Jimbo, it’s getting close… I can taste it. Schedule’s out. Fans or not, we need to get ready.

Easy for you to say, John. I bet the NCAA’s gonna fuck this up. We NEED to play college football. My life DEPENDS upon it. I will SWALLOW MY WHISTLE and CHOKE TO DEATH if we don’t get to play.

That’s the problem with college ball, Jimmy. It’s unfair that they expect the kids to go to school. How can you show a true passion for sports if you’re forced to have your nose in an English lit essay half the time? Ridiculous.

If there’s one thing that being a part of this family has taught me, Johnny, it’s that a passion for sports has the ability to spark a fire inside people – and change the world. Look at soccer fans! Now that’s the true meaning of rivalry if there ever was a textbook definition…

THE FOOTBALL WAR

Combatant 1: El Salvador

Combatant 2: Honduras

Location of Conflict: Central America

Reason for Conflict: Somebody lost a soccer match.

What happened? In June 1969, the neighboring countries of Honduras and El Salvador were squaring off in a qualifying series for the 1970 FIFA World Cup, which would be held in Mexico. Honduras won the first leg, played on June 8th in their capital of Tegucigalpa, by a 1-0 score; El Salvador took the second leg back home in San Salvador by a 3-0 score. Throughout the series, violence had been commonplace, and on June 27th, the date of the playoff match in Mexico City, El Salvador ceased all formal diplomatic relations with its much larger neighbor. El Salvador won the game, 3-2, amidst even more sectarian violence.

The violence around the soccer games wasn’t strictly linked to sports, although it definitely didn’t help relations between the football-mad nations. In reality, there was a huge disparity in economic and living conditions, much of which pertained to the landowning class as well as strong corporate control of available land. (If you’re familiar with the term banana republic, it takes its existence from the strength of the United Fruit Company owning a huge percentage of the land in central America through much of the first half of the 20th century). In the 1960s, a large number of Salvadorans lived in Honduras, due to the lack of available land and large population in El Salvador. Despite Honduras having five times as much land as El Salvador, El Salvador’s population was 40% higher than Honduras’ during this time (3.7 million Salvadorans vs. 2.6 million Hondurans). Honduras passed a land reform law in 1962 preventing any of the 300,000 Salvadorans living in the country from owning land – regardless of whether they had legally owned it previously or were squatting on it illegally – and redistributed it to native Hondurans, who were previously unhappy at their previous inability to own land due to it being controlled by gigantic, well-organized corporations. Naturally, Salvadorans were furious at this. Later, somewhere between 12-17,000 Salvadorans were expelled from Honduras, forced to return home to an overcrowded country that lacked the ability to support them in any meaningful capacity.

Unhappy with the influx of citizens (!!) back into the country, the landowning elite of El Salvador pushed the government for military action against their neighbor, so as to try and restore the status quo of firm corporate control on the nation. On July 14th, World War II-era fighter planes took off from San Salvador, bombing the Honduran capital of capital of Tegucigalpa. Honduras attempted similar airstrikes, but lacked the firepower of the Salvadoran army. Soon, El Salvador would launch a ground attack, sending thousands of troops over the Honduran border.

The Aftermath: One hundred hours after the war began, a ceasefire was declared, effectively ending the formal military conflict; that said, the real causes of the war remained unaddressed in any meaningful way for decades after the fact. Over three thousand died in the conflict, the majority being Honduran civilians, while over 300,000 Salvadorans were displaced as a result of the fighting. Despite the ceasefire, El Salvador refused to withdraw its troops from Honduras until over two weeks after it went into effect. Calls to pay reparations to Salvadoran citizens by the Honduran government also went unheeded. Indeed, the economic inequality of both countries and its effects on the working class are partly responsible for the Salvadoran Civil War that began a decade later, which claimed over 75,000 lives from 1979-1992. Even today, despite official rulings by the International Court of Justice about disputed territory between the two countries, relations continue to be hostile at times.

I gotta get back to more film room responsibilities now that we’re almost halfway to June, Jimbo. Nineteen hours a day just isn’t gonna hack it anymore. I’d advise you do the same – college ball or no college ball.

‘Til next time, brother of mine. All I know is that if we don’t get to play this fall, I will get my guys to stage a ground invasion of Ohio instead. Gotta stay fit, sharp and motivated, lockdown or no lockdown.

Best of luck, Jim. Petty grievances can change the world. Unleash the rage. I know I will.

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Information for this article taken from here, here, here and here. Banner image by The Maestro.

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Thanks to everyone who’s enjoyed this series over the last few months – it has been a real treat for me to get to tag along with the Harbaughs as we explore the nuances of grudges, revenge plots, and good, old-fashioned violence. The [DFO] CFL Beat returns next week in this same timeslot – I look forward to once again bringing you news about the best football that Canada has to offer, though with current restrictions in place, it will be in a modified manner for at least the start of this year. Hopefully we’ll have a return to normalcy sooner rather than later! – The Maestro