FOOTBALL
I am sitting here watching Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. The Charlotte Panthers 2-7 are playing the Atlanta Falcons 4-5. It is a huge spectacle. Seats in the tenth row cost $185 apiece. People arrive hours early and tailgate in the parking lot, cooking food and drinking beer. Once inside there are vendors everywhere selling food and drinks and souvenirs of all sorts. And on television is even more of a giant commercial enterprise with constant commercials for beer and cars and the start of Christmas sales of all sort. And behind the scenes the players and coaches are paid fanatastic amounts. There are dollar signs everywhere.
But at the beginning of the game there is a silence, almost a religious moment, as the field is covered with a gigantic American flag and a military honor guard marches out with more flags and red, white and blue fireworks explode overhead. The star spangled banner is sung. And then the crowd cheers and the game begins.
What is there about this mixture of strong emotions provoked by American capitalism, American patriotism, American city tribalism, and the violent collisions on the field by over size men that so stirs up so many men, but also their families. Football in Europe is a deft game of dancing skill, but football in America is a violent, even brutal, sport. What is going on here? I‘ve seen it so many times that it seems ordinary with the constant talk on TV of the cheerful talking heads making it seem even more ordinary and orchestrated.
And yet, to me, it all seems shallow somehow and without human connection and empty, a way to sell Coca-Cola and Miller light with a congregation that has nothing in common with each other.
And I wonder how this connects with traditional American values. It is all male, competitive capitalist, promising everyone a comfortable life, depending upon toughness and and even violence.
This is who we are. The owners are mostly white. But the black players aren‘t from the city they are fighting for, and were often poor as boys looking for a way to succeed, and now simply hired hands and yet the loyalty, the tribalism is to the city or the state, with the fans having no real connection with each other and the loyalty to a city being so nebulous that it is more an idea than a place. The emotion is intense and serves some kind of individual mythic purpose, an almost godless religion, with God included, when pointed to by players who score. They point upward and give the credit to God as if he is the one sanctioning this violent patriotic devotion. Maybe the whole spectacle is a reaffirmation of American traditional values of hard work, team dedication, glory to God, patriotic fervor, the American dream.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 