Gearing up for the game
31/01/14 05:35
It’s probably no surprise to people who know me that I’m not a great sports fan. I pay attention to the football playoffs and the Superbowl because it is important to people that I care about. I want to be able to talk with some intelligence to the people I know about the things that matter to them. But my life doesn’t revolve around the game and I don’t really have a favorite team. Rapid City is a big town for Broncos fans. We don’t have our own professional football team. There is no NFL team in our state, so local loyalties drift toward the teams who are closest and Denver is the closest to Rapid City. I’m sure that team loyalties are more complex than distance and I have a good friend who has vanity license plates declaring his loyalty to another, more distant team.
That said, I’ve commented on the Superbowl in blogs in previous years - mostly about the cost of advertisements and the amount of money that gets spent on the hype that surrounds the big game. I’ve also promoted the annual Souper Bowl of Caring food drive in which youth from our church have joined with youth from congregations across the country to raise money and non perishable food items to feed hungry people at local shelters, through local food banks and other agencies.
For several years I wrote scripts for a member of our conjugation who like to do pseudo-theological reflections on the big game. Some teams, like Bears and Lions and Giants have names that are easy to find in the bible. Saints, of course, make it easy. Others, like Buccaneers and 49ers, present a larger challenge.
This year might be a good year to make some kind of comments about the teams’ choice of colors. The Denver orange, which is sported in lots of places around town this weekend, isn’t one of the best colors for dressing up. On the other hand that neon green worn by the Seahawks doesn’t do much for me either. Then, again, I really don’t care much about colors and who wears what.
I’ll probably watch the game, or at least parts of it, so that I can have some knowledge in discussing it with others. But the truth is that I’ll be distracted. I’ll be thinking of a funeral on Monday for a guy that was a much bigger fan than I will ever be.
We often called Dick “coach” because he had coached middle school, high school and college teams, but also because he was the coach of our church’s softball team. The years that he organized and coached our group were winning years for our church in the local church softball league. And Dick got into arranging for shirts and equipment for the team as well as making every practice and game to cheer on the team. He wasn’t just a good coach, he also was the team’s biggest fan. He was a loyal fan for other teams as well. You never had to ask him about his favorite college team. His “Go Jacks” cap and the yard sign in his lawn displayed his loyalty.
But there was more to this saint of our church than sports. He was a teacher who was also an excellent student. He loved to talk about history and government - two subjects that he taught.
The true love of his life, however, was people. What he really loved about coaching were the members of his team. What he really loved about teaching was being with students. Our son took one class from him during his high school career, but Dick never failed to ask about him in every visit. It wasn’t some kind of act that he put on. It was genuine care and concern.
And today’s blog isn’t really about him. There will be more time to think and to tell those stories at another time and in another place. And it takes time to process the grief and loss and find the right words.
What is clear to me, however, is that there are things in life that are more important than which team wins the game. You might not know that from watching television or reading the news online. The game trumps lots of other things that are happening and show up in the news. Maybe we need a bit of distraction from stories about crime and politics and the grinding war in Afghanistan. Maybe we need a place where we feel we have a common footing instead of complaining about the one percent. Maybe we are drawn to a “battle” where no one gets killed.
The problem is that the Superbowl is not without its victims. As the youth remind us, the money that is spend on the game has great potential to do good in the world. If each fan donated just one dollar to help end hunger, the impact would be tremendous. But there are other victims.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York Police Department made arrests of members of a huge prostitution and drug ring in New York just days before the tourists all flock to the city. It seems they were gearing up for a bit more business than the ones that advertise during the big game. I don’t know much about the details, but one news story I read said that clients pay up to $10,000 for drugs and sex. There is human trafficking that keeps unwilling women trapped into a lifestyle from which they cannot escape associated with these illegal businesses. The tragedies of the lives of the victims are enough to make one weep.
Of course such illegal activities are not endorsed by the organizers of the game and there are plenty of fans who would not consider patronizing such businesses. But there is big money in the illegal side of the game as well as on the legal side and where there is money, there are people who will try to get their hands on some of it. There is a lot of money around the Superbowl.
The game won’t have my undivided attention over the weekend. There are simply some things that are more important.
That said, I’ve commented on the Superbowl in blogs in previous years - mostly about the cost of advertisements and the amount of money that gets spent on the hype that surrounds the big game. I’ve also promoted the annual Souper Bowl of Caring food drive in which youth from our church have joined with youth from congregations across the country to raise money and non perishable food items to feed hungry people at local shelters, through local food banks and other agencies.
For several years I wrote scripts for a member of our conjugation who like to do pseudo-theological reflections on the big game. Some teams, like Bears and Lions and Giants have names that are easy to find in the bible. Saints, of course, make it easy. Others, like Buccaneers and 49ers, present a larger challenge.
This year might be a good year to make some kind of comments about the teams’ choice of colors. The Denver orange, which is sported in lots of places around town this weekend, isn’t one of the best colors for dressing up. On the other hand that neon green worn by the Seahawks doesn’t do much for me either. Then, again, I really don’t care much about colors and who wears what.
I’ll probably watch the game, or at least parts of it, so that I can have some knowledge in discussing it with others. But the truth is that I’ll be distracted. I’ll be thinking of a funeral on Monday for a guy that was a much bigger fan than I will ever be.
We often called Dick “coach” because he had coached middle school, high school and college teams, but also because he was the coach of our church’s softball team. The years that he organized and coached our group were winning years for our church in the local church softball league. And Dick got into arranging for shirts and equipment for the team as well as making every practice and game to cheer on the team. He wasn’t just a good coach, he also was the team’s biggest fan. He was a loyal fan for other teams as well. You never had to ask him about his favorite college team. His “Go Jacks” cap and the yard sign in his lawn displayed his loyalty.
But there was more to this saint of our church than sports. He was a teacher who was also an excellent student. He loved to talk about history and government - two subjects that he taught.
The true love of his life, however, was people. What he really loved about coaching were the members of his team. What he really loved about teaching was being with students. Our son took one class from him during his high school career, but Dick never failed to ask about him in every visit. It wasn’t some kind of act that he put on. It was genuine care and concern.
And today’s blog isn’t really about him. There will be more time to think and to tell those stories at another time and in another place. And it takes time to process the grief and loss and find the right words.
What is clear to me, however, is that there are things in life that are more important than which team wins the game. You might not know that from watching television or reading the news online. The game trumps lots of other things that are happening and show up in the news. Maybe we need a bit of distraction from stories about crime and politics and the grinding war in Afghanistan. Maybe we need a place where we feel we have a common footing instead of complaining about the one percent. Maybe we are drawn to a “battle” where no one gets killed.
The problem is that the Superbowl is not without its victims. As the youth remind us, the money that is spend on the game has great potential to do good in the world. If each fan donated just one dollar to help end hunger, the impact would be tremendous. But there are other victims.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York Police Department made arrests of members of a huge prostitution and drug ring in New York just days before the tourists all flock to the city. It seems they were gearing up for a bit more business than the ones that advertise during the big game. I don’t know much about the details, but one news story I read said that clients pay up to $10,000 for drugs and sex. There is human trafficking that keeps unwilling women trapped into a lifestyle from which they cannot escape associated with these illegal businesses. The tragedies of the lives of the victims are enough to make one weep.
Of course such illegal activities are not endorsed by the organizers of the game and there are plenty of fans who would not consider patronizing such businesses. But there is big money in the illegal side of the game as well as on the legal side and where there is money, there are people who will try to get their hands on some of it. There is a lot of money around the Superbowl.
The game won’t have my undivided attention over the weekend. There are simply some things that are more important.