America’s Game

Recently I read a comment by a Democrat that football is a Republican sport, while baseball is more Democratic. No! That is wrong, wrong, wrong! Democrats emphasize both individual effort and cooperation, which Republicans think that individual effort is good and cooperation is for sissies. Football is the ultimate team sport. No quarterback can pass the ball without an offensive line to protect him and a receiver to catch it. It may be argued that some players have a greater impact on others, but isn’t that the way life is? In football, the workers need the stars and the stars need the workers. That’s the lesson that we Democrats have been trying to get across to the Republicans for generations. It’s not that we don’t think some people should be stars, we just don’t think the stars should trample the workers with their cleats. Football is great in another way: it is egalitarian. Whether you are black, white, Asian, or Hispanic, the only thing that the team cares about is how you play. Anyone can reach that star position of his talent is great enough and if he works hard enough. There is one barrier that has yet to be broken in professional football: there are no women players. That is mostly because few women are interested in playing at that level, but I expect that to change in my lifetime.

I don’t know every detail about football. I didn’t even like the game until last year. This year I have been a football junkie, watching every game and tracking every score. How did this drastic change happen? Three events conspired to turn me into a football fan. The first was a comment that Rush Limbaugh made about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go, I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

When I first heard this, I didn’t even know that Limbaugh was doing sportscasting. I don’t follow that jerk. The comment didn’t surprise me, because Rush Limbaugh is a racist. He doesn’t see a black man as a man, only as a black man. After that comment, McNabb’s Eagles made a great run to the NFC Championship. Every time the Eagles won, it made Limbaugh look more like an idiot. More than just being racist, Limbaugh was wrong. McNabb is a superb quarterback. The press didn’t hype McNabb because he was black; they hyped him because he was good. The Eagles lost a couple games, and the king of trash radio used that opportunity to dump on McNabb without considering that those lost games might have been a fluke. McNabb is now one of my favorite quarterbacks. I’m thrilled that he his team will be in the Super Bowl this Sunday.

The second event was a miraculous comeback that the Colts made against the Tampa Bay Bucs during a Monday Night Football game. They were down by three touchdowns with four minutes left to play. Peyton Manning was on fire, tying the game by the end of regulation. In overtime, the Colts won. Wow. I was up till after midnight, dog tired the next day, but I was pumped with adrenaline. This game clued me in to how exciting the game could be. I still get a thrill when I see Manning on the field. He broke the single-season touchdown pass record this year, and he deserves it. If that team ever gets a decent defense, watch out.

The third event was an article I read in the online news magazine Slate (-*-). The article covered number crunching in football. Baseball, as you can imagine, is a much less complex game, making statistical analysis much easier. Match-ups is a baseball game are typically one-on-one (pitcher vs. batter) or one-on-zero (fielder vs. ball). In football, every play is an eleven-on-eleven match-up, creating an enormous number of possibilities. Since I play chess (not well), I found a lot of parallels between chess and football. The pieces have certain moves. They start out in a set formation. The movement of the opponent determines how each player moves. The complexities of the game gave my brain something to chew on.

I do have an opinion about who should win this Super Bowl match-up. Though I love McNabb and the Eagles, the Patriots embody everything I believe a good football team should be. If football is a Democratic game, the Patriots are the most Democratic team. The have applied Democratic-style cooperation to their approach to the game. They are not flashy, they don’t celebrate excessively, and they just focus on winning. If a Patriot is injured, his teammates step up to fill that spot. Troy Brown, Patriots wide receiver, has filled the void left by Ty Law’s injury. Brown is the ultimate team player. The Patriots also personify the Democratic ideal of individual effort. Witness Tedy Bruschi ripping the ball out of the Colts player’s hands in their playoff game. Bruschi wanted to win more than his opponent, and he refused to lose. But does Bruschi praise himself? No. It’s all for the team. For the Patriots, individual plays and players don’t count for anything if they don’t produce W’s and the W’s don’t count unless they win the final game—the Super Bowl.

So, Democrats, I hope you’ll watch the Super Bowl with pride. This is your kind of game. Pop open a beer and nosh on some hot wings. You have a match up against a brilliant African-American quarterback that Limbaugh hates against a team that embodies Democratic ideals. You can’t lose!

GO PATS!

© 2005 Bryan Lower

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