“Good Advice for a Bloodsport”: Injury, Coercion, Harm, and Physical Extraction in U.S. College Football

Abstract

Most mainstream debates about exploitation in college athletics are unquestionably right to highlight the foundational injustice that players are not compensated directly for their value-producing athletic work. Yet, what this discourse does not often account for is the fact that exploitation is not just about how benefits are distributed in an exchange but also how harm is distributed. College football is a site of some of the most brutal working conditions in U.S. society, yet it is unregulated by occupational health and safety standards and unprotected by labor organizing. Drawing on semistructured interviews with 25 former college football players, we argue that players are often subjected to brutal physical (and emotional) harm and discipline in the course of their work, compelled to play through injury, and forced to endure abusive coaching, often without long-term health insurance. We thus take account of the physical and emotional harm that saturates college football.