Dual Loyalities: Balancing College Football and Jewish Tradition

By Eric Steitz for NewVoices
A cool breeze rolls through campus and students everywhere know what that means. It’s that
time of year again. No, it’s not the High Holy Day season that comes to mind, but football
season. For Jewish college students, it’s the start of another potentially conflicted semester.
As Jews celebrate Shabbat each weekend, campuses around the country prepare for their biggest
event of the week, the football game. With football programs on over 1,000 NCAA campuses,
football is everywhere. For practically the entire fall semester, many alumni, faculty and students
look forward to the football game more than any other event.

Football is the most popular sport on campus, as seen in television ratings and attendance
numbers. On September 7, TV by the Numbers reported that ESPN averaged 3.8 million
viewers per hour of football programming. CBS Sports released a poll in January 2013 noting
that college football is the third-most popular sport in the United States behind only the National
Football League and Major League Baseball, respectively.
But how are Jews to celebrate Shabbat and be a part of the campus football culture? It
starts with understanding Shabbat tradition.

A closer look at those restrictions shows that Jews aren’t forbidden to partake in the Saturday football festivities. It just takes some planning.

Ashley Rosenberg, a student at the University of Arkansas Medical School, knows the
importance of football on campus. She mentions that she never misses a Razorback football
game and has friends that get creative with their scheduling conflicts.
“I have friends who are Jewish and keep Shabbat that have never been to an Arkansas football
game because they always start before the Sabbath ends. It is a huge deal to go to football games
down here so they usually record the games and watch them when Shabbat ends,” Ashley said.

You can buy tickets and arrange meetings with friends in advance, or walk to the game
rather than travel by vehicle. Shabbat tradition and college football suddenly don’t seem so
conflicted.

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