Sportsiology

It has been reported that the new Madden includes a concussion provision. This means that when your player has one of those head-to-head or head first hits, they not only get a concussion but an explanation of what it means medically and a forced bench visit for the rest of the game. While I certainly think that this could change some of the flow of the game, I also think that it is a learning experience. I’m not someone who thinks that all violent video games lead to violent behavior (or all violent children are that way as a result of violent media) but I do believe in socialization. You can be socialized in all types of ways by different agencies of socialization (family, community, peer group, etc) and the media (in which I am including video games) is one way. I learned football from Techmo Bowl and, though I didn’t go out and think that the sport was played by tiny blurry images on the monitor I used to use for my Nintendo, Techmo Bowl brought me into football and made it part of who I was. Maybe, just maybe, the kids who grow up playing Madden 12 will associate the lessons they learned about concussions with their socialization into football and, without judgment, they will understand the results of a head-first tackle, the seriousness of the resulting injury and the “normal” response of sitting the game out.