BIRGing and CORFing- Football High

In the recent documentary that we have watched, "Football High", we have been introduced to the Arkansas football team of the Shiloh Christian High School, a small school with a large passion for football. We witness the lives of kids changing from being local stars, to national colleges wanting them to come play for them. The lives have not only changed in a positive way, but also a negative by the lack of funding for athletic trainers, concussions at early childhood related to football, and even the death of a teammate by overworking in the heat. Football was once a fun game to play, but has become more of an investment.

From what we have recently learned in class, BIRGing; basking in reflected glory, and CORFing; cutting of reflected failure, these terms can be seen in the documentary. The first example is with Shiloh Christian Quarterback Keihl Frazier. The BIRGing side of Keihl comes from being the best player of the number one team in all of Arkansas, and now he is his own marketing strategy. The number one goal of Keihl is to be recruited to play at college and then to go pro. To do so, the family has hired a man to market Keihl, and make a promotion video to be seen by college coaches around the country. Many coaches have sent Keihl a personal card with their personal number on it.

An example of CORFing comes from the game played by Shiloh against the number one team in Texas at the Dallas Texas stadium. After recieving the worst beating the Shiloh school has ever taken, one of the excuses that the head coaches use is that " the other team is much larger and much more physical". Instead of blaming mistakes on themselves or bad coaching, they tend to point towards the obvious and the way that wont hurt the feelings of the players.

The last example is an example of BIRGing. In the video, a player named Garret whose family is very wealthy decides to higher a track coach to work on the speed of Garret. The goal is the same as Keihl's, to receive a full ride scholarship to play football. Garret does not lack talent or ability, but the main spotlight is on Keihl. Garret and his family want him to feel like he belongs, that there is a certain honor connected to receiving a full ride scholarship to play this game of football.

Comments

  1. Camerin HuizengaMarch 1, 2017 at 4:26 PM

    Ethan, I agree with you on your CORFing point. I think it's ridiculous that the coaches are so caught up on winning and being the best, that when they actually play a team better than them, they make excuses for the loss. I also agree with you when you say that football has become an investment and not a fun game to play like it used to. So many players and coaches are worried about winning and would do anything to get that win. They focus on the awards it brings and don't focus on their own/their players well beings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ethan WMarch 25, 2017 at 3:10 PM

    Camerin,
    I agree! I grew up in a small town where the biggest crowd base came on Friday night. It was more of a community involvement than an actual school function. So much more money and time are invested into football and other sports that it is almost getting out of control.

    ReplyDelete

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