Behavior: Football as Erotic Ritual

Are the guys on the gridiron really gay?

A quarterback receives the ball from between the center's legs. After a successful play, teammates sometimes hug or slap each other on the bottom. The possible homosexual implications of these and other football rituals have long been noted by professional and amateur behavioralists alike. But none have studied the subject more closely than Alan Dundes, an anthropologist at the University of California in Berkeley. In his view, fanny patting and centering the ball are only the tip of the gay iceberg. Writing in Western Folklore, Dundes...