Pre-gaming
On Sunday I’ll root for the Chiefs, but these Eagles seem terrific, so I’ll probably be entertained no matter who wins. I love it when the Super Bowl is contested by the two one-seeds.
In the 2010s, these Super Bowls were contested by both one-seeds:
My inbox has been flooded with articles and videos whose subject is the NFL. Here are some of the best things I’ve looked at.
(1) A video of bizarre uniforms. The Eagles’ throwback uniforms of 2007 – which hearken back to the 1930s – might be the craziest NFL uniforms ever.
(2) Malcolm Butler recalls his great moment in the Patriots’ and Seahawks’ Super Bowl. That game was played in Arizona, in the same venue as this year’s Super Bowl.
(3) This article is about how Arizona was supposed to have hosted the Super Bowl in 1993 but didn’t do so. After that state refused to observe a holiday for MLK Jr., the NFL moved the game to California.
I have more to say about the encroachment of politics upon the sporting world, but I’ll wait until next time.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
What with its pageantry, the Super Bowl tends to get me thinking about war – this year, especially, because of a classic but currently unfashionable essay by William James, “The Moral Equivalent of War.” A pacifist, James concedes that war meets a real need felt by its advocates – a need that pacifists have had trouble acknowledging and which they certainly haven’t addressed in a compelling fashion.
The essay predates WW1. James doesn’t foresee that the martial values that he describes so well – hardiness, communal glory, individual subordination – would decline, or at least fall into some disrepute, as a result of the carnage of the twentieth century. But I think he is right that they are permanent, that they point toward things that are of essential significance for humans.
Toward the end of the essay, James tries to redirect the enduring militaristic impulses. He wants them to be productive, not destructive. He seems to have in mind ventures like the Boy Scouts or the (still-to-come) TVA. He says that he wants people to band together to fight against nature, not each other.
Again, he hasn’t had the benefit of witnessing the destruction of the Aral Sea – or, for that matter, that of the Great Salt Lake.
Nor does he foresee that martial itches would be scratched, at personal remove but with clinical efficiency, by such entities as the modern NFL.
Still, it’s a great essay.
In the 2010s, these Super Bowls were contested by both one-seeds:
- Eagles and Patriots (good game)
- Broncos and Panthers (bad game)
- Patriots and Seahawks (awesome game)
- Broncos and Seahawks (horror show, but very interesting – the Broncos set passing records while getting blown out)
My inbox has been flooded with articles and videos whose subject is the NFL. Here are some of the best things I’ve looked at.
(1) A video of bizarre uniforms. The Eagles’ throwback uniforms of 2007 – which hearken back to the 1930s – might be the craziest NFL uniforms ever.
(2) Malcolm Butler recalls his great moment in the Patriots’ and Seahawks’ Super Bowl. That game was played in Arizona, in the same venue as this year’s Super Bowl.
(3) This article is about how Arizona was supposed to have hosted the Super Bowl in 1993 but didn’t do so. After that state refused to observe a holiday for MLK Jr., the NFL moved the game to California.
I have more to say about the encroachment of politics upon the sporting world, but I’ll wait until next time.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
What with its pageantry, the Super Bowl tends to get me thinking about war – this year, especially, because of a classic but currently unfashionable essay by William James, “The Moral Equivalent of War.” A pacifist, James concedes that war meets a real need felt by its advocates – a need that pacifists have had trouble acknowledging and which they certainly haven’t addressed in a compelling fashion.
The essay predates WW1. James doesn’t foresee that the martial values that he describes so well – hardiness, communal glory, individual subordination – would decline, or at least fall into some disrepute, as a result of the carnage of the twentieth century. But I think he is right that they are permanent, that they point toward things that are of essential significance for humans.
Toward the end of the essay, James tries to redirect the enduring militaristic impulses. He wants them to be productive, not destructive. He seems to have in mind ventures like the Boy Scouts or the (still-to-come) TVA. He says that he wants people to band together to fight against nature, not each other.
Again, he hasn’t had the benefit of witnessing the destruction of the Aral Sea – or, for that matter, that of the Great Salt Lake.
Nor does he foresee that martial itches would be scratched, at personal remove but with clinical efficiency, by such entities as the modern NFL.
Still, it’s a great essay.