| Based on 17 interviews with college football players, this dissertation examines the construction of athletic and masculine identities among a group of young men who play "big-time" college football at a Division I-FBS university in the Southeastern U.S. College football is one of the most popular sports in the U.S. in part because it embodies the cultural ideals of strength, competition, aggression, physical contact, and "winning" that are highly admired in U.S. society in men and boys. College football athletes serve as useful informants about how their experiences in and in relation to football affect their efforts to create an identity as an athletic man. My analysis shows how college football players' talk and accounts serve to self-identify themselves as "self-made" men. That is, they are responsible, have agency and achieve goals, face challenges and take risks, and provide for others. My informants also self-identify as men by saying they are opposite of that which our culture characterizes as feminine and homosexual. Playing college football helps young men identify as a particular kind of athletic man. The athletes say that playing college football takes a strong mind, "heart," and a gifted body. Having a strong mind means being focused, smart and coachable. Having heart means being passionate about the game and having the guts to put your body on the line. Having a gifted body means being big, strong, or athletic. Results speak to the influence of the sport institution on gender identity and the (re)production of inequality, gender as an institution, hegemonic masculinity, embodiment and emotion, and identity work. |
