roberts incisively describes the world of college football, particularly the SEC culture she inhabits. "Tribal" gets inside the game as a financial and social phenomenon from the vantage point of a fan, academic and teacher in a way that stands out from the reams of writing about the college game. A compilation of her newspaper columns bridged with personal anecdotes, it provides a unique window into a subject that millions find all-consuming.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberts, who holds a PhD from Oxford, is a study in contrasts -- a fantical follower of college football, especially her beloved Florida State Seminolds, and also a sharp critic of the sport. Her book deeply looks at the sport's rabid followers during a time when the country is also dealing with complex subjects such as gender identity and roles, American citizenship, violence in sports, racial disparities, and class. She focuses largely on college football and its stronghold in the American South. Of course, FSU start quarterback Jameis Winston is a hot topic throughout the book. Roberts can't help loving the game, but she doesn't hold back her sharp and witty tongue on all that's wrong with it as well.

[Thomas Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although sports are often considered entertainment, they are actually a window into culture. While soccer is the window into much of the worlds' cultures, in the US football can show us who we are and why. In this insightful and highly readable book, Diane Roberts introduces readers to some aspects of America's, albeit primarily southern America's, obsession with football. Topics covered include muscular Christianity an extremely important element of sport but currently mostly found only in academic works, gender in its many forms, and the connections the game and the Civil War. There is a lot more as well and all is well done.

[Andy Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who works in collegiate athletics, this book hammered home so many things I already knew, but could t say as eloquently and succinctly as Roberts did. A great read, specifically for liberal minded college football fans. Highly recommend

[Lilian O. Classen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story about football and my Alma Mater, FSU. She really knows the scene in Tallahassee and Doak Campbell Stadium. It's in her DNA.

[Mike Eckhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unfiltered must read for anyone who loves, hates, loves to hate or hates to love college football.

[Robert Vandiver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about college football with many hilarious insights and observations about that game we all love.