The location of meaning in football discourse: Racial ideology in NFL draft magazines

Abstract

This study looks at how National Football League Draft Magazines represent players of different racial groups and, in turn, the part these magazines play in maintaining a legacy of racist knowledge. A content analysis is used to qualitatively evaluate how black and white players are described and divided through the use of language and how historically-endowed ideologies are translated and maintained through current professional football discourses. The results reveal that the representations of white and black athletes conform to roles that were derived out of historically racist knowledge and that white superiority shapes the evaluation and representation of athletes in professional football, supporting and essentializing traditional racist notions of black and white males.