matclone

Don't get me wrong, I like football. But if I were an anthropologist studying America at the turn of the 21st century, I might conclude that Football is more important than just about anything else to the people of this society. Talk about education, or war, or (god forbid) poverty and people start arguing, but we're all presumed to love and follow our football team.

Evidence noted yesterday:

1. When the Broncos-Raiders game was temporarily suspended yesterday due to a thunderstorm, and the local news came on, that was the headline, the #1: Broncos game halted because of lightning, blah, blah, blah.

2. When Dwight Hixson of the Broncos received the kickoff of the second half, the announcers were falling all over themselves with praise for his "incredible" "extraordinary" (fill in the superlative adjectives) sympathy toward Everett--the tight end who ran into him. Not to take anything away from Hixson, but how was his reaction extraordinary?

3. Everett the tight end, whose (football-related) injury dominated the media for days.

4. Accolade rained upon defensive player for Raiders (big guy who intercepted ball), who not only is a great football player but (here's the most important thing of all--the thing that makes him really special): HE LOVES THE GAME OF FOOTBALL (accolades given by announcer Rich Gannon).

5. Sunday night game half-time: Al Michaels lobs softball questions at Pats owner Robert Kraft who says all the right things about the cheating scandal.
Bottom line: neither NBC, nor the owners, nor the NFL office is going to let the game be tarnished in any way.

6. Sports broadcaster (ESPN?) calls Robert Goodell (NFL commissioner) a great man. His importance is obviously greater than the President of the United States.

7. Obsessive and extensive media coverage of all things football related.

8. It's usually pretty safe to talk about the Broncos (or your regional team) in mixed company, anywhere in your community.

I'm sure other examples could be noted. The question is, what are our priorities?

The Big Stiffy

I think baseball is still more important in terms of records. It was treated as the biggest thing ever when Bonds broke Aaron's record. However with football, Brett Favre just became the winningnest qb in NFL history yesterday is 4 td's away from breaking the career passing td record, and it's been treated as a little sidenote to the Packer's game yesterday. I think this should be a waaaayyyyy bigger deal than it's being treated and think it deserves close to the same attention Bonds got.

__________________
Curtis Chenoweth
wannabe national champ looking for a good home

Stardust

Speaking for myself, I'm a huge football fan. Is it a priority in my life? Well, no, not above things like family, friends, etc. But as far as hobbies, or things I do for fun, it's right up there. A great distraction. For example, last week was an extremely busy and hectic week for me, handling registration for the Super 32 Challenge. From Wed-Fri, I got bombarded with emails, quite a few of which were pretty hateful, from people complaining about missing the cut-off. I couldn't wait for Saturday football. I went to the Carolina game, and had a blast (yes, even though my team lost). I was able to get outside in a big crowd of people, and let loose and scream and yell and cheer and have fun. All the pre-game excitement, listening to the band play on campus, cheering the team as they walk across campus to the stadium before the game.... I love the environment and it's a great way to distract myself from any problems or stresses going on in my life at the time.

Then again on Sunday... I spent 6+ hours at a board meeting for a wrestling organization. Lots of tedious, boring arguments and discussions, I had quite a headache at the end of the day... but I was looking forward to getting home and turning on the Sunday night football game.

I also remember back after 9/11, and the first Friday night that they decided to hold the high school football games. What had happened at the Pentagon and World Trade Center were obviously a top priority, but it was a good thing to go see a HS game, and remember that there are good things in life too that you can be happy about.

Football (and all sports) are great because we can cheer for our team, our team is the "good guys" the rival team is the "bad guys" -- but at the end of the day, most true sports fans understand that everyone is a "good guy."

Bottom line, I think that football/sports is a great distraction for the average person who wants to have a few hours every now and then to have an excuse to forget about their problems for a while and escape into another world.

__________________


Super 32 Challenge - November 1, 2008
NC Mat

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can" -- John Wesley

matclone

Well, those are great arguments for football and it's role in society, Stardust. You made me realize that maybe my critique is really more with how it is portrayed in mainstream media (a common irritation) and less with what people actually do.

Big

Yeah I know what you mean matclone. I often get asked at work which team I am rooting before before "important" football games. I am like "I don't pay attention to football really". They look at me like something is wrong with me. Its like you are expected to follow football like communism in former Soviet Union.

JensenS

Kind of what was going to be my argument as well, and this type of attitude towards sports in general, or even more specifically "football" in another name certainly isn't exclusive to America.

Looking abroad, you have entire countries basically shutting down to watch World Cup, or Champions League, or whatever else soccer matches.

Big

And for Stardust comments: sure sports are an excellent distraction and nobody disputes that. Its just as an American you are expected to follow certain sports like football while other sports like wrestling are not going to get you good with most of your co-workers and your boss.

Big

Jensen,

There is one major difference. Most soccer fans in Europe actually play soccer at least once per week or played it as children. Many Americans have never picked a football in their lives but follow it on TV religiously.

Big

I will give an example. Stardust is a football fan as many female posters on here but none of them played football themselves because there is no female football.

Stardust

I never wrestled either, but I still love it.

When I was in high school, there were as many girls on HS football teams as there were on HS wrestling teams.

__________________


Super 32 Challenge - November 1, 2008
NC Mat

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can" -- John Wesley