football

Poem: Super Bowl (throwback)

Here’s a little throwback poem from a couple years ago. Especially for those of you who find the entire thing barbaric.

It’s super bore time!
When we all get together
And pretend that football is entertaining

We’ll pick a side
Explain why
Based on more than feeling than anything

So why do we do this every year?
It certainly isn’t for the sport
Nor for the competition, lacking

Perhaps it is for the social aspect
A chance to get with friends
With lots of food and lots of drinking

Others claim it is commercials
That compel them to watch
Slaves to billion-dollar advertising

Maybe it’s culture
A national past time
Compelling us to Super Bowl watching

I think some just hate
That their team is out
So sit and say sour things sulking

Or the pageantry perhaps
The half-time show’s the best
Shows of the greatest singing and dancing

Tomorrow many conversations
Surrounding the game
And endless analyzing

Enjoy the game
And your friends
But a good game would be surprising

The World Needs Heroes

It’s super bowl Sunday. My social media feed is filled with trash talk, selfies in shirts and jerseys and lots of hope. Eventually it will end and there will be more memes, more celebratory posts and endless debate. In the end there will be a winner and a loser. At last there will be a parade, interviews and probably a documentary about the game. Some will claim they don’t care at all, others will talk about it to their grandchildren one day. For me, it is proof of one very clear theme in human existence. We need heroes.

I saw a post about how athletes make too much money along with artists and other entertainers. In reality that’s all sports is; entertainment. And yes, millions upon millions of dollars will be spent and made for this single event and for others like it. And some will complain at the waste and how entertainment isn’t necessary and yet, perhaps it is.

Athletes, after all, do things I cannot. I cannot perform the physical feats they do. My body is not strong enough, fast enough, big enough or lithe enough to compete like they do. Sure, I can play the game. I can actually run and catch and even throw, but not like them. And we love to see people do things we can’t. We love to marvel and even worship mortals like us who are better. Maybe it gives us a sense that we too can do those amazing things since after all, we are human like them. Or maybe, it allows us to live some moments of glory along with them by wearing their jersey and watching them perform. We feel their pain and we feel their joy and we are drawn to it somehow.

There is something deep in us that desires glory. It’s why we love sports. It’s why we love stories and it’s why some of us (myself included) love to be the hero in videos games and the like. We want to believe that we too are capable of glory and conquest. We want to believe that we are heroes just like the men on the TV battling for the super bowl championship. We can be heroes. We can be champions.

Good luck in battle today men. We will all be watching and cheering you on. May you find glory and may we enjoy it with you that we might forget for a moment that we are mortal. Cheers.