For 95% of my adult life, I would learn the names of the Super Bowl teams somewhere around halftime of the game. I was there for the ads & halftime.
Then it happened.
We moved to Philly. Deep, deep in the heart of Go Birds! town.
There was a choice to be made. Suffer supreme social isolation, or start to watch football.
(And to complicate family matters - our son worked for the NFL - on one of those endless TV shows, where they've elevated mindless chatter to an ignored artform.)
In the grocery store, most employees wear their green team shirts. The Eagles song blasts from the sound system. I learned that, in season, one greets people on the street with..no, not hello...we nod and say "Go Birds" like we belong to some elite club.
So, I find myself watching young men undergo immense physical strain, huge fan pressure and capricious weather to chase a funny-shaped ball (that may have been deflated a bit in certain games...Go Seahawks) over a line at the end of a field.
But, the real reason to watch? It's about community. People come together over sports, and that is not nothing. I'll take community wherever I can find it.
Speaking of halftime...in these troubled times.... "Me duele el corazón y mi mente está acelerada, pero seguiré adelante." - Bad Bunny
“My heart is aching, and my mind is racing, but I'll keep pushing through."
You hit on one of the two best arguments I've heard for the value of sports, as a spectator. One is, as you say, community. Two is what my old political philosophy professor, the one-eyed Jesuit, Fr Schall, said, channeling Plato: the closest most people come to philosophizing is watching sports. I think there is a lot of truth in that view. Thanks, Jude!
First, let's clear the air. Go Seahawks!
For 95% of my adult life, I would learn the names of the Super Bowl teams somewhere around halftime of the game. I was there for the ads & halftime.
Then it happened.
We moved to Philly. Deep, deep in the heart of Go Birds! town.
There was a choice to be made. Suffer supreme social isolation, or start to watch football.
(And to complicate family matters - our son worked for the NFL - on one of those endless TV shows, where they've elevated mindless chatter to an ignored artform.)
In the grocery store, most employees wear their green team shirts. The Eagles song blasts from the sound system. I learned that, in season, one greets people on the street with..no, not hello...we nod and say "Go Birds" like we belong to some elite club.
So, I find myself watching young men undergo immense physical strain, huge fan pressure and capricious weather to chase a funny-shaped ball (that may have been deflated a bit in certain games...Go Seahawks) over a line at the end of a field.
But, the real reason to watch? It's about community. People come together over sports, and that is not nothing. I'll take community wherever I can find it.
Speaking of halftime...in these troubled times.... "Me duele el corazón y mi mente está acelerada, pero seguiré adelante." - Bad Bunny
“My heart is aching, and my mind is racing, but I'll keep pushing through."
You hit on one of the two best arguments I've heard for the value of sports, as a spectator. One is, as you say, community. Two is what my old political philosophy professor, the one-eyed Jesuit, Fr Schall, said, channeling Plato: the closest most people come to philosophizing is watching sports. I think there is a lot of truth in that view. Thanks, Jude!
Couldn't have said it better myself! Saturation deadened me.