Abstract
Over the past ten years, athletes Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick have become famous for kneeling on the NFL football field. However, public reactions to these gestures varied significantly: Tebow’s kneeling spawned a lightly mocking but overall flattering meme, while Kaepernick’s stoked public controversy and derailed his NFL career. In order to interrogate these divergent responses, this article places the work of sociologist Robert Bellah and philosopher Michel Foucault in dialogue. It argues that spectator sports are a crucial space for the negotiation and contestation of American identity, or, in Bellah’s terms, civil religion. It then draws on philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of the docile body to explore the rationales behind and cultural reactions to the kneeling posture. I argue that Tebow and Kaepernick advance divergent civil religious visions within the “politics of the sacred” being negotiated in American life. In this process of negotiation, American football emerges as both a space for the public cultivation of docile bodies and a crucial forum for reassessing American values and practices.
Highlights
In September 2018, a distinctly capitalist form of iconoclasm went viral
I argue that Tebow and Kaepernick advance divergent civil religious visions within the “politics of the sacred” being negotiated in American life
In this process of negotiation, American football emerges as both a space for the public cultivation of docile bodies and a crucial forum for reassessing
Summary
In September 2018, a distinctly capitalist form of iconoclasm went viral. Images of Nike gear in flames proliferated on social media as irate consumers reacted to the brand’s decision to make former. Iconoclasm, it turns out, is good publicity This invites comparison with another viral NFL kneeling incident. That a gesture on an NFL football field would emerge as a cultural touchstone is simultaneously predictable and surprising. Athletes regularly use their platform to address broader social concerns, underscoring the fact that spectator sports broker major cultural conversations in ways that our churches and civic organizations do not. I introduce the concept of docile religiosity to shed light on how public figures like Tebow and Kaepernick determine when to introduce distinctly religious gestures into the civil sphere and to clarify how these gestures intervene in America’s “politics of the sacred.”. I introduce the concept of docile religiosity to shed light on how public figures like Tebow and Kaepernick determine when to introduce distinctly religious gestures into the civil sphere and to clarify how these gestures intervene in America’s “politics of the sacred.” I conclude by reflecting on what these kneeling incidents reveal about the religious functions of spectator sports and the political power of religious display in contemporary America
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