I don't know, it seems like an interesting story to me.

Please, stop the pandering! We have enough stultifying behavior in this country without degrading the little higher culture we have left. I love WQXR, but the constant and tenuous connections between classical music and mainstream culture are sad and disheartening. Please don't make a bargain with the devil for the sake of "relevancy". And this coming from an ex-football player who sees the platitudinous and highly corrupt farce that it is.

I share season tickets with my family for the New England Patriots football games. I always laugh when the Pats run out on the field with "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana accompanying them and all the screams of the fans. I wonder how many of the 65,000 people in the stadium know the name of the "song."

PS Wikipedia says that "O Frotuna" is the epic song of popular culture.

Facile similarities between football & music:
yard lines vs measures
time clock vs time signature
key vs league
special teams vs orchestra sections
helmets vs notes
fans vs afficianados
touch down run vs solo
arena vs concert hall
quarterback vs concertmaster
coach vs conductor
team rivalry vs snobbism

Both cause injuries and inspiration.
Both have detractors and cheerleaders.
Both are freely available for us to play, to daydream about or to admire.
What’s not to like?

I'm an expat New Yorker, and Giants fan, living in Seattle. After the mid-January divisional win by the Giants over Green Bay, our Seattle classical music station promptly began playing celebratory compositions: Music for the Royal Fireworks, then the 1812 Overture. Likely these were already scheduled, but I can't help but wonder if a kindred sports fan was making a statement. And yes, these classical pieces topped off a fine football day.

The only relationship between the two that I've been aware of for the past 50 or 60 years is an inverse budgetary one in the schools, from grade school to college. As the budget for football goes up, the budget for music goes down. Always. Everywhere. Period.

Please! Can't somebody else (besides my wife and me) ignore the Stupor, I mean, Super Bowl, and not try to draw silly analogies that will supposedly make "classical" music relevant to the wider commercial pop culture swirl of debris that is already pervasive everywhere else we look?

A link between classical music and football? Hm, I don't know....has anyone ever heard of incidents of high school football players getting teased, picked on, or beaten up by kids in the orchestra?!

both inspire similar passion--indeed, fanaticism...

Fact check - that's the LA Opera, not LA Phil who has adopted dynamic pricing at the Chandler. The Phil plays at Disney Concert Hall, across the street. Not sure what their pricing scheme is, but you can get cheap tickets there, too, and they occasionally do something operatic.

Yikes, why the grumpy comments? Go WQXR, and Go Giants!

The allusion to ivory towers implies a departure from reality. If this "Football & Music" connection can put one dollar back into the music budget of some school system, or deliver one extra new student to the door of some violin or piano teacher, I'd be more than happy to become its promoter.

Both musicians and football players often have an obsession for their chosen field (mine is music). They also both engage in competitions. Instrumentalists and football players have to learn how to move their muscles properly in order to achieve their respective goals: to make music or to win a football game. Musicians and athletes will often endure pain (physical and psychological) for their art or sport.

For those non-Sousafiles (or is it Sousaphones?) would associate Sousa's 1926 march "The Gridiron Club" with the game of football; however, the Washington, DC-based organization was a literary club to which Sousa belonged for 40 years. Many colleges with large marching band programs frequently and effectively infuse classical music into their halftime drills. Sadly, due to the demands of television viewership and the insatiable appetite for updates, scores, and statistics, we never get to see or hear them.

Mr. Meltzer and Sisko24, I don't see what makes this "anecdotal" and a "stretch." The writer clearly identifies links between football and music, whether ticket pricing or appearing in a large stadium. Many art forms have taken cues from the language and marketing of sport; it's necessary in an age when classical music is increasingly cut off from the mainstream public. We should be encouraging such connections rather than living in an ivory tower where music and the "real world" don't mix.

From a British humorous website, there's a graph going around which beautifully links, over a year's period, London's rise in violent crime with London's retail sales of ice cream.
There isn't anything a skilled statistician or journalist can't join in a cause-and-effect relationship, especially when the reporting is strictly anecdotal.

This topic seems a big stretch to me. Yes, there are some links, but if we were to look at other fields, you'd fine alot as well, perhaps more. From my college days - which was the last time I had up close and personal contact with athletes and musicians - most of the athletes were supremely uninterested and completely ignorant of classical music and didn't feel in the least obligated or motivated to learn about it. The same held true vice versa as so many music students I knew didn't know and didn't want to know anything about sports.

Let's just acknowledge there are links but that the two worlds are like ships passing in the night but with the occasional salute to each other.

Wow - talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel for content.

The New York Philharmonic practices and preforms in New York. The football team in question does not. They should be required to identify themselves as the East Rutherford Giants. Maybe the Garden State, or even the New Jersey Giants, but NOT the New York Giants.

One of my best friends when I played in the Cleveland Orchestra (1959-1966) was Gene Hickerson, who played right guard for the Cleveland Browns (and was a member of the last championship team, 1964). He was so interested in what we did that occasionally we (our trumpet section had season's tickets as did Robert Shaw, our choral director) could get Gene into rehearsals ... and we could watch Browns practices. On the day when the Browns played the Colts for the crown, we had scheduled a performance of "Christmas Oratorio"; Shaw, and the trumpet section had tickets for the 1 PM game so he (Shaw) moved the performance back from 3 in the afternoon to 5. For this he got some flak from some orchestra patrons. Too bad.

Gene taught me how to watch a football game, which I have enjoyed ever since (the Patriots are my team now, sorry!) and I think I helped him appreciate the symphony a little better. He died a couple of years ago, but they managed to get him into the Hall of Fame before that happened. Without him leading the blocking Jim Brown would not have broken the records that he did.
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NFL Films regularly uses orchestral music as underscoring in its highlight reels.

Also, the Super Bowl commercials often use classical music because it's cheaper than commissioning new scores.

Do not forget a famous sports expression from opera, "It aint over till the fat lady sings."