Have I just become better at ignoring it, or is this year’s Stupor Bowl not devouring our culture like it usually does?
Ah! I didn’t get where I am today without knowing that the Addis Ababa Weevils are going to face the Jersey City Scavemgers in Stupor Bowl LXIVI (or whatever it is) at Hotashell Sports Area in Nevada somewhere.
The Weevils had an undefeated season. In fact, most of the teams in the National Football League would rather give up football than ever play the Weevils again.
The Scavengers were only 2-14 on the year, but it’s hard to say “no” to people who will blow up your car–with you in it–if they don’t get what they want.
And don’t forget the Halftime Show! This year’s version, featuring performers you never heard of, is expected to use up 1 hour and 50 minutes of your lives! And then there are the Stupor Bowl commercials. At $70 million for 30 seconds’ air time, push the product like your life depends on it! And who knows, maybe it does.
The broadcast, already in progress, is expected to last till Doomsday.
I find the hoopla that has formed around this game to be disgusting. I don’t mind that there’s a big game to culminate the football season, but it’s become such an event that it’s gone beyond all reason.
It’s way, way, way too much.
I’m not a big fan of football. I know it well enough to be able to watch a game and appreciate it, but I tend to watch football only if it’s part of a social event. All well and good, but I don’t feel the need to wear a team jersey while I watch, and I certainly feel no compulsion to paint my face in the team colors.
Having spent many years in Denver, I was exposed to a lot of football mania. The Denver Broncos were an expansion team and Denver was thrilled to have a major sports team and the Broncos enjoyed community support, even in the days when they had abysmal failures on the field and were sometimes known as the Denver Donkeys. Well, they came a long ways over the years and became a viable team, even winning the Super Bowl, more than once.
But the MANIA for that team knew no bounds. Their stadium was poorly placed and anytime there was a game, the neighborhoods near the stadium cleaned up by renting out space on their lawns, for parking. On game days, I avoided Federal Boulevard, a major north/south corridor, beczuse it was all but impassible. Likewise for I-25, THE north/south corridor, which would be jammed for hours by every home game.
I don’t begrudge anyone their fun, but it struck me, then and now, that a lot of inconvenience was caused by sports events which had morphed into idolatrous rituals. Tens of thousands of people’s recreation impacted the productivity of an entire major metropolitan area. Some of this was the insanely poor choices in where the stadium was located; even if I were a fan, I would have never attended a game because of the ordeal of traffic and parking. The placement of the stadium may have made sense when Denver was a much smaller city, but became a major hassle as the city grew explosively in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Amazingly, when it was time to replace the football stadium, they built its replacement in the same constrained location, perpetuating the traffic hassles in the name of supporting the inner city. Balderdash!
So today is this nationally significant, monsterously huge game, and much of the country’s attention is focused on this singular event. People have spent a lot of money to be there, and gone to great lengths to attend. That’s their right, but it troubles me that those of us who choose not to be a part of this ritual (and that is what it has become) are unable to escape its effects.
“Ritual”–yeah, I think you’ve nailed it.
People don’t just do things anymore, instead they overdo almost everything. You see it all over the place. Check out the menu items at some of the chain restaurants and you’ll see salads that have 1400 calories and deserts that far exceed that. That just one example of the lack of moderation that seems to permeate society today.
Sports events are a perfect example, with relatively routine events being hyped beyond all reasonable proportion. Fans seek to outdo one another in their willingness to abandon all dignity, acting like hooligans and dressing as conspicuously as possible, seeking the ultimate prize of being seen by the television cameras.
Once again, I don’t seek to squelch anyone else’s fun, but some of these fans seem bent upon looking very foolish. I remember a time when most people maintained their dignity, even if that prevented them from imposing themselves into a national television broadcast of a sports event
Speaking for myself, alone, I don’t care who wins today’s game. I won’t feel any differently, no matter who wins. If the Broncos were playing, I’d me moderately interested, only because I once lived in the town where the Broncos exist as a successful business … and that’s exactly what a sports team is, an entertainment business.
But people identify with certain teams, frequently because of geography, or perhaps an idealized notion of what a certain team stands for. It’s all ridiculous. Very few members of professional sports teams choose their team from community loyalty, but most likely pursue the best offer. They may grow a fondness for the community where their team is centered, but football players are known to migrate to other teams, other communities.
It would all go much better if people could apply some moderation to their behaviors and loyalties.
*Sigh* Back in the 70s my friends and I used to go to Yankee Stadium–where we made friends with the second baseman, Horace Clarke. This were good times. I doubt they’ll come again.
And that’s how it should be. I was a baseball fan when I was a kid, and admired certain players who were members of the Twins. We didn’t live close enough to Minneapolis to ever attend a game, but we followed our home team and knew the names of the standout players. However, we never revered these players to the point of worship, or anything close to it. A few kids wore Twins baseball caps to school, but that was about it. Going to a game would have been great, but not a life changing event.
Even as excitable children, there was a degree of restraint present. We were fans, but not fanatics. The effect of fame upon the masses is nothing new, but modern technology has made fame a lot more potent than it used to be. Until it became feasible to print pictures in newspapers, in the mid 19th century, the president of the United States could have walked down the street in a place such as New York, and probably not have been recognized. He might have been recognizable walking down the street in DC, but in most places, no one even knew what he looked like, and until the advent of radio, very few people would have recognized his voice.
