“Football—spasms of violence separated by committee meetings—is the game of our time,” wrote syndicated columnist and author George F. Will in a newspaper column on October 4, 1974. In 1978, Will wrote that football is “a mixture of violence and committee meetings (called huddles).” In 1982, Will called football “violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
Wikipedia: George Will
George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics. By the mid 1980s the Wall Street Journal reported he was “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America,” in a league with Walter Lippmann (1899–1975).
The Quote Garden
Quotations about Football
Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings. ~George F. Will
4 October 1974, The Evening Times (Trenton, NJ), “Simonspeak: What they say, what they mean” by George F. Will, pg. 19, col. 3:
Football—spasms of violence separated by committee meetings—is the game of our time, which may be why football announcers talk like politicians.
Google New Archive
13 January 1978, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, “Super Bowl: Civilization’s Crowning Mistake” by George F. Will, pg. 6, col. 3:
Long ago I earned the pelting abuse of football fans by observing that football is popular and (semi-yucky) because it mirrors modern life. It is a mixture of violence and committee meetings (called huddles) and is the moral equivalent of the president’s energy program with its unnecessary complexity.
Google News Archive
26 August 1982, The Post (West Palm Beach, FL), “Reflecting on Sports: Socialism Creeps Into Football” by George F. Will (Washington Post), pg. A15, col. 3:
Football always has been reflective of modern life — violence punctuated by committee meetings.
Google Books
Newsweek
Volume 105, Part 2
1985
Pg. ? (George Will column):
The explanation has something to do with a fact noted here before: football combines two grim features of American life, violence and committee meetings (huddles).
Sports Illustrated
July 30, 1990
They Said It
Edited by Steve Rushin
George Will, author and pundit, on football: “It combines the two worst things about American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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