#and ncaa rules to protect players are routinely flouted

[tanadrin]

Is U.S. football that distinctive as a focus for masculinity obsession? Soccer seems to have extreme masculine associations in every country where it's the predominant sport, to the point that women's soccer is treated as a joke (not that this is all that different from women's sports everywhere).

It may not be distinctively so compared to all sports in all countries, but it feels pretty distinctive in the US with respect to many other American sports. Although as an additional data point—most sports have a women’s league, even if it is overlooked and underfunded. Women’s American football teams are so rare as to be functionally nonexistent. That’s pretty weird! There’s women’s soccer, women’s baseball, even women’s hockey—but (as far as I know) basically no women’s football.