I hated this piece and think Malcolm Gladwell is intellectually lazy and a blowhard. The fact that not once does he even mention the caveat that the NFL is voluntary and the players are recompensed and that many, many jobs in the world and throughout history are physically taxing and that dogfighting is not voluntary is really dishonest on his part.

1. I’ve read Blink and Tipping Point by Gladwell – good books but this article is garbage.

2. Anytime someone equates humans with animals, there’s the problem.

3. Jimmy – WTF are you doing reading The New Yorker?

I agree Gladwell omits the “free choice” associated with NFL football versus the involuntary nature of the participants in dogfighting.

does this really need to be said? is there anyone who needs to be informed that the NFL isn’t some crazy form of millionaire slavery? the point is not to compare the dogs to players, even though i think he draws a few interesting parallels there— like the idea that the dogs dont have to be forced to fight, but rather that the impulse to fight has been ingrained over time by someone it “trusts” and wants to please, perhaps like a young player who is told to use their head by a coach, or who stays on the field after sustaining a concussion because the team might not consider it “injured enough” to come off the field.

the main point of the article is to ask the question of what kind of sport football is and whether or not it amounts to a bloodsport. he uses the dog fighting sections to dramatize and illustrate the idea of a bloodsport, where the injury and eventual destruction of the participants is assured to some degree. the other reason he uses it is because the michael vick connection to football is convenient, well known, and because it is an emotionally pre-loaded reference.

the question is not of free choice, but of the moral implications of taking joy and entertainment from the physical destruction of other living creatures. it also explores to what extent football players are aware/should be made aware of these risks to their brains, and to what extent these injuries can be lessened or prevented while still preserving the explosive nature of football that we all love. i think gladwell does a great job of posing some serious questions.