Monday, February 04, 2008

God, the Super Bowl?

Yesterday’s Super Bowl is the first football game I’ve watched in entirety this year. Well, actually I fell asleep somewhere before the end of the first half and woke up to watch the last half of the fourth quarter.

To keep me entertained my wife and I were rating the commercials. I liked the Go Daddy commercial, I guess because Fox banned it. To be a moralistic newspaper The Arizona Republic gave it an “F” this morning.

Anyway, the game wasn’t that interesting, even the ending. The Arizona Republic called the win an upset. Why was that? Simply because the Patriots were undefeated should have tipped everyone off to the reality that they wouldn’t win. Maybe, because football and American nationalism are so intertwined that Americans just can’t imagine the underdog winning? Not sure.

Of course, I was curious about why Fox thought it was important or meaningful or necessary to trot out the Declaration of Independence immediately before the game. What is the connection between the Declaration and the Super Bowl? Every woman who chose to watch the game should have been offended that only Pat Tillman’s wife was a reader. Women who were forced to watch, well, enough said about that. Only white and African-American males were represented – oh, you say they only had coaches and players represented – maybe that says something too? I was surprised Fox didn’t role their King out there but I guess his ratings aren’t doing too good right now?

I watched the post game interviews just to see how long it would take someone to thank God for winning (or for a good performance or something like it). It took the first guy his second sentence. I quit watching at that point. Does anyone really think God cares enough to help you win a game?