duane hanson's sculpture football player is a life size representation of an American football player in full uniform. the piece was meant to be a commentary on the culture surrounding sports and its obsession with physical strength and power and achievement over mental or emotional intelligence. in comparison rodin's the thinker is a smaller bronze sculpture depicting a figure hunched over in deep contemplation. its intent is to represent humanity's ability to think deeply about difficult topics such as philosophy and morality. from this contrast it can be seen that the two artists had different intentions: duane hanson wanted to critique contemporary society while rodin sought to illustrate the power of human thought.