Ah yes, “Super Bowl Sunday,” another day for me to play the Alienation Rag. For some reason I’ve always been too perverse to get into whatever huge thing the rest of the country (or the world!) was all excited about. I can’t explain it. In the case of professional sports, however, I have some sort of understanding.
Maybe it was growing up in the ’50s that did it. A loony decade, but simpler in so many ways. Back when athletes had at least minimal loyalty to the home town team — by virtue of being tied down with long-term contracts or by choice — there was an inherent sense to rooting for one bunch or the other. They were our guys. It’s the same kind of loyalty I felt rooting for the Texas Longhorns for so many years, because I went to school there. Even now I still feel a wave of pride when they roll over somebody we used to hate, although busting up the conferences pretty much did in college football for me too. When they sold the naming rights to bowl games, I stopped watching them as well. I dunno, it just seemed so corrupt, you know?
The came the days of “free agents.” Athletes moved openly from franchise to franchise, and the obscene bidding wars began. Less loyalty, more greed and corruption. Watching football and even baseball under the circumstances made me feel dirty. It soon got to the point where not watching was more of a relief than scratching whatever itch remained to find out what was going on.
In the case of the Super Bowl, the hype, hoopla, and money-grubbing from the git-go was a triple bummer. I think I watched the first half-dozen, though, then gave it up. Since the turn of the century, however, the analogy of the Super Bowl as Roman circus, always in the forefront of my mind, became too close to bear: a corrupt and dying Empire staggering to its doom, encouraging ever-greater spectacles to distract the citizenry, etc. etc. It just leaves me shaking my head in disbelief. Super Bowl parties?? Hey, even churches are having them now.
I didn’t even know who was playing until a few days ago. For that matter, I can’t name half the teams in any of the leagues. It’s gotten to be like Christmas or waving the flag. Who are these people? Most of you, I guess. My readers and customers! My fan base, egad!
So I should preach humor and acceptance, not some idiotic alleged superiority or “good old days” old fartism. I’m surely not less corrupt than society at large, either. Have a great time, then! Eat all the chicken wings and dip you want. Do whatever it takes to get your mind off all your troubles and have a whomping big laugh. I won’t bitch any more or leave stupid moralistic comments on anybody else’s blog. You may not know why I fumble when the conversation turns to “Didja see that GREAT PLAY at the end of the third quarter?” but there’ll always be someone else to pick it up and run with it.
(“Hook ‘em, Horns!” No, wait…)
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
it’s no more than an excuse for a party, as far as i’m concerned. and i have a hard time faulting most of those.
Football? Bleah. I’m with you, and I live in a state where “mixed marriage” is defined as “an Alabama and an Auburn fan.”
My dad used to videotape the commercials for me, though. He’d sit there and watch the game and hit the “record” button only during the commercials. He was a great guy.
There’s a game today? Good – I’ll go do something fun and have the place to myself. ;^)
Watched my first Super Bowl as a 8 year old in 1978. Lots of nostalgia there; I used to get so excited. But I think I grew up and put away childish things. But I also see it as a the fiddle playing while Rome burns.That analogy with the Roman Empire is perfect. I couldn’t watch at all in 1991 during the first Iraq war. I ‘ve been wondering why I wince when I see them unfurl that 100 yard long American flag before the game.
Good stuff, John. Thanks for that metaphor. It’s a shame, cuz I still enjoy a good game.
I had a guy tell me that it was ” almost unamerican to NOT watch football” lol whatever.I’ll be playing guitar or painting today….I dont miss TV one freakin bit.I quit cold turkey 3 months ago this coming tuesday.:)
I went a year and a half without. I was proud of it, but it was’nt very difficult. I was drawn back to the flock by HD; I was just too curious. Now I am back to wasting lots of time watching. HOWEVER, there are lots of informative/beautiful/insightful things to see on TV today, and I am happy to have them back.
But enjoy life without the dumbbox. There is a certain peace to it I miss.
On TV itself: quit watching football back around ’97, stopped watching network news in ’99. Moved to NM, had zero TV until about 2.5 years ago when I moved into this place. The landlord had DirecTV (satellite) in place already, maybe 214 channels? I still watch almost nothing. A few movies, mostly, on IFC or HBO. And I seem to be hooked on “Rome,” but nothing else. Don’t watch any sitcoms, no Comedy Channel stuff. NO “news,” certainly. Sometimes a couple weeks go by without the set ever being turned on at all except for the Sirius music channels, which I play by plugging the TV into a guitar amp.
John, I’m sure you’re right about what you can find if you’re selective, and I’d be mighty tempted by HD. But the way my life is now, I don’t know how the hell I’d ever find the time to sit on the couch for very long.
I always have piles of stuff to read and loads of projects to pretend I’m completing. I’m always short of $$, so I have to do Web work for people or carve out time to write and cross my fingers. And then I need to exercise, listen to the wife, chop wood, feed the damn cat, etc. When you get older, shit falls apart unless you hop to and take care of it. Your BODY, for instance.
When I was immortal, I could fall asleep in front of the tube, and did. No mo’. Driven, that’s what I am. The grim reaper is just outside the door. Millions of people younger than I am die every week.
Enjoy your HDTV, though! I wish I had one for the occasional DVD.
Super Bowl? Wassat? Be encouraged. There’s billions of people on this beautiful blue planet who don’t know, and don’t care(me included). There’s also billions who don’t know what HDTV is (me included) and don’t care! So friggin’ what? The sun rose today, and I was there to see it! I do sympathize with the “unamerican” thing, tho: somewhere, some little weasel is right now working out how to make it illegal for anyone to go within 50 metres of a mall and NOT buy something… I just hope they’ll let me go when I tell them I don’t know what a “mall” is (and don’t care!)
Unamerican? Huh?