Sign's of Life

If you take an individual from the backwoods of Russia, who has never watched TV, listened to the radio, or seen pictures of a football field and show him a picture of the uprights at the very end of the field, what will he think?  What would that sign mean to him visually before any explanation of the game of football?  Will he think that the tall, yellow polls spaced 18.5 feet apart are an ornament for the field, or will he think that you have to throw, kick, do something to a ball through the posts in order to win?  I highly doubt he will choose the ladder, but as Americans we know and understand that in football if you kick a football through the uprights, depending on the situation, you either get one or three points; in some rare cases, you get two.  This is the denotative meaning, you make it through and you get points.  The denotative meaning to uprights on a football field has given people an avenue to many other meanings.  Some fans look at uprights and think, "Man, only if the kicker would have made the field goal we could have won," or, "Well if it comes down to a field goal tonight, we sure aren't winning, our kicker sucks."  

For me personally, field goal posts have several connotative meanings.  Seeing field goal posts often gives me confidence in myself because in my past, I have made field goals to help my teams to victory.  I see them and I remember the times when I was the only one out on the field working at my skill, trying to get better.  I see them and there is a calm pressure that sets in and says to me, "If you don't make this, your team might lose, you cannot fail."  I see them and I remember the times I have missed key kicks in big situations.  I see them and think, it's 120 yards between the two posts I wonder if i could ever kick a ball from one end to the other.  All of these meanings bring to focus two main feelings I have for the game of football, confidence and love.  I feel confident when I see them because I know that through hard work I can progress and be a better athlete.  I feel love for the game because kicking a football is what I love to do, plus I love to score points.

Across other semiotic domains, field goal posts have similar denotative meanings in the sport of Rugby.  You score points when you kick the Rugby ball through tall posts, similarly placed on opposite ends of the field.

Semiotics and Media Myth ID

Flipping through channels one day, I came across a TV show on ESPN called the Madden Challenge.  The Madden Challenge is a series where people compete against one another in a video game tournament playing Madden NFL 2009 on XBOX 360.  At first I did not think that there was a myth to the show, but as I started watching and seeing through my "Rudd Glasses" as I like to call them, I started to see how the entire series is based on the myth of the Value of a Challenge.  The competitors go on through this tournament and everyone goes into their match-ups as the underdog.  Think about it, each player is playing as an underdog, there are no favorites.  The prize for winning the tournament is a hefty check for 100k.  Seeing that the name of the tournament and the myth have a common word, challenge, it works out because there is a goal trying to be reached.  The sign within this myth is the name Madden.  The video game took its name from famous Super Bowl champion coach John Madden.  1988 was the first year the game went into production.  I remember as a young boy growing up and playing versions of the game on my Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64.  By then, "Madden Fever," had already hit.  When seeing the name Madden, they see it as a sign/symbol for video games, though it has a lot more meaning to it.  The Madden franchise has given the EA Games Corporation a popular reputation in the world of sports, movies, and television.  The name Madden is also synonymous with ESPN because the tournament is filmed and aired over the course of two months on the ESPN family of networks.  John Madden established his name as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, so when older folks hear his name you might think of three Super Bowl Championships with the Raiders, or the first coach to ever take a Punter in the first round of the NFL draft because it was the best choice for the team.  For the more contemporary, comedy viewing crowd, John Maddens name can also be heard in punch lines by voice impressionist Frank Caliendo.  I never knew that one name as a sign could cut across three different mediums of entertainment and carry the same weight through all three.