Dave Meggyesy, tape 3

A talk entitled "The Radical Transformation of Sport in America" by Dave Meggyesy. It took place at a Rising Up Angry outreach program called Friends of Angry held at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church at 2747 N. Wilton Ave in Chicago. Rising Up Angry was a youth revolutionary activist group in the 1960s and 1970s. Meggyesy was an American football player turned union organizer and author of Out Of Their League, an autobiographical look at football that was critical of the sport's dehumanizing aspects and pro-capitalist values. This tape is from the end of the talk, where Meggyesy answers questions from the audience.

0:00Copy video clip URL The video starts mid-question from the audience. Meggyesy is responding, and seems to be talking about labor issues in professional American football leagues.

1:58Copy video clip URL The camera records footage of the audience. The audio is low at points, but Meggyesy is answering a question about drugs, saying it’s important to view them in the context of the enormous pressures to win put on players by the system.

3:44Copy video clip URL Another cut to a man mid question. Meggyesy answers him by talking about what spring training is like in football, and the emphasis on physical strength because of the level of contact in the sport.

5:40Copy video clip URL Another shot of a man mid question. Meggyesy talks about the bifurcation between “big-time sports” and “participation sports,” but that there still isn’t a lot of everyday people taking part in this more egalitarian conception of Sport.

6:58Copy video clip URL A man with a child asks a question, but is far from the camera and difficult to hear. Meggyesy talks about why he left football, but doesn’t say he thinks everyone should leave, and that it would be good for people to try to change football from the inside. “I did what I did, and I can’t at this point second guess my decision, … [but] I don’t consider myself divorced from it because I’m not playing it.” The camera records a child who is playing behind Meggyesy while another man asks a question.

9:13Copy video clip URL Another jump cut. Meggyesy is talking about “viewing your opponent as a fundamental enemy. It’s the old story of, like, there’s a loaf of bread on the flour and there’s five guys, and one guys going to get it. That’s how we conceive it, one guy’s going to get the loaf of bread. We’re all going to die in a wrassling pile on the floor for it and one guy’s going to get it. Maybe if we were more hip, we would say, ‘Well, let’s divide it up five ways and get our nourishment and go on to find another loaf of bread. … That’s just the shift in consciousness that we’re talking about.” He talks about the antagonism between couches and players, players and refs, refs and couches. He says this is what he means when he’s talking about the dehumanizing element of the game.

10:57Copy video clip URL Another barely audible shot of a man in the crowd asking a question. The question seems to be about Notre Dame and/or the idea of team rivalry. Meggyesy says that a little rivalry isn’t necessarily bad but “but if that separation causes of sense of divisiveness where there’s bricks and bottles flying after the game, it’s getting kind of weird.” The video is heavily distorted at this point with horizontal waves. This distortion continues for the rest of the tape.

11:50Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of the man from the beginning of tape 1 (call # 15265) who talks about his organization and some of their books and future events.

13:57Copy video clip URL Footage from after the talk. Some people from the audience come up to speak with Meggyesy, although what they’re saying is inaudible. There’s also a shot of what appears to be a flag that reads “Rising Up Angry: Serve People,” although the image is highly distorted and difficult to make out.