Shakespeare Tackles the Football

The football will be kicked, thrown and spiked today as millions of spectators watch Super Bowl LII. Did you know that Shakespeare tossed football into some of his works, as well?

• In King Lear (Act I Scene IV), a servant is rude to Lear. When Lear’s protector, Kent, strikes the servant, the servant protests and says, "I’ll not be struck, my lord."

Kent replies, "Nor tripped neither, you base football player."

• In The Comedy of Errors (Act II Scene I) Dromio, a servant, explains how he feels he is being rejected by his masters:

"Am I so round with you as you with me,

That like a football you do spurn me thus?

You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither.

If I last in this service, you must case me in leather."

Imagine if Shakespeare's notorious quote, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players," was written as, "All the world's a football field, and all the men and women merely players." Perhaps, then the Great American Sport would also be known as the Great Game of England.