Now we have fame thrust at us from all corners. Social media has brought an entire new dimension to fame, with average people publishing themselves with a potential for worldwide reach. There is a phenomenon I don’t fully understand, but it seems that people react to encountering a face that they’ve seen in a newspaper, movie or television, differently from how they react to someone that they meet under normal circumstances.
As a practical example, if I were in line at the grocery store and a world famous, groundbreaking research physician were standing next to me in line, I would be unlikely to know who it was and would treat that person like anyone else. So what is it about publicity that makes people so deferential towards strangers?
I’m not sure just what this phenomenon is, but it obviously exists. Many people want to be close to fame, perhaps in hopes that some of that fame will rub off. Fame and wealth are intertwined in the minds of many people, so perhaps that is part of the attraction. It’s also possible that encountering fame can be a form of validation for some people. If someone talks to [insert the name of a your famous person of choice] then some of that importance might rub off. It’s stupid, and pointless, but people think that way.
When I was abiut ten years old, there was a breakout baseball player on the Twins who came out of nowhere, well actually, he came out of Cuba, and his name was on everyone’s tongue. If he had traipsed into our schoolyard, he would have been mobbed. Flash forward 15 years, and I’m at a restaurant table with about 20 people, and lo and behold, I’m sitting almost directly across the table from this very ball player. Someone at the table had known him from church, and here he was, in person. Diminutive and quiet, he barely spoke a word of English, this former MVP was barely scraping by, working a menial job and had fallen on very hard times.
With the removal of the flash in the pan fame of a few stellar seasons of pro ball, he was just some poor guy struggling to survive. As best I recall, I greeted him, but his English (and my Spanish) were too limited to support anything approaching a real conversation. Even if we had been able to converse, talking baseball with him might have been cruel, because it would only have served to point out how poor his fortunes had become.
For my purposes, that was an object lesson. Famous people are not insulated from the cruelties of life. Yes, fame can be leveraged into money, at least for a while, but fame and the money that may accompany it are highly perishable. Wealthy athletes frequently fall upon hard times once their career ends. If they are fortunate, they might become commentators on sports television, but there are only a handful of such positions to be had and they will go to athletes who communicate well and are personable on camera. Few athletes manage their wealth during the shank of their career, so there are a lot of sad stories out there, of athletes who are barely scraping by, once their career ends.
One of the players in the 1980 “miracle” Olympic hockey team was a former neighbor. He was offered a contract as a pro hockey player, but chose to continue his education and went on to head his own engineering firm. Smart bloke.
I’m sure I know which former MVP you’re talking about. Poor guy–he had a lot of medical problems, too.
His story was tragic. Ultimately, he had a gift for playing baseball and had one great season. At the bottom of it all, I believe that he was greatly hindered by having never learned to speak English, and probably lacked confidence in everyday life because of it.
During his best year with the Twins, he was a hero, but the man I met was unimposing and unable to communicate beyond a simple greeting. It was obvious that he felt out of place, but was also grateful to be included in anything whatsoever.
Professional sports is a cruel business. You are only as good as your last game. Skills which are useful in pro sports are not easily transferred to other areas of business. A relative handful of these athletes obtain, and comply with, good business advice and are able to set themselves up for a successful retirement from sports. Sadly, many spend money freely and find themselves struggling once they leave pro sports. Maybe the public’s near worship of pro sports is not such a good thing, after all.
It didn’t do ancient Rome much good.
The parallels between us and Ancient Rome are alarming, to say the least.
*Sigh* If they’d only listened to Fabius Maximus!
You make a good point. Yesterday was the biggest game, but how much does that really mean. Would today’s world somehow be different had the Chiefs won? Maybe for the team members, but the outcome of the Superbowl has no effect on everyday life. People will talk about the game and the commercials will generate some buzz, but this über important game, in the final analysis, is not all that important.
What is important? I can think of a couple of wars that are very important. The Iranian situation is highly concerning and we might see some very significant developments with regard to Iran. There are any number of domestic (US) issues which are far more important than any football game. I remember during the glory days of John Elway, that the Monday morning headline for both Denver newspapers was football related, during the football season.
I always found this offensive. Sure, I was glad that the Broncos did well, but shouldn’t the headline be about something of consequence? I find it hard to believe that in a metro are of 1.5 million persons (circa 1985) the most significant event was a brilliant play by John Elway which won the game for the Broncos.
Echoing yiur sentiments, I feel that I live in a different universe from many people. The Superbowl commercials don’t impress me and the final score of the game has little, if any, effect on my everyday life. I’m content to stay in this universe.
I always resorted to baseball for relaxation, nothing more. It’s important to cool off your brain.
It’s when the sport heats up your brain that trouble comes.
I went to a Super Bowl party last night for the food. I lasted until the first half was over (the Chiefs played terribly). And the commercials were beyond comprehension – I feel like I live in a different universe. Can’t wait until big gatherings to praise Jesus take the place of worldly events as the highlights of the year. In the Old Testament they had three great feasts that brought everyone together.
I try to avoid all Super Bowl advertising.